The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
This twisted fence caught my eye as I walked along one of my favorite beaches on a windy day recently. The grasses were blowing in the breeze, and the dunes and the fence testified to past wind and wave action. That’s what I mean by the title–there is movement all the time, as if the beach is alive. My hope was to invite the viewer to wonder what is at the end of the fence out of view. I’ll not reveal that–I’ll let you wonder.
Feedback Requested
Does the image invite you in? How would you crop or otherwise improve the composition? Are there distractions you’d remove?
This image has loads of narrative. I played around with the crop but I didn’t feel I made any great improvement on yours. My idea was to make the image more widescreen (16:9)
Possible distractions:
I did remove the orange cord along the bottom and the taller part of the bush on the very right.
I crop the sky a little - but probably now too tight.
I noticed quite a few sensor spots in the sky.
Elizabeth, this does a fine job of capturing a “walking onto the beach” feeling. I’m chuckling because the orange cord says, “don’t walk here”…a clear disinvitation. The colors are nicely inviting. While I like the clump of grass in the lower left corner, I think that cropping a bit from that side (to move the fence off center) would provide a more dynamic feeling. As a minor detail I do see several small dust spots in that nice “Carolina Blue” sky. (You can buy sensor cleaning kits that work well as long as you’re moderately careful.)
Hi Elizabeth, This photo took me right to the beach, one of my favorite places to be, so thank you. As a critique, I don’t have anything more to offer than what’s already been said. It’s an inviting image.
Alice
Elizabeth: I love scenes like this and think it’s pretty good as is. I do think I would crop a bit of the sky as it’s pretty but not worth 50% of the frame. With regard to the noticed dust spots, if you have LR or PS the automatic dust removal features available work really well. I’m a little OCD when it comes to keeping my optics and sensor clean but if you ever change a lens some little gremlin will creep in. The dust removal feature makes up for a lack of diligence or just the bad luck that can happen when in the field.>=))>
You captured a nice beach scene, Elizabeth, and for me the fence is the star. I like this as presented, giving the sense of a windswept, ever changing beach. I tried a different interpretation-cropping for a more intimate scene with the fence more prominent and perhaps a feeling of coming upon the fence, and as you say, wondering where it goes and what’s beyond. I took out the two right sided posts and the orange string, and removed the dust bunnies.
This is a very inviting scene that does transport me to the beach. You have received some excellent suggestions so far and I am really enjoying the rework that @Allen_Brooks posted. IMO those small tweaks makes an already lovely scene even better. Very nicely done.
Your image makes me think about having a walk along the fence. You already got a lot of comments, so I will only say thay I like @Allen_Brooks crop very much.
The only problem of cropping in on the fence is that the shot becomes a shot about the fence rather than what’s over the hill beyond , so maybe leave some space above to take the eye past and over?? The two metal posts to me were also part of the narrative and I rather miss them in the tighter crop. I imagined myself going past them and over next to the fence
