We had thunderstorms one evening last week. Of course I brought my camera and took some pictures. Out of 56 images, there were exactly two that I liked.
I like all three. However, a couple of suggestions; (a) I find the white line in the foreground distracting, so I might be tempted to crop in or clone it out and (b) I prefer the 16:9 crop version but I suspect there's some additional drama which could be pulled out of the horizon by adding some brightness / contrast. The scene reminds me of a sea ferry crossing I did between Uig and Stornoway several years ago.
Paul, it’s funny you mention cropping/cloning out the white foreground lines. I actually have a version of the vertical 5×4 that does exactly that. Oddly both Kelly and I ended up preferring the version wth the lines still there. There was also a very early stage on that 16×9 crop where the clouds in the bottom right were a brighter white before I toned them down.
Thank you very much for taking the time to offer your thought.
I suspect this is probably one of those images were I could come back to the original once a year or so and almost end up with a different finished output each time. Maybe I should set a calendar alert.
As with most photos, Todd, you could ask 10 photographers for their opinions and get widely varying answers from them all. I've just reworked a ton of photos I took of London (The City and West End) over the past 20 years or so. Some changed very little to the first iteration but others bear little resemblance. The ONLY thing I believe we should do is go with our own preferences. If we perform for the crowds, we risk compromising our unique vision of the world. So what if others would do things differently?
A good few years ago, when digital post-processing was in its relatively early stages, some of us on one of the forums I used to belong to sent a 'raw' image to some others on the forum and let them process it how they thought best. Nothing was barred. The end results were amazing. Some stuck close to the original but others converted to mono, sepia-toned, applied cross-development presets, cropped, etc, etc. It was a real eye-opener!
I think this is one of the challenges for those of us who have a pretty extensive archive (especially of RAW files). lol, I could sit at my computer for hours a day coming up with "new" photos, without ever picking up my camera.
I like all three. However, a couple of suggestions; (a) I find the white line in the foreground distracting, so I might be tempted to crop in or clone it out and (b) I prefer the 16:9 crop version but I suspect there's some additional drama which could be pulled out of the horizon by adding some brightness / contrast. The scene reminds me of a sea ferry crossing I did between Uig and Stornoway several years ago.
Paul, it’s funny you mention cropping/cloning out the white foreground lines. I actually have a version of the vertical 5×4 that does exactly that. Oddly both Kelly and I ended up preferring the version wth the lines still there. There was also a very early stage on that 16×9 crop where the clouds in the bottom right were a brighter white before I toned them down.
Thank you very much for taking the time to offer your thought.
I suspect this is probably one of those images were I could come back to the original once a year or so and almost end up with a different finished output each time. Maybe I should set a calendar alert.
As with most photos, Todd, you could ask 10 photographers for their opinions and get widely varying answers from them all. I've just reworked a ton of photos I took of London (The City and West End) over the past 20 years or so. Some changed very little to the first iteration but others bear little resemblance. The ONLY thing I believe we should do is go with our own preferences. If we perform for the crowds, we risk compromising our unique vision of the world. So what if others would do things differently?
A good few years ago, when digital post-processing was in its relatively early stages, some of us on one of the forums I used to belong to sent a 'raw' image to some others on the forum and let them process it how they thought best. Nothing was barred. The end results were amazing. Some stuck close to the original but others converted to mono, sepia-toned, applied cross-development presets, cropped, etc, etc. It was a real eye-opener!
I think this is one of the challenges for those of us who have a pretty extensive archive (especially of RAW files). lol, I could sit at my computer for hours a day coming up with "new" photos, without ever picking up my camera.
... but what would be the fun in that?
I agree, vertical crop FTW!
All of the crops have their good points, but I feel like the vertical crop brings you closer into the storm. And so, IMHO, it has the greatest impact.
PS the vertical crop nicely emphasizes the negative space in the foreground.
Thanks Jeremy. I appreciate the feedback.