Distant.

[Klickit]

I was attracted to this by the darkening clouds forming behind the barn and sheep on the hill.

[David]

Hi Kit - I'm quite taken by images such as this. We get a lot of cloud like this in the UK! I wonder if more contrast could be introduced into the clouds to bring out the drama? Possible methods could be with an HDR software package e.g. Photomatix. Even with single images processed as pseudo-HDR images the results can be quite startling.

Cheers

David

[arith]

David's idea was so good I had a little go with the unsharp mask about 40 pixels 100% threshold 6



yep he's right

[David]

Hi Steve - Interesting result, certainly brings out more contrast. Is it my eyes or is it real, but the sky at the junction with the land now looks blue-grey rather than just grey? Is that a feature of LCE? Also the two tiny "scars" of land, one along to the right of the fence, now seem much more red to me, actually enhancing that area as well.

Kit - See what you've started!

David

[arith]

Looks same on my monitor; but I didn't spend long doing it, I just thought a bit of local contrast. Actually the time it took is a trademark and covered under international treaties, so it didn't take 31 secs.

[Donald]

Kit

Oh yes. Very, very nice.

I would probably go with David's suggestion as a matter of personal taste, but it stands as a powerful image as is.

In terms of achieving what David is suggesting, I'd resort to Dodge & Burn tools rather than adjusting contrast per se (by whatever other means). With the GIMP I put on a new transparent layer, set it to Overlay, crank the opacity way down (15 -20%) and with a very, very soft brush, gently applied via my Wacom tablet, brush black (for Burn) and white (for dodge).

I'm sure Photoshop will have much cleverer ways of doing it - Or claims that it does will be made!

[Pete W]

Hi Kit,

Gorgeous shot, if it were mine (in my dreams !) the only adjustment would be to remove a little of the brightness from the barn. It's subtle and very engaging and I like it rather too much!

Cheers

Pete

[Wirefox]

Kit

I like the simplicity of this image. Composition wise I think it would benefitted from the horizon being closer to the lower third division but the jury is out on that.

Steve's version brings out the sky but I think the foreground need to be treated separately from the sky. I have done a very quick adjustment but I am not really sure it improves things.

[Donald]

... if it were mine (in my dreams !) the only adjustment would be to remove a little of the brightness from the barn.

Peter

You raise a point that's worth studying from a learning point of view.

A question I would pose is - What do you think the impact would be if the brightness of the barn was adjusted as you suggest?

The barn provides a key focal point, around which the image is built. I think the whole thing might become a bit dull without that key highlight that the barn provides.

I took a similar approach here. It needed something that grabbed the attention and provided the 'grounding' upon which the image was built.

But, as I say, your point provides an excellent opportunity for people to consider what makes an image work.

So, what do others think?

[Wirefox]

Yep. I am ok with the barn it is on a longitudinal third and the fence provides a nice lead in. As I said above if the horizon was on a latitudinal third all the better. You definitely need a focal point on an image like this or it becomes very dreary drawers.

[revi]

I'd have to play with the image a bit, to see what toning the barn down does, but I think the focal effect is reinforced by the lines leading to it (horizon, and sheep, with the extra terrain fold helping). So toning it down should still give a good focal point, but less striking.

Remco

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Kit,

Just a good shot. Well observed.

[Klickit]

Many thanks for all your thoughtful and detailed critiques and for posting your versions. Much appreciated.

The original was much more mono in feeling than the one I posted, it was more a "see in my mind" moment that prompted me to take the image and pretty much immediately after posting here I realised that the green grass needed to be greener to give more ping to the image.

Re the burning in of the barn - I definitely did bring that up a little brighter on purpose, to give a real focal starting point to the image. I thought the image was a lot weaker before dodging that.

The sky also had a degree of dodge and burn, but possibly not quite enough. When I have been working on something like this for a while, I find that I hardly know what I'm seeing any more and probably should walk away for a bit.

I deliberately chose the horizon point very low, partly because of interfering elements at the bottom - it has had some slight "removal" work done, but apart from that, I wanted to give a feeling of a lot of sky powerfully dominating the small man-made elements of the landscape. I was lucky to catch the sheep when I did, as within a couple of minutes that had all wombled off over the hill.