Pumpkin Patch

[Jay Sheinfield]

On a shoot with John S. this morning at the local Pumpkin Patch. First try at Snap Art, default setting on oil painting selection. Shadow opening and Tonal Contrast completed it. Hope you like it.................

[Nancy Bell]

Love the shapes and colors, and especially how the bright orange bucket interiors surround and frame some of the gourds. I would probably crop some off the bottom as the focus for me is the gourds and the framing provided by the tops of the buckets. The dark grays are a perfect backdrop for the beautiful fall colors.

[Dennis Bishop]

When I looked at this the first time, I really liked the gourds and the red buckets. Having three containers seemed like a good design, especially with the small amount of color on the ground leading the eye from the tub on the right to the bucket at the lower left. The amount of dark gray seemed a bit overwhelming, however. I wondered what to do about that without loosing the bottom of the image, which I think has a lot going for it. My notion would be to apply a Curves layer to everything but the insides of the containers and the gourds. If the curve was smoothly adjusted to lighten the midtones and highlights but keep the shadows dark, it would lighten and provide added contrast to the containers and the rest of the background. The contrast between the warm and cool colors is good, but I'd also desaturate the blues a bit, I think.

[denise ippolito]

Jay, I like the red lined buckets and I have always loved gourds, pumpkins and all the fall stuff-can't wait to get out to shoot some stuff this year. I like the comp- I do wish that it were a gourd on the ground ( and a little larger, though it might look too contrived if it were). As presented I would probably crop some off the bottom.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Jay, I agree about a crop from the bottom - I think it would look more like a still life then and wouldn't seem quite so top heavy. Or if the material at the bottom were larger as Denise mentions it probably wouldn't need a crop.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Thanks for the feedback, folks. Sounds like there is crop consensus.

[Paul Lagasi]

Yup on crop...lovely fall image, colors and effect work for me, very nice work...

[Dennis Bishop]

Thanks for the feedback, folks. Sounds like there is crop consensus.

Here's my reason for a dissenting vote.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Dennis, at first I wasn't sure about your idea on the S-curve on the buckets, but now that I see it I like it better than the OP. The light is better balanced over the frame.........seems less top heavy. You also desaturated the blues......I think I'll keep it ;). Thanks for taking the time................ Denise's comments about having a larger gourd at the bottom might be icing on the cake. Didn't think of doing that.

[Dennis Bishop]

Dennis, at first I wasn't sure about your idea on the S-curve on the buckets, but now that I see it I like it better than the OP. The light is better balanced over the frame.........seems less top heavy. You also desaturated the blues......I think I'll keep it ;). Thanks for taking the time................ Denise's comments about having a larger gourd at the bottom might be icing on the cake. Didn't think of doing that.

It was educational for me to play with it. The Curves layer applied to everything not within the opening of the containers wasn't really a traditional S curve for contrast. I used a control point slightly beyond 25% from the left to lock the shadows as they were instead of darkening them. About half way between that point and the far right, I pulled up the rest of the curve to lighten it.

I'd had the same thought as Denise about a gourd on the ground, but I doubt I'd have felt okay about staging the photo, given where it was taken. However, I think lightening that part of the image -- with the yellow, orange, and green that's already there -- has almost the same impact as a gourd would have.