Gentle Breeze.

[jiro]

This shot is still part of the "After the rain" series that I took yesterday. I don't know the exact description for this. We bought it because it looks cool when the wind blows and it being swayed by the wind. Thank you very much for viewing.

Click on the image to see it in lightbox.


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Nikon D70, Nikon 50mm f1.8D lens, Exposure at ISO 200, f2.8 at 1/200 second. Matrix Metering in Manual Mode, Color processing in Lightroom 3.

[ktuli]

Willie,

First, I've always known these things as "windsocks" so that is how I am going to refer to it in my comments.

I have to be honest, my first impulse here was to pass this one by and not comment, but with the recent discussions about C&C, I'm going to try to provide something. And since the Old Red Swing is getting plenty of attention and this one is sitting here by its lonesome, I wanted to see if I could stir up some discussion here.

Honestly, I don't really like this photo at all. I look at it and kind of thing 'Blah!'. First, I don't know if this is just me or what, but the subject just kind of seems boring to me - despite the bright colors and patterns. The background is distracting - first, the bright spots through the tree branches (especially at the top of the windsock) are distracting. Chain link fences are almost never good things to have in a photo, and this one (despite being very blurred) keeps catching my eye. The brown patch in the grass is also rather unsettling - mainly because I think my eye follows the tail of the windsock down and ends up on that brown spot and just makes me feel that 'Blah!' feeling. Finally, I think you overdid it with the vignetting on this one, I feel like I have tunnel vision looking at it. It is pretty obvious what the main subject is, and I think that dramatic vignetting is just distracting from it.

That said, I think the subject might have some merit. The one thing I think might make the shot a little better is some repositioning to clean-up the background a bit. Perhaps swing around and shoot the tree that this windsock is hanging from instead of shooting out from under it? Also, what I would like would be a different angle on the windsock - the weak diagonal is just not doing it for me. Perhaps if the main section were vertical yet the tails were blowing in the breeze, that might work better (you might have to put some weight on the bottom half of the main section to help it stay vertical.

The bright colors here might have potential, and if this is in an "After the rain" series, I think it might need some sense of the previous rain storm to give that effect. (I just had the thought that maybe that is what you were going for with the dramatic vignetting? The emergence of colors as they push back the darkness after a storm?)

I know there is a lot of negative stuff up there, and like I said, I normally wouldn't have even posted anything (my momma always taught me if I don't have anything nice to say kind of thing I guess), but I decided I wanted to share in an effort to hopefully get you rethinking this one and maybe reshoot it as a winner. I hope you understand.

- Bill

[Donald]

Noting Bill's comments; some of which I agree with, some of which I don't feel the same about.

For example, I'm okay with the vignetting. I like the bright colours and pattern on the windsock.

But there are elements in the background that get in the way. Bill has mentioned the fence mid-right and the patch in the grass bottom-centre. The most 'annoying'/distracting thing for me is not the bright spots through the branches per se, but the fact that the top line of the top section of the windsock is cutting across (from the right-hand side) bush, branch, sky, branch, sky, branch.

And to address that, I wondered about a couple of steps to the left, to get the whole background being that large bush on teh other side of the fence. But that doesn't adress the issue of that fence (which could be cloned). But it would also bring that small branch just to the right of the windsock more into play and I don't think that would work.

[abhi]

It is interesting how different people can react differently to the same photo. The first time I saw this, I did not find anything distracting other than the brown patch on the ground, and that too ever so slightly. The fence I had not noticed till I read Bill and Donald's comments

As for the top half of the background, I noticed that the branch and the strings off which the windsock is hanging tend to blend into the background. I wonder if separating them from the background (like the strings holding the lower piece) can improve the overall feeling of separation between the background and the subject.

PS: I am still learning, so someone please correct me if am completely off the track here

[ktuli]

PS: I am still learning, so someone please correct me if am completely off the track here

Abhi,

That's the great thing about this. It is entirely subjective, so there's no way you can be "completely off the track". No one can tell you how you should or should not interpret a photograph.

Which is now the challenge for Willie - he now gets to take our subjective interpretations and decide what parts (if any) he agrees with and decide whether he wants to make any changes (either on this or future photos) based on that.

It isn't always easy to do, but that is why you need to make sure you remain subjective when receiving critiques from viewers. Much like can be seen here.

- Bill

[Donald]

It isn't always easy to do, but that is why you need to make sure you remain subjective when receiving critiques from viewers. Much like can be seen here.

On the subject of which, I would highly recommend this paper on the Nature Photographers website. I always think Briot writes an awful lot of common sense.

I'm going to cross-post this link on the thread currently live that's discussing criticism.

[abhi]

Thanks, Bill and Donald. I have been keeping an eye on the thread discussing criticism.

and my apologies, Jiro, for stealing your thread unintentionally Handing the charge back over to you :P

[jiro]

Thank you gentlemen for your very warm comments and opinions.

First of all, what really made me took notice and took the shot of the windsock is primarily its swaying motion and its bright colors compared to the muted and wet background that we had after the storm. If this shot was taken on a regular sunny day it would connote a different mood with all those bright orange rays of the sun. Considering all your objective comments, I decided to do an edit on the originally posted work and came up with this edit, one in color and one in black and white. Let's see how this would affect your subjective evaluation of the image.

Windsock edited in colored version:


Windsock edited in black and white:

[Donald]

I decided to do an edit on the originally posted work and came up with this edit, one in color

For me, a completely different image and much the better for it. We've now gto a foreground (the main subject) and a background, without all the various other distractions that were part of the original

and one in black and white

.
Good, but it really is a colour image I think.

[abhi]

I really like the BW. Hard for me to pick between the two color ones. The gray/blue contrast in the sky is now distracting to me but on the other hand the brown patch is gone

[ktuli]

Willie,

Some improvements, but still not there for me. Sorry - I might just never like this one... maybe I was attacked by a windsock as a child or something...

You definitely eliminated many of the complaints I had in my previous post, so I have to give you full credit for that - and each one was done pretty seamlessly. However, there are some weird artifacts surrounding the light points up in the tree now - particularly on the right side.

Your photoshop abilities really astound me though.

- Bill

[jiro]

I think I can still further tweak this based on yours and abhi's latter comment. You must had a windsock nightmare when you were a kid, Bill. Hahaha! Just kidding. I've learned a lot from you three guys. Thanks.