* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #847 / Revived #067 on 2024 07 10 *

Welcome to the Wednesday Comments and Critique (No Theme & No Brand) thread!

We are dedicated to continuing the great tradition of this C&C thread because we are convinced that looking at, and talking about images is vital for better photography.

Our tried and tested concept (15 years and running!) is a weekly "peer-to-peer" photo comments & critique encounter, in which you GIVE and RECEIVE.

The idea is simple: you post an image and get critique on it, and in return give other people your opinion of their images, or vice versa.

Any Theme, Any Camera, Any Style, Any Subject.

We are still figuring out how to create the convenience of threaded view on this new forum.
For now, let us agree that you post an image or essay with a title and short explanation, and that all comments include the image as a quote.
Replies to comments may or may not include quotes.

THREAD GUIDELINES – THE SHORT & SWEET VERSION
• This thread does not care about brands. It’s not about the tool, but the image.
• Post one image or essay that you would like to get comments on.
An entry can either be a single image or a short essay. With an essay we mean not a collection of random images without any connection, seeking C&C on more than one of them. We mean instead a limited number (3 to 10) of connected images that together try to tell a story, create a fuller picture of a situation, event or location, etc.
• Add a clear title to your post to distinguish your entry.
• Look at the other images/essays and give your comments on at least one of those.
• For comments, try to go beyond a simple pat on the back or a short dismissal.
• Do you like an image (or essay) ? Try to explain WHY it appeals to you.
• Negative feedback is OK (we all want to learn), but be polite and constructive. Try to explain why the image (or essay) does not appeal to you and how it might be improved.
• Please stay on topic, i.e. concentrate on the image and the photographic comments, without getting into politics or other distractions. No non-photographic arguments.

The critique you give is vital.
What was your first impression? What catches your eye about an image? Why?
What do you like, and what distracts you? What would you change?

Fiddle with the image in your head - composition, perspective, color balance, exposure.

PLEASE NOTE CLEARLY:
Unless the original poster specifically states (for every individual posting offered for C&C) that they do not want their image(s) to be downloaded, altered or reposted, it is understood that within the context of this thread, other participants are free to download and alter the posted image and repost it in a reply for C&C purposes. That reposted image may remain permanently within the week's thread, or you may remove it after a short period of time if you prefer. The downloaded and altered images are not to be used for any other purposes nor uploaded anywhere else than within the context of the C&C in this thread. No copyright disputes here!

Encourage - it is a scary business putting your work up for other people to judge!

More general feedback is also welcome.
Do you know something about taking the same sort of image that would make matters easier - share your own as an example in your reply. * Have fun and let’s stick together!*

APOLOGY & REMINDER

Dear all,

My apologies that I have not been very active in last week's thread.
The first half of the week was frightfully busy, and I had intended to write comments on a number of images on Monday and Tuesday (the gorilla, the US flag, the seaside panorama, the group of photographers chugging up the hillside, ...), but I was plagued by computer troubles.
My web browser inexplicably shut down in the middle of writing messages, so that was quite disheartening.
I just managed to get out a few short messages, but not the comments I had in my head.
I hope the computer troubles are sorted now. (This message is going well...)

And a reminder to please keep conversations centered on the images and how we view them
("we" being our collective, or just an expression for "the world" or "the collective of viewers")
We were doing well last week, until right at the very end, the discussion devolved again into semantics.

KALMTHOUTSE HEIDE - PUTSE MOER

We did a long and quite strenuous hike yesterday in the hot weather before an approaching thunderstorm.

The "Kalmthoutse Heide - Grenspark De Zoom" is a large nature reserve that is part in Belgium (north of Province Antwerp) and part in the Netherlands (south of Province North-Brabant). Our 20K hike took us across the border a few times. The terrain is sandy, with mostly low vegetation and some mixed woodlands. It feels almost like the savannah here and there. There are dunes with pine trees, large expanses of sand and a great number of bodies of water ("moers") that are partly natural depressions where water remains trapped, and partly man-made, from the times when peat was collected here for smoky fires.

This is a view (with Iphone 11) across one of the moers:

And this is the watchtower that I climbed to get that view (I would NOT go up there if the thunder and lightning storm was really imminent). The tower is 42 meters high (at the top of the antenna), with the top platform reserved for instruments and communication. The floor below it is for the park rangers and is manned when there is danger of wildfires, in order to quickly detect a problem if it arises - on a clear day there is a view of 10-15km in every direction. The floor at 24meters is accessible for casual viewers like me.

