One of the things I still struggle with is getting down to the final selects from an outing. Being very selective helps but I always have a hard time picking the best from the group. Some suggestions would be useful.
Some of the images have had the backgounds cleaned up with clone or content aware changes in photoshop. I use a low aperture around F4 to keep the backgounds soft.
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Bryan,
All three scenes are wonderful, but my preference is for the second one. That one IMO is uncluttered and you have distilled it down to just some wonderful graphic lines that take the viewer through the image. Great eye to spot and isolate these three scenes. My only suggestion would be to clone out the small branch at the top middle as it catches my eye a little. Very nicely done.
Another vote for the second image, for it’s simplicity and abstract qualities.
I like the concept of the other two images, with the snow covered branches having some graceful shapes. The curved shape and positioning of the branch in the first image is especially pleasing. However I think both the first and third images don’t have enough separation of the snow covered branches from the background. I think they would have been better with a more out of focus background, or the use of a dark background (think out of focus spruce trees for example). I think the branch in the first image is the “best” subject of all three images, but the background competes too much with it.
I hear ya on the culling one’s final selections from an outing - one of the downfalls of digital, IMHO is that it’s easy to come home with way to many frames…
I’m with the others, the second image clearly stands out; it’s intriguing and also a bit mysterious. It has the viewer wondering what they’re looking at. Ok, it’s fairly obvious that it’s snow on branches, but it’s the background - or lack there of - we don’t know if this is against a blank, gray sky, fog or taken looking down on the ground. There’s a great sense of wonder here. My only suggestion with this one would be to make the color more “white”. It almost has a hint of red? but otherwise kind of a dull white. Ah - ha - b&w would fix that right away!
The first and third are also quite excellent - great use of the shallow depth of field. In both cases though, I think the bg still obscures a bit too much. There is good separation in the first, however the main leaf sits right on the vertical of the bg trunk. No biggie, just an observation.
The last one is a bit similar to the second, although there’s no mystery here since the bg is distinguishable. Actually the snowy branch is separated pretty well with the bg. In this case, the branch lacks a point of focus, a resting place for the eye - that lone leaf or whatever.
I’ve tried these on my last winter outing - with limited success. These are not easy to spot, or to pull off. You’ve done well with all. Number 2 is especially worthy of further exploration!
