Barn 1

[Anita Bower]

A photo of part of our barn. I used Topaz Simplify>Painting 2. Taken with Canon s100.

[Anita Bower]

Go ahead and let me know what you don't like about this photo!

[Kerry Perkins]

Anita, I'm not finding anything to dislike actually. The treatment works nicely for the subject and I enjoy images of farm equipment and barns, they remind me of my youth. At least what I can remember of it.

[Anita Bower]

Anita, I'm not finding anything to dislike actually. The treatment works nicely for the subject and I enjoy images of farm equipment and barns, they remind me of my youth. At least what I can remember of it.

Thanks. I wrote that comment because nobody had commented on the photo, so I assumed they didn't like it. That probably says more about me than about them.

[Nancy Bell]

Anita, I love the simplicity of this and the softer colors! I like that many of the shapes inside the barn are variations of the same red as the outside. Since you insist, I'll find some detail to pick on: the vertical piece of brightness inside the barn on the left is distracting, as well as a small bright piece outside the barn on the left up near the roof. Actually what do you think of cropping away about a third of the sky with the whiteness in it? My eye goes up to that larger bright area in the sky when I really want to look into the mysteries of the barn.

[Wendy Kates]

Anita, I like the composition and the fact that the photo provides a "sense of place". But the barn is a little too "simplified" for me: I would have preferred more texture in the wood, perhaps by bringing down the opacity of the Topaz Simplify layer a bit.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Anita,

Greetings. My eye goes straight to the odd shape of the opening and is distracted by the bright sky and bright green from the missing plank on the left inside the barn. Something of a departure from what you had in mind, perhaps, but an idea...



Cropped pulled up the left equipment, cloned over missing board darkened the back of the barn. Maybe the equipment a bit oversaturated now, but the idea is to bring it up a bit tonally.

An idea.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Anita Bower]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Nancy, Wendy and Michael! Your comments and suggestions were excellent. Just the type of critique I look for on this forum.

Here is a repost incorporating some of your ideas. I added a texture, darkened the light areas, cloned, cut the sky in half. I kept the left side as I wanted to provide some depth and context--it may or may not work.

[Wendy Kates]

Anita...the changes you made all work for me...nice work! I agree about keeping in the left side outside the barn. I like the whole image...it is very inviting and I feel like I'm standing right there!

[Nancy Bell]

Very good result of incorporating the suggestions!

[Anita Bower]

Very good result of incorporating the suggestions!

Wendy and Nancy: Thanks. That is why I find comments pointing out what is NOT working so very helpful. Thanks.