HEIDE - PUTSE MOER

I like the composition of the second one very much but the lens flare in the centre is a bit distracting. Following the lines of the structure is interesting.

I just wonder though, did you have an opportunity to maybe move slightly to the left so that the structure was clearly visible between the foliage on the left and right?

Your first image is a very nice scene but unfortunately on my screen lighting looks a bit too flat for my liking, especially in the top half of the image.

Fwiw, I edited the image in ACR and then applied some selective dodging and burning using a 50% grey filled layer in overlay blend mode.

This version has noticeably more "punch" on my screen.

In any case just some food for thought and thank you for sharing 😊

I like what you have done with this one 😊

I assume you darkened the background to some extent which helps make the pouncing twig insect stand out much more. I like the dark blue tones in the background which suit the greenish tones in the foreground.

I suspect in the documentary version the pouncing twigs would have stood out much less against the background.

The only thing I am scratching my head about just a little bit is the purplish colours on the branch. I'm not sure what to make of that or whether I like it or not 😏

Passage

Interesting scene here, We are treated to a variety of vegetation and body of water. Very real nature shot.

I like what you did with the landscape.
What I posted was processed in-phone with the limited tools available there.

As for the tower:
Yes I could have moved just a bit to the left, but I liked to have enough blue empty space (and con-trail) between the tower and the foliage on the left, in order to emphasize the shape similarity. That the tower itself is partly obstructed by the foliage on the right does not really bother me, but that is a matter of personal taste. The shape of the tower is indeed interesting, but that would have been an "architectural" image, while I aimed only to show the tower in the context of the woodlands as an illustration of the position from where the other image was made.

It's good to compare our objectives and rationales.

In the Forest.

Another very interesting scene but maybe it's just the way my eyes are wired to my brain because when I look down the passage way and focus on the pedestrian the greenish tones to the left outside of the passage are a distracting eye-magnet dragging my eyes away from the passage and out of the frame heading left.

The left side outside of the passage throws the scene significantly out of balance for me 😌

You probably tried different crops and still preferred the framing you posted but for me the crop below works much better for me by keeping my eyes in the frame while looking down the passage.

Just some food for thought 😊

Earth, Wind and Fire

(Stucco, Sky and Terra Cotta).

Ordinary things.

This was an unplanned test shot of a Zeiss Milvus 135/2 on a GFX 100S. I'm a sucker for textures like stucco. Love it.

The morning fog was just starting to break up here in San Diego Co. It's a way of life in the "summer months." May Gray. June Gloom. July whatever.

It hangs around until mid-morning, then disappears very rapidly. One minute it's very gray, then the sky clears in seconds. The white clouds, patches of blue sky, the red roof tiles, rough wood and white stucco just begged for a camera.

I really didn't compose the shot. It did that itself. I was only checking focus on the edge of the tile-clad roof. I really liked what I saw when I looked at the image in ACR.

I'll keep this lens.

And the image!

Textures? I scored!

Rich

Disappearing layer by layer into the haze
On a hike up and above Bad Kleinkirchheim, before the rain came.

After getting back to the top station of the cable car, almost without getting wet, they had just paused the cable car because the storm was getting closer, so we had to enjoy a beer while waiting for the storm to pass. I wasn't in a hurry ;-)

Chris,

May I suggest the following -

Not only is it important to isolate the "actual subject" in a shot, but in an image like this with strong and dominant rectilinear forms and very strong perspective, it's important to square up everything and find the significant borders of whatever's been captured. (Getting horizons level is just a subset of this.)

It's almost impossible to do all of the above at the time of the shot, unless you've got the camera on a tripod and a long time to set up the shot. I often miss every one of those important things and rely on post for all of it.

In this shot, I see your brain doing what mine does . . . it sees the possibilities of the shot, of which you may not have been fully conscious . . . and says, "get the shot." And you do. But you can't get the camera perfectly vertical and frame the shot, and all the other stuff that only becomes apparent when you have time to look at the image on a rectangular screen. It's all there, but takes some refinement after the fact.

Here, not only have I cropped the image, but I've straightened it and corrected perspective distortion. I hope you don't mind.

I asked this lady if I could take a photo.
She said: of course.
Then I waited a bit until she appeared at the right place.

As I showed earlier, your crop works better for me also.