Need some personal opinions/criticism please!

[afrikaner07]

Hi Everyone,
I recently went for a walk on campus, and just shot left and right (with my camera). One of these shots I took is what I need YOUR opinion/criticism on. Its a relatively simple shot.



Now Dobick helped me out and took an in depth look at my recent photos and gave me some great criticism on my photos, and was very useful. Now, I tried to add some DoF on this shot, and cropped it a little differently. My question is not regarding his comments, but my abilities at creating depth of field and cropping. What do yall think?



Is it realistic? or does it look fake?
I really appreciate yalls time and effort in helping me. And thanks again Kent for helping me out! I really appreciate your time as well!

Cheers,
Johan

[laawaaris]

did you add the detail in photoshop? how did you do that - through sharpening (USM)?

i like what you have done - key elements to attract more attention to your subject ...

the crop helps fill the frame and you have added some blur to the distracting elements - which helps overall for the viewer to focus on the details

the added detail does not look fake ... it is subtle but still noticeable and keeps sustained interested in the photo

[afrikaner07]

The detail was there to begin with, my purpose was to take away the detail to help prevent distraction from the subject. I started by making the subject look the way I wanted usingshadows, highpass filter, unsharpening and a little bit of saturation. Then I blurred a layer, and erased the subject out of that layer, so the original subject was revealed. So yes, the DoF illusion is done in Elements. And thanks for your comments, that is what I was hoping to hear.

[d2creative]

I think you did well with the dof.
Next time try doing it in camera when taking the shot.

The crop could use some work imho. Right now it's just barely touching or about to touch the frame which makes me kind of uncomfortable. Either back up a bit, letting your out of focus area frame the subject or crop in really tight in which case the dof thing wouldn't be necessary because you wouldn't see the background.

[afrikaner07]

gotcha, and I totally agree, doing it in camera would remove the need to do this PP. Unfortunately, I didn't have the gear to get the DoF effect. And this is by no means an attempt to replace the DoF I could get straight from the camera, this is just me trying to cover up my mistake, lol. And I will try and crop it, my problem is just how much cropping is too much, and how do I crop without taking away from the subject? Thanks for your help, I really appreciate the comments! =D

[J Eddington]

I think that when you focus on the subject it makes it POP. I would crop so that you saw no ground and only show the concrete design.

[afrikaner07]

You mean like this?

[PhotosbyHollyWood]

I like the second one over the first...

and the the one right above is better.. my opinion but I like the frame full of the image... more impact to me...

[afrikaner07]

I struggled with the crop, because I didn't want to cut out any of the circle, but then I realized if I cut the same amount on the four sides, it would have some symmetry still. And thank you Holly, I agree with you.

[d2creative]

That last pics is cool! Did you try b/w? High contrast maybe? That kind of pic is fun to play with.

[afrikaner07]

You mean like this?


http://www.flickr.com/photos/africaneze101/2316067688/

[Dobick]

Johan -- The improvement you made with the first effort is great, and not fake looking at all -- But I really think you are onto something with the crop -- totally different image, and really brings into focus the textures and shadows.

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by afrikaner07

You mean like this?

I think we have a winner.
What do you think?

[semperaggie]

The last one you posted definitely has the most life to it. What bothered me about the first ones was that the right side of the rock thing seemed to be tilted and, like some of the others said, the cropping made me feel cramped.

[afrikaner07]

Thank you so much for all of your help! I really appreciate all the constructive criticism, there is a way to do it well, and yall excel at it =D. I am glad you like the newest version.