Textures and Darkness

[78novacaine]

Just a few first pics out of a ton of photos I shot over the weekend at and nearby my family's property outside of Cuero, Texas.

This is a very old cemetery located behind a church that my family founded in the mid 1800's. I wanted to convey a sense of the history that has been buried here, as well as give it a very old fashioned appearance:


By davidmsager at 2011-12-18

I am not much of a landscape photographer obviously, but I wanted to convey a sense of desolation with this image of what used to be a large portion of the largest body of water on our property. This is the lowest it has ever been since it was originally filled over half a century ago.


By davidmsager at 2011-12-18

I just liked the textures and layers that the tree trunks presented from this vantage point, along with the fall colors in the background:


By davidmsager at 2011-12-18

[ronocnikral]

well, I'll give this critique thing another good ol' try...

on #2, and maybe it is the small screen on my laptop, my eye drawn to the top part of the image and I believe the focus should be on the bottom. maybe a crop to get rid of the top? Also, i believe this image could have benefited from getting lower to the ground and shooting the dried out ground for 2/3 of the frame allowing the rest to become bokeh. At least, that is what I would have tried. And that would send the message of the drought in a close up. I think the water/drought image needs to be closer to the water line (which I think is in the background).

In terms of exposure, I Think I see snow and frozen patches? If so, those need to be adjusted so they are not blown and are the proper color. right now, they are a darkish gray color, which makes me wonder what is going on (and not in a good way). I would adjust the exposure to capture detail in your highlights, yet still have it be white and adjust the contrast to get as much detail in the shadows as you can.

Overall, I think the general idea is ok. One great challenge (at least for me) is shooting snow and still having an acceptable image. Thanks for sharing and I hope your water level returns to normal.

[wclavey]

I think Ron is right about #2... if you crop it either just below or just above the point where the tones go from dark grey to almost white, then I think it looks a lot stronger. I suspect you were trying to contrast the dark near ground with the lighter ground in the distance, but that lightness just pulls your eye away from the footprints.

The first image could probably stand from having the mid tones lightened a bit - - but most anything you do is going to be a bit problematic because of the bright spot in the sky. If you are using photoshop, then a bit of work with the highlights/shadows tool may help... You can probably boost up the darks a bit and lessen the bright spot in the sky. But it will be hard because that scene probably has way more tonal depth than a sensor or even film could record. Do you have another, darker exposure that you could blend with this one if you were to lighten this one up?

[78novacaine]

Originally Posted by ronocnikral

well, I'll give this critique thing another good ol' try...

on #2, and maybe it is the small screen on my laptop, my eye drawn to the top part of the image and I believe the focus should be on the bottom. maybe a crop to get rid of the top? Also, i believe this image could have benefited from getting lower to the ground and shooting the dried out ground for 2/3 of the frame allowing the rest to become bokeh. At least, that is what I would have tried. And that would send the message of the drought in a close up. I think the water/drought image needs to be closer to the water line (which I think is in the background).

In terms of exposure, I Think I see snow and frozen patches? If so, those need to be adjusted so they are not blown and are the proper color. right now, they are a darkish gray color, which makes me wonder what is going on (and not in a good way). I would adjust the exposure to capture detail in your highlights, yet still have it be white and adjust the contrast to get as much detail in the shadows as you can.

Overall, I think the general idea is ok. One great challenge (at least for me) is shooting snow and still having an acceptable image. Thanks for sharing and I hope your water level returns to normal.

No snow, not a chance, this is in South Texas, lol

Water in the second image is actually to camera right, I have a shot of the entire area I will post up in a bit just to give you a general idea of what exactly you are looking at.

Originally Posted by wclavey

I think Ron is right about #2... if you crop it either just below or just above the point where the tones go from dark grey to almost white, then I think it looks a lot stronger. I suspect you were trying to contrast the dark near ground with the lighter ground in the distance, but that lightness just pulls your eye away from the footprints.

The first image could probably stand from having the mid tones lightened a bit - - but most anything you do is going to be a bit problematic because of the bright spot in the sky. If you are using photoshop, then a bit of work with the highlights/shadows tool may help... You can probably boost up the darks a bit and lessen the bright spot in the sky. But it will be hard because that scene probably has way more tonal depth than a sensor or even film could record. Do you have another, darker exposure that you could blend with this one if you were to lighten this one up?

the bright spot is the sun, we only had one day when we were able to make the trip to the church/cemetery and it was midday, and to get the angle I wanted I had to shoot straight into the sun and this was as close of a balance as I could get in LR3, I might try and plug it in to photoshop and bring out a bit more when I get the time I have darker exposures, but I shot these all handheld so there would be no way to blend it properly

Thanks for the replies though!

[78novacaine]

Here is a different crop on the dryed up tankbed shot:


By davidmsager at 2011-12-20

And on the left side of the frame here you can pretty much see where I was shooting it from:


By davidmsager at 2011-12-20

And this is an overview of what is left:


By davidmsager at 2011-12-20