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Suncicles in Kansas


Suncicles in Kansas
Photo Information
Copyright: Darren Underwood (punwit) (150)
Genre: Places
Medium: Black & White
Date Taken: 2006-01-11
Exposure: f/8, 1/125 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Theme(s): Icicles [view contributor(s)]
Date Submitted: 2006-01-20 19:17
Viewed: 445
Points: 6
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Balance, Focus and Leading Lines. A recent snow squall deposited an inch or so of snow in North Eastern Kansas. This shot was taken the next day while the sun was shining. I purposely used a shallow dof to highlight the glittering icicles and included the tree for balance. The question is; Do the in focus, sparkling icicles hold your eye when the shed roof forms a leading line to an out of focus tree. Do you think the picture is balanced? How would you improve this pic?

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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To Attila: Suncicles Workshoppunwit 1 01-26 15:01
To gaylen54: Sunciclespunwit 5 01-24 16:31
To lebjohnson: sunciclespunwit 1 01-21 12:09
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Critiques [Translate]

Honestly? No. The shot is very busy, mainly because of all those twigs and branches on the right, and my eye can't really find a "happy place" to land. It might have been improved by not using the shallow dof, but all that messiness on the right just has to go! :) It's also bothering me that I can't see the bottom of the primary icicles that you've focused on. Maybe take a different pov, like directly in front to get a "clothesline of icicles" effect?

The b&w tones are nice, and I like that you've captured the drops of water on the ends of the icicles. I'll bet that made you nervous - waiting for the "drops to drop." :)

Welcome to TL, Darren! You'll learn a lot here, and you'll probably be able to teach us a thing or two as well!

Gayle :)

Honesty is a good thing, and so here goes. B&W is very nice for an image like this, but, like Gayle, I find the photo very busy. My eye goes back to the twigs and tree trunk and away from the icicles where it should stay. I would have liked the to see all of the foreground icicles and their drops too. You were so patient to get the drops on the ends of the ones you do have that I feel almost guilty asking for more. Maybe a vertical POV instead of a horizontal one would have worked better.

This is a very interesting place to start, I'm looking forward to see what you post next.
Lois

Here's what I'd do:

Too bad the longest icicles have had their tips cropped off; I can't fix that. And you are right: "the shed roof forms a leading line to an out of focus tree". So I would crop the right side to make sure that the lines at least lead to a corner, which would create some sort of a composition. Then I would increase sharpness and contrast, and add a black frame.

Er... I have actually done it, so see WS.

It's just for an idea, not to be mistaken for a final work of art. ;)

I appreciate your clear question, it was very useful for me: it made me think (even if what I have done is crap, which may easily happen). ;)

Thanks,

Attila

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