Winter scenes

[slayer7124]

I hardly ever post in the critique forum and I'm thinking I should more often. Here are two shots from the past few weeks, one being an HDR. Thanks for looking, comments appreciated.



HDR

[OldClicker]

Both way dark on my monitor.

1 - I don't think that the shadows are enough to carry all that space in front. The tree silhouettes against that peach colored sky is what I find interesting (once brightened). Also, it's crooked.

2 - Not for me.

TF

[yairh20]

no. 1 is spectacular!

[Ron Kruger]

I like 'em. And the bottom shot looks like the distortion from a fish-eye lense, not crooked.
I agree, somewhat, that the shadows don't carry the large foreground, but I believe by cropping slightly from the bottom, the more defined shadows will carry it.

[Frog]

I like the first one and think the shadows do carry the foreground but might do better with a slight bottom crop.
Second one is just too dark except for the sky and one bright spot. No detail showing in fg.

[Grandpaw]

I guess I'm the lone voice here but I think the top needs to be cropped just above the top of the tree. This would move the house out of the middle of the frame and I think the tree shadows work just fine in the foreground. The result to me by cropping the top is a picture with more depth and in turn doesn't look so flat, Jeff

[Ron Kruger]

You know, I think Granpaw is right. Cropping just above the treeline would give this shot much more depth.

[slayer7124]

Thanks for all the comments. Both were shot with my 11mm, so that could be why they appear "crooked." Th hdr shot didn't turn out as i thought it might. I'l try cropping the first one just above the trees and see how it looks. Thanks again!

[Jaedon]

Shooting an HDR on clouds is next to impossible unless you can use bracketing to get your different exposures. The clouds are moving way faster than you think and no matter how fast you adjust your exposure manually you will end up with blurry clouds. The effect looks nice but I hope my explanation helps you understand why you didn't get what you thought you might.

Now the first shot is aces in my books. Nicely exposed. I might be inclined to increase the exposure as the first poster suggested but not by much.. maybe a 1/4 or a 1/2 stop but not much more than that.

[Snoopydance]

Wow, I think the first one looks great! Maybe you should experiment with cropping but I like the way it looks now. It could very well be the cover of a book or the poster for a film, if that's at all encouraging to you ;) In any case it's a fantastic capture of a moody, interesting scene