Joss sticks

[rossi46]

Hallo everyone,

After a long absence I am back again to post my second picture for critiques.
This is the same location as my first picture showing old chinese temple.

Please,....critiques....

[Photo-John]

Is this the same spot you posted a photo of a few weeks ago? I like this photo better than that one. The previous image was nice but I like how you filled the foreground with the joss sticks here. It gives the image more of a focal point. The other image felt a little empty and it didn't really have a real subject. In this image, it's very clear what the subject is and the building makes a great background.

Can you tell us about the processing you used in this photo? What did you do and why did you do it? Any time you use some obvious processing like you did here, you should understand very clearly what it is you're trying to convey with it. Everything in your photo adds to the meaning. If it's there, you should understand why and know what it's adding. If you don't understand it, you have to ask yourself if it really belongs. I'm not saying it doesn't work - I do kind of like your color treatment. But it's a useful exercise to break it down so you understand your motivation (and yourself) better

[rossi46]

Hi John,

Thanks for the feedback.

As this a very historical temple in my hometown, (and due to my personal love for vintage like photography), I processed the photo in such a way to give an old film look.
My motivation is based on some of the old films photo of Georgetown with a real nostalgic mood.

I had used Alien Skin Exposure's processing (if I can recall, I used the "Time Zero" filter for this particular photo).
Apart from that, I did the usual curves in photoshop to add alittle bit of contrast, and used channel mixer to bring out alittle bit of colour on the temple's roof.

About the composition, yeah, I am just utilizing the standard rules I read on internet of including some foreground in the picture, which is the joss-sticks here.
During the shooting, I was lucky that there are plenty of joss-sticks placed in front of the temple.
This temple had always been busy with visitors, and most of the time this place is very hot and filled with plenty of smoke from small and large joss-sticks, thus this shot that I am taking was also with the intention of capturing the scene and atmosphere of the temple with plenty of smoke.