After the storm

[Hazel Grant]

Passed this root cellar/tornado shelter this week and had to drive back to capture the image. Except for the cement slab, all evidence of a house is gone. Only the shelter survives. Liked the composition. Converted to BW, removed a few stones, etc. Slight curves adjust.

Nikon D40x. 1/200 sec. F7.1 ISO 100 20mm. polarizer lens attached because it was a bright afternoon.

(This posting looks blurry but not on my monitor???)

[Dave Mills]

Hi Hazel, You really have me wondering why the image posted so soft. I never heard of anyone having that problem to this degree. When you reduced it for the web it only shows 94K. You can go up to 200. Due to the subject matter being so close together the image does appear a bit cluttered.
Not sure what the white object is on the rt but it's pulling my eye to that area. Generally B&W images are at their strongest when there is good contrast and the image appears a bit flat. If this were mine I would clone out the telephone poles and the house on the rt...

[Hazel Grant]

I agree with a lot of what you say. I too am puzzled about the softness. It really is a sharp photo. I followed the procedures I usually do for adjusting the size (tried several times) but it just wouldn't work. Ill give it another try.

[Dave Mills]

Hi, I might try it again...

[Robert Amoruso]

Hazel,

I agree with Dave that the scene is cluttered and the viewer really does not know what the subject is. For me, faced with a scene like this, I might take a wide-angle or fish-eye and walk into it and look for a unique perspective. If not that, a short telephoto and look to isolate.

[Hazel Grant]

I think I got the sharpness problem worked out. Hope it comes up sharp here. I removed some of the stuff you mentioned. The perspective I wanted was the sadness that here was a homeplace gone...all that was left was the storm shelter. I think the bare branches of the tree added to that mood (bare because it's January, of course, but mood enhancing still). I did a bit of selective color adjusting, too.

I tried a crop this time to move closer into the scene. Is this sort of what you meant, Robert? Thanks.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Hazel,
Much better on the sharpness issue!!! I think this one has a light issue.....mostly because I feel the repost takes away a bit from the story of the shelter. This one may benefit from trying it as a HDR to open up the inside of the shelter. I would also pay special attention to the tree coming up right in the middle of the shelter.......just some food for thought for the future.