Blair christmas

Selected as the Christmas card image to represent Grampian Police.

Unfortunately their scan and subsequent reproduction of the image as

a Christmas card was rendered dull lifeless and colourless. I hope

this redresses that as it is an accurate match for my original tranny.

Ian, I'm not sure what all you did in editing but this composition is just beautiful, the subtle colors are so appealing. So well composed and executed. Wonderful graphic detail and good use of DOF.

Excellent composition, the sky copying the foreground, lovely colours. cheers Jana

very pretty pastels.. nice comp and great detail.

 

very, very good!!

you where there on the wright moment at the wright place,

that makes you a good photographer, very nice.

This is very beautiful. Your very talented with light, all your photos in your portfolio show this ability to capture the best light. You must have a lot of luck and determination to have so many successful pictures. Thanks for sharing the light.

Hi Susan. All editing was completed on camera. I used a soft edge 0.6ND grad filter across the sky to hold colour and detail in the sky to render the scene as per my memory of the occasion. I do next to nothing in photoshop except mild sharpening and ensure the colour and contrast match my original tranny.

Hi Ian, great colors in this photograph! I feel it still misses a central object, but I am compelled to give it a 7/7 nevertheless. Regards, Ashutosh.

Ian, this captures the beauty of winter so well - the crisp whites and pastel colors at dawn/dusk. perfectly controlled exposure. now if it would only snow here like it's supposed to!!

So god and refreshing to see some REAL landscape photography from time to time (as opposed to PS overprocessed). It's a 7/7 no doubt about it!

Best, Virgil

Please note the following:

 

This image has been selected for discussion. It is not necessarily the "best" picture

the Elves have seen this week, nor is it a contest.

 

Discussion of photo.net policy, including the choice

of Photograph of the Week should not take place here, but in the

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The About

Photograph of the Week

page tells you more about this feature of photo.net.

 

Before writing a contribution to this thread, please consider our reason for having

this forum: to help people learn about photography. Visitors have browsed the gallery,

found a few striking images and want to know things like why is it a good picture, why

does it work? Or, indeed, why doesn't it work, or how could it be improved? Try to answer

such questions with your contribution.

 

The photo has a very quiet surrealism to it. C and S lines create a softness. I would

however, remove the railing in the center. I think it distracts from the fluidity and your

depth has been achieved with good usage of the foreground snow. This becomes more

noticable if you begin to enlarge the shot. Also turn it upside down and I find that my eyes

are always drawn to the railing. I removed the railing quickly to compare and immediately

the tension was gone. I've always found that critiquing your own work is very difficult

sometimes because of a bias created from emotions that made you take the shot.

However, something that's proven very successful is to turn the photo upside down and

you then see the image in a much more objective way. Any distractions will become much

more evident and if there are none, success!

 

Just from my experience and subjective opinion.

 

Congrats for being chosen

 

john

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My subjective opinion.

 

John

I don't know... I find the use of the gradient warming filter too obvious, too invasive. It makes it look unnatural as the top of the trees are darker. It's a beautiful scene, nonetheless, but I think it would have looked much better with a milder gradient gray filter, or even in B&W with a little contrast adjustment.

Lovely landscape! Beautiful luminous glow off the sky and the brush, the snow is rendered soft. I agree with another critic that there is a bit of gentle surrealism here. But I don't find the railings distracting, in fact they provide nice angular lines to direct attention to the distant sky.

 

I like the black and white rendition of the previous critic too.

It's a bit of a surreal image, true. I prefer the original over the altred version wherein the snow becomes a bit muddy. The railings don't bother me. I find the frame to be serene. Very nicely done

The colors of the sunset during winter made this scene look like a fantasy. Outstanding!

Permit a note of dissension (there's always one!).

 

I find this image unsatisfying.

 

There is something about the levels of contrast and colour depth which just seems very

false, although I accept that maybe it's not. I would have expected some of the sky colour

to be captured by the snow. The contrast between foreground, midground and sky seems artificially low. And finally, the entire shot just doesn't seem a good landscape. It's

somehow too messy, with no clear point of interest except an uninteresting rail.

 

My two cents.

Ken, that probably is because of the gradient warming filter that I'm pretty sure it was used.

It is an ordinary image, but there is something warm inside that draws my attention to it, keeping my eyes for some time. I wouldn't changed anything about it. The composition is simple and clear, and the structure is crispy. So it doesn't present the soft snowy landscape to which I'm used to it.

Wonderful composition with an amazing simmetry between cloudsa nd foreground.

If any filtration at all, I would only have used a soft neutral grey gad. The colours of the sky simply do not compute with the snow in the foreground. The warming filter also taints the tree tops, which I think someone else has commented on.

 

Very nice composition, and actually a very good exposure, but I feel strongly that filters should be used in such a way that one is completely unaware of them.

 

Cheers, Kevin.

So it snowed and there was a nice sunset. Where?s the subject?

Hello Ian. Congratulations on your photo making it to POW. This is a really pretty image and

composition!

 

I like the suggestion of removing the bar. That improves the photo, but what is really striking is

the b/w version, even with the bar, because I do not care for pink skies. I second that (or third

or fourth, etc.) and think that your image in b/w is a very fine one.

 

Regards, Maria

in my opinion, this photograph has a very flat tone and has no clear point of interest.. (i don't know if it's because of my monitor or because of the photo it self)

My first subjective impression is that I wish I could've been there, so this photo works for me.

The first eye stopping elements were the colors in sky and snow, followed by the delicate,

undisturbed snow on the branches, and, yes, the rail and three posts in the foreground. I

think they're an effective element of the composition and add a needed foreground element

and a sense of depth to the scene. Having been out at sunrise in winter, I appreciate how

fortunate and unusual this capture is.