www.graemehird.com

Why?

Needs more contrast

RHS should be cropped

I don't like the out of focus foreground flowers one bit

too dark

Dust in scan, foreground not strong enough to carry the poor sunset. May work better in a panoramic format, cropping the top and bottom.

Sloping horizon, tyre tracks in foreground

Not too original really.

This is very strong composition with a well thought out view point. Could be improved by using different light, and either waiting for the people to leave the frame, or making them more prominent (ie closer to the camera).

too flat (needs curves adjusted on the digital image). Crop the light pole from the left

Verticals leaning, too little exposure on the face

Needs less ambient exposure on the screens

Could use just a bit more depth of field to sharpen the top of the flower

Try again when there is more colour in the sky (sunset or sun rise

Verticals leaning, no object of interest.

Jumbled

Needs more depth of field

Not very original at all. Sorry.

Miles is correct - the colours are over the top and unbelievable: they're not meant to be real. The image is not a record of some clouds, but an artistic (I hope) impression of what I was feeling at the time. Who would be challenged by white fluffy clouds in a blue sky? For me, there is interest in this image which would not be generated by a simple record shot.

 

Graeme

Thank you all for the kind comments.

 

The image was captured on 5x4 sheet film, and the full width of the film is used here. Obviously, I've cropped in the other dimmension to improve the composition (a technique I use frequently because I like to choose the ratio to suit the image. Cost is irrelevant).

 

There were three images previous to this one made on the night. This was to be the last one in B&W before I switched to Velvia to get the impact(?) of colour. The storm had been reasonabley active for those 40 minutes as it approached, but when I put in the Velvia sheet, I was greeted with silence and darkness. I guess somebody else with a lot more influence likes B&W lightning photos too!

 

In any case, using B&W film allowed me to adjust the contrast of the film during development, giving me more control over the finished image.

 

Regards,

 

Graeme Hird

As with all my images, this has only had levels, hue/saturation and curves adjusted to suit the vision that I had in mind at the time of exposure: no elements from the scene have been removed, nor have any been added. Routine spotting and defect correction has been carried out.

 

Regards,

Graeme

Yes, the film was Velvia (sorry, forgot to tick it) and the ground was sloped to the left. The pinnacles are vertical features.

The subject is great, but the shot would really be improved with different light - perhaps high over cast sky or gentle side lighting (it's not evenly lit in this shot). Use a tripod so that you can shut the apperture down somewhat (there is a depth of field problem with this shot). A little futher exploration of the subject will produce a stunner!