One from my recent trip to the Midlands, thought I would try my hand at lanscape images at this location in Shropshire...
I did at least use a long lens for the image... does it work?
Comments appreciated.
All the best
Phil
Posted by David Sewell on August 26, 2009 at 6:15 AM
Phil,
I should be the last person to comment on a landscape, so why have I ended up the first? This is just a personal opinion which you, and others, are welcome to disagree with. To me there are two important elements in this shot, firstly the tree and secondly the patterns formed by grass, bracken and heather. The tree needs to be more dominant IMO, therefore you need to be closer and to use a lens of lower magnification to retain the background, which I really like. I do not, of course, know whether it was possible to get closer - it is always easy to criticise when you wern't there!
David
Posted by Craig Jones on August 26, 2009 at 6:38 AM
The midlands Phil,you could have emailed me and would have been nice to meet you and to put a face to the name and I would have shown you some of the site's I know etc,I love the lone tree,and the colours of the heather work very well
David... no problem, I turn my hand to landscape so very rarely which is why I posted this... i.e to learn from others comments, I am going to try more but mainly with long lenses... It wasn't possible to have gotten much closer... plus the rain was heading in my direction very rapidly
Craig... I did mention it on the forum but it is easily missed, I get up there at least once a year, my mother lives between Worcester and Kidderminster and my late wife was from Worcester... will let you know when I am up there again, may be some time in autumn/winter for a few days....
Thanks for the comments.
Posted by Mike Smith on August 26, 2009 at 7:41 AM
I tend to agree with David - there are two images here fighting to be one:-
the "Millets" stripey green and purple heather would stand alone as a strong impressionist image without the tree. - especally if you added a gentle gaussian blur layer at 50 % opacity or similar to make it pop and smooth down the detail .....as we used to do with two simultaneous exposures in the good old days of film, ie one defocussed shot at narrow DoF and one straight image combined in camera by disabling the film advance......
The tree needed to be a bigger part of the image to work in its own right and be slightly lighter
the two elements combined just don't quite gel together for me
Posted by David Taylor on August 26, 2009 at 7:54 AM
I must admit I like it, though the 'lone tree in a landscape' is something of a cliché IMHO. Because you appear to have broken some of the 'rules' according to some of the other comments, it has a certain appeal for me.
I agree that the tree needs to dominate more - maybe a tighter crop would help?
The one vital feature that most successful landscapes need is good light - here it seems a bit flat and therefore there is no 'sculpter' to the features. That said, it works as a record shot of a habitat.
Cheers,
Chris
Posted by Duncan Armour on August 26, 2009 at 8:19 AM
The main issue for me is that the bottom of the leaves on the tree lie along the same line as the junction between the light grasss foreground and the darker green background so there is a loss of separation between the tree and the other elements. So a lower or higher viewpoint might have helped but equally might have lost you the striations of colour that are the biggest attraction of the image.
Be careful, I've seen a number of photographers catch "lone tree syndrome" and they just can't stop !
Cheers all... exactly what I am looking for.... hard this landscape malarky I think, Don't think I will catch lone tree syndrome, well not yet anyway....
Posted by David Sewell on August 26, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Phil,
Can I just add that I have really enjoyed having a topic where all of the comments relate to what happens before you press the shutter. It makes a nice change.
David
Posted by tony flashman on August 26, 2009 at 11:40 AM
I know how you feel about landscapes Phil. Its scaring the life out of me thinking that this will be one of the main areas of photography that I will be "teaching" from next week! Where did I put that Ansel Adams book....................
ps the sun bathers are gone the birds are back but very flighty! a lot worse than Snow Buntings!
Discussion
10 repliesISO400, 1/250 @ f8 -1/3EV
ACR5.3 + resize & sharpen CS4
Full frame.
One from my recent trip to the Midlands, thought I would try my hand at lanscape images at this location in Shropshire...
I did at least use a long lens for the image... does it work?
Comments appreciated.
All the best
Phil
I should be the last person to comment on a landscape, so why have I ended up the first? This is just a personal opinion which you, and others, are welcome to disagree with. To me there are two important elements in this shot, firstly the tree and secondly the patterns formed by grass, bracken and heather. The tree needs to be more dominant IMO, therefore you need to be closer and to use a lens of lower magnification to retain the background, which I really like. I do not, of course, know whether it was possible to get closer - it is always easy to criticise when you wern't there!
David
Craig... I did mention it on the forum but it is easily missed, I get up there at least once a year, my mother lives between Worcester and Kidderminster and my late wife was from Worcester... will let you know when I am up there again, may be some time in autumn/winter for a few days....
Thanks for the comments.
the "Millets" stripey green and purple heather would stand alone as a strong impressionist image without the tree. - especally if you added a gentle gaussian blur layer at 50 % opacity or similar to make it pop and smooth down the detail .....as we used to do with two simultaneous exposures in the good old days of film, ie one defocussed shot at narrow DoF and one straight image combined in camera by disabling the film advance......
The tree needed to be a bigger part of the image to work in its own right and be slightly lighter
the two elements combined just don't quite gel together for me
I agree that the tree needs to dominate more - maybe a tighter crop would help?
The one vital feature that most successful landscapes need is good light - here it seems a bit flat and therefore there is no 'sculpter' to the features. That said, it works as a record shot of a habitat.
Cheers,
Chris
Be careful, I've seen a number of photographers catch "lone tree syndrome" and they just can't stop !
Can I just add that I have really enjoyed having a topic where all of the comments relate to what happens before you press the shutter. It makes a nice change.
David
ps the sun bathers are gone the birds are back but very flighty! a lot worse than Snow Buntings!
Tony