I dug this one out of the archives from 2020 and decided to give it another look. I would be keenly interested in other’s opinions about the composition of this photo. Critique of the editing is welcome, as well. Thanks in advance for taking the time to look.
Is this a composite: No
ISO 100, f-16, 1/10 sec, 48mm, Capture One
Wow, what great character in that barn. So many lightning rods. Fierce weathering. Gaps and rents. It’s hopeful and hopeless simultaneously. The sky, too, has a presence that isn’t quite sinister, but isn’t friendly either. Looks like some soft, late-afternoon light which is lovely. And so as you ask about composition, I have to ask why you decided to upstage all that with that thing in the foreground. No idea what it is, but it commands basically all the attention trying to figure it out. Please say you have a shot without it.
Barns often come out good in b&w and this one does as well. You might try the conversion. The ‘mailbox’ looks good to me but it would be good without it as well. There’s a halo around it that became exaggerated when contrast was added.
The foreground thing is a bird house. This was what was concerning me about the photo. This is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for. Yes, I do have a shot without the bird house, but I really wanted to know if others liked it there or not. Do you believe that the bird house would fit better if it did not stand so tall relative to the subject, or is it just too intrusive altogether? Thanks again!
Thanks for taking the time to respond! I tried the B&W on this one but it didn’t appeal to me. I guess I feel the same way as Paul Simon, " and everything looks worse in black and white…), from the song Kodachrome. The halo is especially pronounced in B&W. I will try another edit and reduce the halo around the bird house. Thanks again!
James, I really like this image. The barn is wonderful. I see the halo around the bird house and would try to reduce that if possible. I think the color image is my preference…
I hope you don’t mind, but since the main subject is the barn, I am going to move this to the non-nature category. If you look in that category, you’ll see many barn/homestead/structure images similar to yours.
Regards,
David
Oh, and I wanted to mention, nice processing in Capture One. My absolute favorite processor.
No problem and thank you for the feedback.
