The Mill Stream

The rusty mechanism in the foreground is the sluice that controlled

the water to the mill. The mill itself is long gone. The sluice and

the bridge are all that remain. All comments welcome!

i can hardly resist to give it a try in duotone, colin.

would you mind ?

Very beautiful composition!! The line of river is very good!!!

Very nice image Colin,and by coincidance I have also some pictures of old sluice that had controlled water come to the mill that is also gone,some of my first uploads ever on this site where that pictures,as I always upgrade my portfolio and from time to time I remove old uploads I have remove them,now I am a little bit sorry about that...cheers...

 

--darko

behel, I'd love to see it

 

Prevor, thanks!

 

Darko, a pity, I would have liked to see your shots. Yes I delete old shots every so often to stop the portfolio getting too big. Thanks for commenting.

 

Beautiful composition with dreamy mood. Yes, the old device in the foreground doesn't detract from the atmosphere to be soft and dreamy. Very nice!

here it is, colin.

once again, i felt like flipping the image helps at reading it.

i lightened the foreground quite a bit to bring the "machine" to light, and shadowed the far background, behind the bridge, which i felt, was a bit overexposed.

hope you like it.

good or bad, tell me what you think.

A vote for Behel's version, I think. I could go for either the colour or duotone, but its the flip that makes it work... that whole 'we read left to right so direction lines work better left to right' thing.

Nice shot!!

behel, interesting! I think the sluice machinery and the bridge work very well in your version. I'm not convinced by the flip and the trees etc don't seem to have as much to do in the image. So...overall I think...er, maybe!

 

All good fun though and I'm having a great time trying to get the same effects.

 

Lluisa, Stephen, thanks for your comments!

 

Roberto, Thanks. When I took this it was raining and also the sun was out at the same time. I find these weather conditions make for interesting shots.

Certainly strong enough as a composition to hold its own in BW, but I found Behel's flip disconcerting!

Very interesting treatment of Behel, I think the shot wins with it.

Colin,very nice corner. I like the colored version( well,I'm a color freak...)even Behel's version is nice too. It conveys a kind of silence.

Thanks Sandeha, Hans and Pnina.

 

Pnina, we colour freaks must stick together. There are not many of us left!

Your passion is showing, Colin. This bridge is beautifully captured. I just love it.....(PS< I vote for the color)

Thanks Linda. You're right of course. I believe showing one's passion is all the thing these days. :-)

You managed the light is this very contrasty capture very well. Nice work.

Nice and calm scene, though I like Behel's BW version even better... Jiri

I feel like I am in Hobbit land again. Nice work Colin.

Lovely! I want to sit there and just take it in :)

Ken, thanks, I used two similar shots: one for the general scene and another with more exposure for the sluice. I find this is a very usefl technique as digital seems to have a fairly narrow exposure latitude.

Jiri, thanks!

 

Amar, yes, hobbits everywhere!

 

Camilla, If you had sat here you would have had plenty of scope for your insect macro shots. I got eaten!

Colin, I wouldn't have guessed that kind of technique here. Do you just superimpose one on the other, or use masks or layers? It could come in handy with the winter sun ...

 

Sandeha, I take a number of shots with this technique in mind - so all from the same spot but varying exposures. Then in PS (I use PS elements)assess which bits I want to take from which frame. Choose a basic shot. In the above case I then 'selected' the sluice area from another shot with a edge feather of about 3-5 pixels. Select 'inverse' then delete the unwanted bit to complete transparency. 'Save' this then 'copy' it to the clipboard. Open the base shot and 'Paste' the section on to it. 'Move' and 'transform/distort' until the join is invisible. If there is a difference in density at this stage the 'levels' of the layered bit can be adjusted. Once happy with the result then 'merge down'. I can email you with a fuller description if this is incomprehensible.

Hi Colin. I think you have everything working here: exposure, color, composition, and subject. I especially like the ephemeral lightening in the distance contrasting with the darker contrast in the foreground.

 

Behel's version is interesting. The flip, for me, provides a smoother view into the subject, but I think that it loses the contrapuntal effect. In other words, as we read from left to right, elements opposite this flow seem to generate more excitement. His level adjustments are noteworthy, but I prefer the color version. Regards.