Shot these swans on Merimbula Lake yesterday morning in a light rain. Although I found the image attractive I felt it just didn't have enough quality to carry it. So I replaced the dull blues and greys on the water the muted bronze colour, heightened the contrast to silhouette the swans, and cropped to give a particular aesthetic. I thought of putting this in the 'Asian' comp but wasn't sure it was a good fit.
Olympus E-3 & 12-60 lens @ 56mm
Aperture priority, ISO 100, 1/320 sec, F9.0, +.7 EV exp comp, Auto WB & Grad
Nice work Don! Yes, I agree that this would work for "Asian flair". I would try lightening the overall image then add some calligraphy and/or a chop in the upper left area, not too close to the top or side, balancing the image as the third element. Might by nice:)
Thank you Denise, Dan, Lance and Michael for taking time to look and share your suggestions. I'm having a bit of a problem with the 'completed circles' feedback. I've also made it a bit lighter as Dan suggested but as with the crop am more comfortable with my original. I'm not disagreeing, but I just don't 'see' the other viewpoints yet.
Here's the image with a much broader crop, it isn't meant as a finished product but as a starting point for a 'completed circles' crop if anyone could kindly provide an example for me.
Don, Hi-Thanks for posting the larger version and I do see your dilemma.The bottom portion of this image IMHO is not appealing and I see why you cropped it out. I think that the "main" circles are most important and this is the best crop I could come up with to include both Swans. Again this is only my opinion and I'm just trying to help.
Hi Don. This is what I had in mind for your swans to achieve the theme here, lightening the BG, darkening the birds, balancing the birds with a chop/calligraphy along with a different crop. Hope that you don't mind that I put my name/chop on your piece but I wanted to illustrate my idea. I am not concerned with the circles. In some paintings, elements exit the edges and let the viewer imagine what they like and with these rings, I think that I know enough to imagine!:)
Thanks again Dan and Denise. Dan, I really appreciate your taking the time to put together the attractive example.
I've been playing with the image for the last couple of days and haven't been able to come up with anything truly satisfying. I think it's just a matter of my own uncertainty about what I want from the image. Anyways, I've given up for now, I won't bother to post any of the versions since there's none that really stand out for me.
Even though there hasn't been a good result so far I feel it's been a useful exercise and having your viewpoints has helped broaden my views.