Sissinghurst Castle

[OnyimBob]

Just returned from a trip to the UK and would welcome some critique of these two shots.

[attachment=3076:attachment]

[attachment=3077:attachment]

Bob.

[wolfnowl]

Love the mood evoked, although both seem a little oversharpened to me.  In the first one the tower is leaning a bit to the left; whether that's from age or photography I leave to you.  The second one... the empty lawn in the lower left seems a waste of space to me (in terms of the photograph).  Have you tried a vertical crop of the right side?

Mike.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I like the mood in both. I do wish the second one had a bit more of that moody, ominous sky showing. But nice pix anyway.

[kikashi]

Just returned from a trip to the UK and would welcome some critique of these two shots.

[attachment=3076:attachment]

[attachment=3077:attachment]

Bob.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=135039\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I quite like them, but they both look very artificial to me.

What have you done in post-processing?

Jeremy

[Lisa Nikodym]

I, too, love the atmosphere.  Very appropriate for the subject.  Beautiful!

Lisa

[OnyimBob]

Thanks for your comments folks. No sharpening at all Mike, probably the "post-processing". I actually posted them just to see how the processing would be received. (It's a modified LR preset by Sean McCormack, by the way. Three cheers for Lightroom I say!!!)
One reason for the treatment was that there must be thousands of photos of the same scenes in existence, (I saw hundreds being made the day I was there!) and I just felt I wanted to experiment to achieve something different but that would enhance the mood. Perhaps "create" is a more honest word than "enhance" - not perhaps, certainly is, because the scene didn't have any of the mood I've presented.
However, is what I've done wrong in any way? Have I breached any aesthetic or technical  high grounds?
I would really like to hear some discussion about how people feel about this.
Bob.

[Lisa Nikodym]

However, is what I've done wrong in any way? Have I breached any aesthetic or technical high grounds?
I would really like to hear some discussion about how people feel about this.

My 2 small-monetary-denominations:
If you use the photos as part of a travelogue to convince people to visit the place, then in a way you have lied to them about what it looks like, and it's wrong.  But if you're making art (in other words, pictures just for people to enjoy looking at, with no implied promise of "reality"), then anything you do to it is perfectly fine.

I actually did something vaguely similar to an image of mine awhile back:

(click here for link)

Lisa