Winter Day

[kap55]

From last February. Looking for C&C. Thanks.

[Shadowman]

Nice, the birds makes the water look gritty.

[IzzieK]

I like it.

[Geoff F]

The water seems a bit over sharpened for me. Everything else looks good.

When faced with ripples/waves like this I usually sharpen on a duplicate layer and use a mask to control the amount of sharpening around the scene; or use selections to just apply the effect where it is most needed.

[Downrigger]

I like the hues and atmospherics of this very much. This nails the clarity of February high pressure in bright winter angle light.

My thought would be to look for a cropping solution that changes the fact that the land forms basically split this image into an upper and lower half. I might experiment with cropping a good bit of foreground water to get something more like 1/3 - 2/3. This would eliminate the foreground water-texture issue and preserve the texture as it intermingles with the birds, where I think it works fine. Then, if you chose, you could come in a little from the both edges if you want to keep the same aspect ratio.

[kap55]

The water seems a bit over sharpened for me. Everything else looks good.

When faced with ripples/waves like this I usually sharpen on a duplicate layer and use a mask to control the amount of sharpening around the scene; or use selections to just apply the effect where it is most needed.

Thanks - I will have a look at that. It would be pretty straight forward to mask and pp the water separately - hopefully in a way that may highlight the birds a little more.

[kap55]

I like the hues and atmospherics of this very much. This nails the clarity of February high pressure in bright winter angle light.

My thought would be to look for a cropping solution that changes the fact that the land forms basically split this image into an upper and lower half. I might experiment with cropping a good bit of foreground water to get something more like 1/3 - 2/3. This would eliminate the foreground water-texture issue and preserve the texture as it intermingles with the birds, where I think it works fine. Then, if you chose, you could come in a little from the both edges if you want to keep the same aspect ratio.

You are very much correct about the "clarity of February high pressure..." which is why I like the photo.

I appreciate your comments - I spent a lot of time on the cropping but I'm still not comfortable with the way it is. The birds help break up the foreground but they force me to include more of the water than I would like. The sides I will eventually crop as necessary for printing, but it's the vertical positioning that need work. Anyway I will try a few of your ideas.

[FrankMi]

Brian, when cropping seems appropriate, click on to open the image in lightbox and use your mouse to move the picture around, using the edge of the frame to check out various cropping options. If you find a test cropping option that appeals to you, you can go back to the original for an optional change.

[Rebel]

I think it is a bit over sharpened for my taste, definitely got potential though.

[kap55]

I think it is a bit over sharpened for my taste, definitely got potential though.

I do tend to sharpen some of my photos a fair bit. One of the reasons is because the photo is usually going to be printed on canvas and that (in my mind) require extra sharpening. To be honest though, I just like the look.

Anyway here's a modified version - recropped and some of the sharpness in the water reduced. Thanks to all for the input.

[Geoff F]

Yes, that is more like it.

[FrankMi]

Lovely. More appealing!

[Downrigger]

Nice - seems somehow stronger, and the nice things are just as nice.