B&W Bridge.

[Ben Rubinstein]

I took this today in the Lake District (UK). I saw it when driving by and stopped to take the photo. The sun was pretty high and off to the side, it wasn't easy to control the flare on the lens, but the bridge and trees were actually mostly in shade with only some dappled sunlight hitting the bridge. I knew it had to be B&W when I saw it, and I only shot from the road, not having the time to go down and shoot from below. At the time I was sure I would come back to shoot it again properly but now I'm not sure that the 'busy' foliage doesn't take away from the bridge too much for it to work and that I shouldn't bother to go back and work it properly.

Any thoughts?

[attachment=2285:attachment]

[Ben Rubinstein]

Please excuse the utterly horrible compression, why does PS have so much trouble downsizing files with this much fine detail? It just becomes mush.

[jule]

There's a lot happening in this photo Pom, and I'm sure printed large it would be quite beautiful - such a pity about small res for internet.

I would like a little more depth added to the perspective, ...perhaps darkening the foreground a little - on both sides of the river. Just an initial thought.

Julie

[wolfnowl]

This is a great shot, but my initial thought is that the trees in the midground to background and going up the hill almost overwhelm the image and detract from the bridge itself.  I thought about maybe cropping it to landscape, but then you'd lose too much.  Maybe masking the bridge and river and adding some gaussian blur to the trees to make them fade a little and not provide some dominance...

My $0.02

Mike.

[Ben Rubinstein]

This is a great shot, but my initial thought is that the trees in the midground to background and going up the hill almost overwhelm the image and detract from the bridge itself.  I thought about maybe cropping it to landscape, but then you'd lose too much.  Maybe masking the bridge and river and adding some gaussian blur to the trees to make them fade a little and not provide some dominance...

My $0.02

Mike.
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That's exactly what my wife said, I've burned them in a lot to try and demphasise them, you can imagine how bright they looked originally. Cropping horizontally didn't help for some reason. I think a good part of the problem is that the bridge was stained greeny-brown, there just isn't enough tonal seperation for it to stand out enough, in colour as well as B&W.

[David Anderson]

I like it....

The veiw from above is nice and the framing good.

Only thing I think would add to the picture is a longer exposure to smooth the water off.

It reminds me that I haven't been fishing since January.

[Ben Rubinstein]

Only thing I think would add to the picture is a longer exposure to smooth the water off.
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I realised afterwards that the camera had been on iso 400 hence the shorter shutter speed!

Of course in the bright sun that I was in the viewfinder was impossible to see as was the screen, I was working off hope!

[Jack Varney]

I realised afterwards that the camera had been on iso 400 hence the shorter shutter speed!

Of course in the bright sun that I was in the viewfinder was impossible to see as was the screen, I was working off hope!
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Hope? Well hope springs eternal! As is the nature on many of my photos.

Seriously, Pom, I like the photo. The surrounding trees put the river and the bridge in perspective. Too bad that you could'nt have backed up to allow the river forground to lead into the scene.

[popnfresh]

I like the shot. But there's a lot going on and I think it would benefit compositionally with a little cropping--nothing too severe. What I like is the figure of the bridge being counterbalanced by the profusion of trees above it. To my eye, the river in the foreground is less interesting and dilutes the composition. But you still need a little of the river to establish the setting. There's also a large clump of brush in the lower left of the frame which is dead weight as a graphic element.

I played with the crop tool in PS and came up with this alternative:



What do you think?