The stump

[DigiDiva]

Would like some critique on this Autumnal photo I took today with my new Canon 60D. I liked the location as soon as I saw it. It was taken in my local cemetary on a bright, sunny and warm Autumn mornng.

[mondmagu]

Hi Chris,enjoy the new toy,it's a fab camera!
For me, the stump is lost here due to the lovely colour textures in the brick wall and if the shrub was not there,the stump would have more presence.
What lens were you using?

Des

[deena]

DD - I really like the location and the colours, and I can see why it caught your eye. For me there is too much going on. I think the plant in the centre is competing with the stump and my eyes are going from one to the other. I'm not sure about your exif but maybe a more shallow depth of field would slightly knock the brick wall out of focus because you've got the texture of the bricks and the texture of the stump. Just a few thoughts from me. Hope I dont offend.

[DigiDiva]

No offence taken - it was the bricks that attracted me but I can see where you are coming from.

[DigiDiva]

I can't remember what lens I had on for this particular shot. Because I have a netbook with no disk drive, I can't download the stuff that came with the camera for the exif data. It will have either been my tamron 70 - 300 mm or my kit Canon 18 - 55MM

[MattUK]

Chris, try doing a blur test on the image. Normally, you apply a heavy blur to the image, which highlights the areas of the image that really stand out. You can actually do this very quickly by looking at the image and squinting.

So if I do that to your image, the things that stand out the most (in order of prominence) are:

1) The pillar on the right and the shadow it casts
2) The stump
3) The shrub / tree

If your focal point / area of interest for this shot was the stump, then it's lost amongst the pillar (which is stronger) and the shrub.

It's a quick method of gauging whether your composition is working in the way you want it to.

[DigiDiva]

Cheers Matt, so much to learn. I am finding that the more I put into a photo and the more I learn, the more I learn from the crit afterwards, so its great.

Will try to make improvements using layers which, to be hoinest, I never do cos I can't :-(

[markgozz]

Hi Chris
Really like the idea behind your shot and love the use of the old brick wall as a back drop but as the other comments have said there is still some work to be done so I wont go over all that again but I would like to ask how you processed your image because to me the contrast seems a little strong which gives it an over processed feel , I know it was a bright sunny morning so you were up against it from the start with strong contrast but the image looks over worked rather than having just naturally high contrast .

Mark

[DigiDiva]

I think you are right about the over processing, I do need to learn that less is more! I will have another go but the screen resolution and size I have and using bl**dy pixlr rather than PS is a total hinderance!!! I also do not understand about layers. Am gonna see if I can learn from my college lecturer

[deena]

Originally Posted by DigiDiva

Will try to make improvements using layers which, to be hoinest, I never do cos I can't :-(

DD - I wouldn't worry about layers. I try to avoid them at all cost It's taken me a while to get my head around them but ultimately try and get what you want 'in camera'. The software you've got should be fine to make a few adjustments to contrast/saturation/sharpening etc.
If you want the stump to be the main focal point try and blur the wall a little using a shallow DOF. If you want to make the wall a dominant feature and bring out its texture, try concentrating on the angles when composing the shot, and not have other distractions in the frame. It's all about practice and moving around.