Snow in DC

Great eye. Very well done.

I like the other images in your portfolio. Keep shooting!!

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• 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.
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• 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.

this is a wonderful shot. it has a dated 50's feel about it and could easily have been paris without that land mark. i love the tones. the red umbrella draws one in.

It's a great picture!! love it!! the colors, the perspective, everything... I just have one question and hopefully I'll have an answer... did u retouch the photo?? I'm new with pictures, I have a new semi-professional camera but I always like my pics more when I retouch them so... I wonder if greats and awesomes picturea as this one are just a perfect shot in the perfect time with the perfect background, the perfect light and the perfect

Well, the first thing I noticed, besides the nice feel of the piece, was that it had too much information. Most beginners don't realize a person does not have to show the whole 'thing', be it flower, butterfly, monument, etc., and that it could actually be more intersting by not 'showing it all'.
I then read the comments and noticed the very first one, by Geoff Odell, and the only one, nailed it right off the bat. But I think his idea might go too far, cropping to the third lamp, but I'd have to study this longer to know for sure. It definitely would work better to a least crop out the top from the first lamp, thus making it more mysterious, and thus keeping the eye in longer. Of couse, if you don't want folks looking longer at your art, then ingnore my comments.

Natalia, great scene, composition, and lots of inspiration for editing. With this editing the picture has another filing.

Great atmosphere, almost monochromatic with few colours coming up, equilibrate composition, give back a quite sensation tothe watcher ... good work Natalia!
Fabrizio

Well, ok... not a bad picture, but quite boring to me, sorry... Let me play dumb once again - that's the only thing I'm good at, anyway...:-) Here comes my very dumb question:
What's so special about this photo ? So many people seem to be in awe, and so I must be the fool who doesn't get it, but I find this picture just completely uninteresting. So, what's wrong with me ?
What's the story in this image ? The red umbrella and a yellow car in a all warm-grey world - partially desaturated with the help of Photoshop...? Is that the story here ? So, what...? Admittedly the monument at the back - partly hidden by mist - is an interesting landmark that adds to the background. But is there anything unusual about snow and mist in DC ? I doubt it - although, being French, I could be missing something there too.
Composition seems to add a cute yellow detail to a cut red main subject in front of a huge partly hidden landmark. Nothing wrong with that. But nothing very special to me either... Grey weather opposed to striking colors is a photographic concept seen a zillion times, and I'm afraid I need a lot more to fall in awe. So can anyone just say WHY he likes this shot a lot, so that I start to understand [it] a bit better...?

I have to agree with Marc G here. It is a nice picture, one I wouldn't have minded if I had made it. But is far from spectacular. You'd need to clone out the bus (and probably the jeep) to make this better.

Furhermore there is a lot of vignetting going on, to much for my taste. I would like to see the original, just for comparisons.

Beautifully composed image albeit it is a bit cliched. The digital manipulation is (IMO) tastefully done...though. I like the artificial vignetting too. It's has a very turn-of-the-century Parisian feel, even though it is Washington DC -- somewhat appropriate given that the city planning was strongly inspired by the the city plan of Paris and Versaille.

I think Marc G. is being a bit too critical. It's more a PJ shot than anything else. It appears to be a snowy winter's morning in Washington. All is almost quiet in a normally bustling city, except the one person. Going to work or wherever. The lined benches being empty are normally full. The red adds a good splash of color to the monochrome. Does it matter, the main part of the photo was desaturated in PS? No.
I do find the bus a bit distracting. There's also a blurred spot in the upper part of the tree at the left side. The vignetting holds the eye in the frame well

Very beautiful image. I love the way it is cropped and those 2 contrasting clours, red and yellow. Well done.

I like how the red coloring in the bag slowly reveals itself after prolonged viewing.

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts.
Yes I also like the different comments on this photo but I don't think that image needs crop, modify or rework.
For Mariana Stumpf, I just added vignetting.

For once, I don't see that a crop is in need here. The vignetting is a bit strong, and could be reduced which might give the photo a more natural feel. I like the red umbrella a great deal and it's location is not far from where the rule of thirds would place it. That could have been better placed, but it's not bad. Tone down the yellow vehicle and the bus, or clone them away.

Maybe it is the weatherman in me that wants to see the snow falling all over the image. Something like a Guy Wiggins painting. As it is, only three flakes make there appearance here along the left side in among the trees looking as blotches. I think I might try putting blotches all over the photograph with photoshop, the nearer ones larger and smaller farther away. This would be just to see what it looks like--that might, or might not improve it. It could make nice art and/or bad photography. It is a nice picture overall and my congratulations for being chosen this week.

Willie the Cropper

Did you order this woman to pass infront of your lens ? Holding a red umbrella ? What kind of conspiracy combined all these things together ? Excellent, theatrical photo.Best wishes

Awesome! 7/7 if the slightly distracting Jeep and bus were cloned out. Perfect composition and use of color (probzably forced on you due to the conditions). Well done and worthy of POW and possible awards looking into the future.

Well done Natalia and congratulations on becoming a POW recipient. This is a well constructed image, from it's inception on a cold winter's day, right through to it's post production treatment and presentation. I like your use of light and shade around the edges (seems that light/shade has replaced the use of DoF in many PN images of late). The ghostly architectural landscape (in the background) is matched well with the symmetry of the park benches and light poles. The lonely figure walking through this landscape is brought to life with colour. Your use of filter effects adds a surreal feal to the whole image.

Beautyful image! The red spot in the corner makes this image perfectly in balance, the contrast with the white snow is brilliant, keep up the good work! grts Selina

Love the image but my eyes went straight to the top and zoomed in on the dark corners. A couple of weeks ago, I was shooting with my lens hood on in bright sun. I did not put the hood on all the way apparently. It was very hard to see my images in the monitor with the bright sun. Later when I downloaded the pix to my computer many of the shots had dark edges where the hood was just barely covering parts of the image. at least that is what I think happened. I forget whether the dark edges showed up while shooting zoomed in or out but it was a pain cropping or cloning images. I learned my lesson to double check the hard way:)