Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
A pond near River Spey, photographed from a short steep embankment next to the busy Speyside Way path, below low branches, making for a very awkward camera position less than two feet of the ground.
4x5 B&W film, 150mm lens, yellow-green filter, f32@12s.
Tomas, the details here show up much better in the larger view (and I’m sure that even larger would be even better given that you’re using 4x5). The high contrast makes finding focal points, so my eyes can roam around the view, hard.
Thanks, you are right, it is a very busy scene, that was part of its appeal, you need to work on spotting the tinnie in the center, but it’s meant to be viewed at large scale (with the 4x5 I work with a view toward a 16x20 print). I should have said in the decription, this is an image I was hoping to use as a part of an ongoing project on the ‘Life of the Socttish Tinnie’, but I have really struggled with the curve on this one, and never got it to my liking. I’ll see if lowering the contrast might work.
Hi Tomas,
My thoughts pretty much line up with those of @Mark_Seaver. Have you thought about cropping the sides some to place more of an emphasis on the pond? The 4x5 should give you plenty to work with.
@Mark_Seaver @Ed_Lowe thank you both. I had a go at taking the contrast down, it does work better, not 100% sure about it yet, but will at some point have a look at it in the darkroom to see how that would work on paper. The crop idea never ocured to me at all, but it makes lot of difference. The adjusted version is at the top of the original post.
