A lonely walk in the snow

[Kris V]

I realise I have not been very active in this forum lately, but my husband is facing some serious health issues, and taking care of him takes priority right now.

We recently moved to Indiana, and our first day here, we got greeted with REAL snow!
Coming from Texas, where I saw snow 3 years ago for the last time, This was a photo opportunity I didn't want to miss. (My daughter who lives here thought I was nuts ).
This was taken in her street.
What I would like to know is which one of these 2 crops works best? I prefer the Portrait mode, my daughter likes the other one better. My son-in-law (the guy in the picture) likes them both and wants a print.
1.

2.

The original was clearly just a snapshot - I seriously cropped it, and reduced the clarity in ACR to give it a more mysterious look.
Did I succeed? Any suggestions for improvement?

[John 2]

You succeeded for me Kris. I can feel the cold. Second shot just edges it to my eyes.

P.S. I rather insensitively forgot to wish your husband a speedy recovery. Hope he is on the mend.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Kris, #2 looks very nice and I like the PP work I hope your husband will get better soon.

[Downrigger]

Trusting things will be better for your husband, Kris, sorry to hear and my thoughts are with you...

Nice feel and mood, Kris. Dropping the clarity sounds like a good idea, but it seems to have resulted in the appearance of a smudge behind the walking figure.
The crop is a tough call for me, but I think I like the original better. Here's my untrained and possibly useless reasoning:
Your crop has a clear statement about what the subject is.
Your original is different - the subject in that one seems to me to be "snow-space-surrounding-a-figure" and a major part of creating the feel of "snowy space" is the foreground tree which adds to the sense of depth. So my thoughts on a crop to try would be a landscape 4x5 that loses the left part of the frame and ends about where the tail of the pick-up is.

Or not. Anyway, nice shot.

[Kris V]

Dropping the clarity sounds like a good idea, but it seems to have resulted in the appearance of a smudge behind the walking figure.

Hi Mark,
I never realised this until you pointed it out - and of course you're right. I'll try to fix it.
I'm still on the fence - I like the way each one came out, but I still have a slight preference for 2.

[JohnRostron]

I like them both, but I would probably cropped #1 square by removing the tree and car on the right.

John

[deetheturk]

Hi Kris, sorry to hear about your hubby, give him my best and hope he has a speedy recovery!

Its #2 for me also, I can see what Mark is talking about, fix that then give your S.I.L a print looks absolutely freezing, stay warm

[TheBigE]

#2 gets my vote, vertical orientation with focus on person and the snow coming down from high. While I see how the lack of clarity adds to the mystery, I think the detail can also add some mystery and enhance the image. I wonder the look on the persons face - is it determination, frostbite.

[Kris V]

I wonder the look on the persons face - is it determination, frostbite.

Definitely frostbite - mine! I'm not used to this cold weather.

[Geoff F]

On the crop, something seems to have appeared on the extreme left edge towards the bottom. Can't see it in the full size image though.

These two scenes tell different stories. The overall location and a lonely figure.

[Kris V]

You know, this is one of those "lucky moments" when the result surpasses the intention.
All I really wanted to do was take some shots of a snowy street - since I had not seen this in years.
After working with it a bit, the story slowly developed, I cropped the original several ways and finally decided on the ones I posted earlier.
Just to give you an idea, here is the original un-cropped version:

[IzzieK]

I am with the #1 shot fan club here, Kris...I like the mood of the shot as I can also feel the cold. I hate cold too long... Being Asian, I am more the warm, muggy type of person.

Hope everything works well for you and your husband.
Happy Tails...
Izzie

[marlunn]

if it was me - #1 I would have cropped the rh side to just behind the car on the road - initial thinking was that the part of the truck did not add anything and it would put the tree around the third point but looking again you can see the rear wheel and the depth of the accumulated snow so actually - as it is is good certainly captures the cold !

[Geoff F]

What worries me about this scene is that large dominant mid scene tree trunk. I think that showing the truck on the right tends to widen the scene and lessen the impact of that central tree.

An alternative might be to crop so as to lose the tree and everything on the right which leaves a 4 x 5 ratio image but showing a little more than the previous close crop?

But possibly leaving the tree close to the right edge, nearer than one third, and also taking a bit from the bottom could be worth a go.

I suppose it depends whether the tree or the person is the main subject.