Stagmont Railway Track


niunai

New Member
Jul 28, 2008
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4852068634_1097f4a1c1.jpg


Dear CSers,

Please feel free to comment and tell me which area need to be improved. Critiques are also welcome, but please try not to be too harsh. Thanks
Using d90 with kit lens

1.in what area is critique to be sought?

- I took this picture in aperture priority mode (f/4.8), using shallow depth of field to make the picture more interesting. what is your opinion on this?

- I purposely take the train direction pole tilted so everything in the picture is not straight and horizontal. this way the picture wont look too boring. should I have the pole straight up? Or is it tilted too much?

2.what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?

- as you can see, only a small part of the track is shown, I hope that by just showing this essential part, people will know it is the railway track without reading my thread title. do you think i have achieve this?

- i was pondering whether to have the picture black and white or tinted with yellowish colour, i chose yellowish tint because i felt that in this way, i can bring out the feeling "old place" what is your opinion on this?

3.under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)

- this was taken in the evening, around 6pm to 615pm. This was on purpose, as i read from books, this time the sun will not be too bright and striking. however, i still feel that the sky is too bright? what do you think?
 

just my personal opinion

1. there seems to be a little yellow tint to the image and overall low contrast which IMHO hurts the image (suspect its the way you metered)

2. the slight tilt does not seem to straighten anything in the image nor does it invoke any dramatics

3. (this point is VERY personal, so its strictly my opinion) the OOF foreground is distracting (to me) and despite the bokeh it feels cluttered

Good Points (yes there is).....

1. you tried something different
2. good idea working from a low perspective... just did not seem to pull it off
 

just my personal opinion

1. there seems to be a little yellow tint to the image and overall low contrast which IMHO hurts the image (suspect its the way you metered)

2. the slight tilt does not seem to straighten anything in the image nor does it invoke any dramatics

3. (this point is VERY personal, so its strictly my opinion) the OOF foreground is distracting (to me) and despite the bokeh it feels cluttered

Good Points (yes there is).....

1. you tried something different
2. good idea working from a low perspective... just did not seem to pull it off

hello

thanks for your opinion.
but can i ask you something?

i purposely tint it yellowish to make it have the feel of old and unuse tracks. do you mean i over tint it? what do you mean regarding the meter?

so do you mean the slight tilt of the pole is fine in the picture? or should i take it in a way where the pole is straight so the overall feel of the picture is better?

actually i got another picture which the foreground is not out of focus. but somehow i feel that the picture kind of focus too much on the track itself. i really not sure abt this. any opinion?

sorry if i ask stupid question. i really take serious consideration regarding your comments as they are definitely a learning point to me.

lastly thanks for your praise... greatly appreciated.
 

hello

i purposely tint it yellowish to make it have the feel of old and unuse tracks. do you mean i over tint it? what do you mean regarding the meter?

so do you mean the slight tilt of the pole is fine in the picture? or should i take it in a way where the pole is straight so the overall feel of the picture is better?

actually i got another picture which the foreground is not out of focus. but somehow i feel that the picture kind of focus too much on the track itself. i really not sure abt this. any opinion?

sorry if i ask stupid question. i really take serious consideration regarding your comments as they are definitely a learning point to me.

lastly thanks for your praise... greatly appreciated.

if you intentionally want an old feel to it, yes that yellow tint will help somewhat..... build in a little bit of vignetting too if u can..... but I'm no good at PP past basic steps so hopefully others can help advise

about metering...... again personal preference .... I normally like to meter to avoid blown-out whites because thats very hard to recover in post processing... but sometimes hard to avoid. And I am a contrast junkie so take what i say with that in mind

Tilts do work ..... but they have to achieve an effect or 'say' something. Not knowing you, that effect should achieve (IMHO) more visual impact . BUT if I know you well, know who you, have an idea what goes on in your mind are, know what you stand for etc etc etc ..... THEN that tilt is open to deeper interpretation on what you are trying to say.

Foreground out of focus or in focus, bokeh or no bokeh these are all 'ways' of making a pic 'talk'

ok have a good day......... this is a little heavy for me at 9am in the morning :)

ed
 

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if you intentionally want an old feel to it, yes that yellow tint will help somewhat..... build in a little bit of vignetting too if u can..... but I'm no good at PP past basic steps so hopefully others can help advise

about metering...... again personal preference .... I normally like to meter to avoid blown-out whites because thats very hard to recover in post processing... but sometimes hard to avoid. And I am a contrast junkie so take what i say with that in mind

Tilts do work ..... but they have to achieve an effect or 'say' something. Not knowing you, that effect should achieve (IMHO) more visual impact . BUT if I know you well, know who you, have an idea what goes on in your mind are, know what you stand for etc etc etc ..... THEN that tilt is open to deeper interpretation on what you are trying to say.

