Belgian Doors

[Douglas Bolt]

Canon 7D, 24-105@24, f5, 1/40s, ISO 400, HH. PP: nearly all in Bridge using Adjustment brush - clarity all the way to the left, contrast ~-20, some sm adj with black, white, highlights on everything. Applied Adj brush twice. Erased most of the effect over knocker. CS6 Softlight blend @ 25%, a little Nik CPE soft focus, bit of sharpening.

The subject was a painted metal door on a house in Arnhem, The Netherlands with lots of nice reflections. I like the soft out of focus look and the muted colors, but I'm not sure about the crop. I'd like the knocker to be less centered, but I want to keep the touch of blue in the UR & UL. The full frame shows a panel on the left and one on the right. At first I thought they would add to the effect, but for now, I've decided against including them.

As the ramblings above probably indicate, CC much appreciated.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Doug, I like the reflections and earthy colors a lot. An alternative crop could be some from the bottom leaving just the top of the darker blue and some of the green and then cropping from the left (you can always move the blue over so that it's included in the image). But since it's a door knocker I don't have a problem with it being centered.

[Mitch Carucci]

Wonderful liquid, flowing colors.

[John Storjohann]

Doug, this is another surreal image; it looks like a reflection on water, or something emerging from beneath the surface of the water...very unique processing. If it were mine, I'd take a sliver from the right...just so you remove that white/light blue sliver in the URC..and then some off of the bottom, much like how Cheryl suggested. Tough call though..there are so many compositional elements in the colors and textures...it has a lot of possibilities for cropping, each one with a different tone and feel to the final image.

[denise ippolito]

Ditto John for me! "If it were mine, I'd take a sliver from the right...just so you remove that white/light blue sliver in the URC..and then some off of the bottom, much like how Cheryl suggested." Very beautiful colors, it reminds me of a watercolored pastel!