Rustic old barn

[ccd333]

near the very tiny town of Powderhorn in southwestern Colorado.

[hminx]

What a cool barn, pity you chopped off the right hand side.

[LeeIs]

I agree with pete, this is a tad too tight. I can imagine this with the entire barn nicely composed with all those great autumn trees/ hills and some sky in the bg. i think that could've improved it. also, the colour is a bit too saturated on my screen. looks like a nice barn though with strong lines and nice woody textures!

[GB1]

Yes, the chopped off barn doesn't do it justice. Perhaps if there were a subject there to the left - a horse or something - to draw the viewer over, making the barn secondary. But as it is it's the subject, and the subject is really chopped up.

[Anbesol]

I dont mind the chopped off barn, I think it works. I think it'd work better without the sky even, slightly tighter on the left. The hot spot distracts the image and just clips it in the corner. I'd prefer it not there.

[ccd333]

Thanks for all of the responses. The main reason why I cropped the barn was to conform to the confines of an 800 max side in this forum. I thought it might bring the barn close enough to appreciate the detail of the wood.....and draw more attention to the colorful trees on the left. I also felt it added a mysterious element to an already intriguing barn.....and featured the skull and horns, as well as the two main doors, more prominently.

Also, If you look carefully you can see a worn in drive on the grass that leads to some stables in the back.....perhaps there is a sense of the trees and corrals being too far away (and therefore not enough of a "subject" to balance the scene), but I felt the road draws the eye to that area and provides sufficient balance......I could be wrong. I had planned to post both versions and get reactions for each.

As far as the clouds and sky go, yes they are a bit hot......but not totally blown. I agree it's a distraction, but in my original composition I failed to foresee that being the case. The problem is cropping would then chop off the top of the barn (which trust me looks much worse than cropping off the right side!).....or a left side crop would eliminate the trees which I thought were also a nice visual contrast (fall in Colorado is amazing). And I did not want to spend the time trying to clone it out. So, it is what it is.....as it were. That's why there are critiques for such things and I consider them all.....please keep them coming.

[GB1]

This full works better w/ me, though I now see a nice 'up close and personal' effect with the crop that I didn't see until I compared it to the full.

Someone on the forum told me how to get around the 800 pixels max issue. Just go to your user gallery and load the image there, which doesn't have a max size (as least not one that I've noticed). Then view it in the gallery and click it to show it's full size. Then select View Image with the mouse shortcut menu and you will see only the image in the browser. Copy the URL, and you can now link to it in the posting instead of loading.

[Greg McCary]

I still think the crop needs to be opened up some, mostly on the right and top. I would at least clone the weatherhead and mast pipe and maybe the light pole. The sky is also blown out and would be a bigger issue in print.
A couple of steps left would have brought the side of the barn in view as well. To bad about the new roof, kind of kills the over all mood of the subject. I think a dead on shot would have worked with the skull up top and all and taking the roof out of the equation.

[ccd333]

Okay, thanks to GB's tip on circumventing the guidelines, maybe you can see the true character of this cool old barn. I agree with Greg's comments too.....though if I took a dead on shot I couldn't have included the side of the barn (which now I think you can see clearly) for which you suggested I take two steps to the left to include. The original idea was to feature the barn to be sure, but to also compliment it by including the road and the trees. And I don't plan to print so I am not worried about the sky.....nor am I going to clone out the items to the right. This is the final version....for better or worse.

[LeeIs]

The last version is really nice. Maybe a tad too tight but it works great!

[ccd333]

To bad about the new roof, kind of kills the over all mood of the subject.

Agree to some extent (I would say it mitigates the complete rustic appeal, but doesn't kill the mood) but then again it might not have even been standing had it not had one!

[GB1]

CCD - It looks pretty colorful to me full size. Good detail also; it's not razor sharp like a magazine, but I think it could be with more PP. Maybe the far right side poles could be cloned out? I wish the grass was higher in the area not run down by the tires.

Glad you figured it out, but ... Don't abuse it! I max mine out at 1200 pixels wide, figuring that most monitor resolutions are that big now.. I think this one is too wide if the viewer has to scroll more than a little bit, and I have to about 40%. Nice frame, though.. I need to look into adding those.

G

[Danbaileyphoto]

I like the first version the best. Showing only part of a subject can work really well. In this case, I think we need to see either a very small part of the barn, or about two thirds of it. Cropping it in the middle doesn't work very well.

[armando_m]

nice shot!!
I like the colors of the trees and detail in the barn which can be appreciated in the large version

[gahspidy]

Yep, def posted it too large here. I can't view the pic in its entirety unless i scroll from side to side.

Anyway, looking at the second one you posted which I think is the smaller version of the last one, everything is great except the top is cropped too tightly. Side to side it is good and i like the inclusion of the whole barn. The problem is the lack of space above.

I don't mind the first version with the chopped barn, but again the issue is needing to have more room above.

Great subject

[ccd333]

Thanks to everyone for their input. I will take these ideas into my next venture.

1200 it is.....thanks.