Foreground out of focus or in focus, bokeh or no bokeh these are all 'ways' of making a pic 'talk'

ok have a good day......... this is a little heavy for me at 9am in the morning :)

ed

Really appreciate your patient.

I totally agree with you that the sky is blown out. This is something i really need to pay attention to.
There is much more for me to learn and how i make the picture to speak for itself :D

Good day ahead
 

I won't comment on processing because you can always change it any time and different people have different tastes.

On shooting, I believe some things can be improved:
The sky is blown out due to overexposure
The HDB alone is all right, but I think the pole is distracting and obstrusive.
More of the tracks should be shown.

I personally feel that you can make use of the parallel track lines to guide your viewer's eyes to....something you want to show.

You made a good attempt to employ depth of field to blur out the tracks and leave the HDB sharp. The tilt is an interesting start. To me, there is no right or wrong about tilts, as long as the picture is not too difficult to view and the picture doesn't look ridiculous.

Hope this helps :)
 

I won't comment on processing because you can always change it any time and different people have different tastes.

On shooting, I believe some things can be improved:
The sky is blown out due to overexposure
The HDB alone is all right, but I think the pole is distracting and obstrusive.
More of the tracks should be shown.

I personally feel that you can make use of the parallel track lines to guide your viewer's eyes to....something you want to show.

You made a good attempt to employ depth of field to blur out the tracks and leave the HDB sharp. The tilt is an interesting start. To me, there is no right or wrong about tilts, as long as the picture is not too difficult to view and the picture doesn't look ridiculous.

Hope this helps :)

thank thanks... your comment seem more like a compliment =)
There are other photo which i took show large amount of the tracks in parallel. I will post them for critique after this photo.

erm, I admit i shoot the pole on purpose, because I thought it would be obvious it is a train track direction pole, and portray the idea that this is taken at the railway track.
but like what you said, showing more railway track will make the idea " this is photo is taken at railway track" more prominent. Heed your advice...
 

1. taking portrait gives me a claustrophobic feeling. i would have taken landscape instead to allow the photo to develop. the diagonal tracks may give the photo a more powerful composition.

2. as ed pointed out on the tilt, your buildings seems to be falling backwards. this photo would have work straight with the tracks diagonally as above.

3. the skies are overblown. try either one of remedial action 1) take the other side of the tracks so it is away from the light or 2) taking in late afternoon/evening with the sunset
 

The world is falling to the left.
Good to experiment, but try changing another angle. Prefer shooting it straight and keeping it a bit more plain. The railways track is shown, but I rather prefer shooting it across(Landscape) or leading line. (Personal preference)
 

Now that you mentioned it, it seems like falling to the left. LOL
maybe i should shoot later in the evening. this pic was taken ard 6pm to 615pm.
i do have straight and parallel angle shot for the track. the tilt was a new try out.
anyway thanks =)
 

1.in what area is critique to be sought?

Just feel that TS must able to convince himself that the shot is well taken and is worth to be commented. If simply taken a shot and ask for critique is wasting everybody time and effort.
Just my 2 cents of thought
 

1.in what area is critique to be sought?

Just feel that TS must able to convince himself that the shot is well taken and is worth to be commented. If simply taken a shot and ask for critique is wasting everybody time and effort.
Just my 2 cents of thought

erm, are you trying to say i am lack of confidence? do not really firm of what i am doing? =)
 

erm, are you trying to say i am lack of confidence? do not really firm of what i am doing? =)

Am trying to say... is this the best shot that you had taken and you wanna to ask for critique to improve?
 

it is one of the better shots that i like and experimenting the idea of tilting.
 

1.in what area is critique to be sought?

Just feel that TS must able to convince himself that the shot is well taken and is worth to be commented. If simply taken a shot and ask for critique is wasting everybody time and effort.
Just my 2 cents of thought

I don't think this is just limited to displaying shots which are what you considered to be your best. I think its fine if it is a shot that any TS wishes to seek opinions on to improve.

That said, how is your critique constructive?
 

Just some thoughts:

  • The railway track itself can be used as a leading line in the photo, so instead of having the building as the background, a line leading into the distant maybe more dramatic.
  • Lowering the perspective is a good idea.
  • Add some noise into the picture or purposely increase the ISO may give a more nostalgic feel to it.
 

maybe we should hear the reason for TS to slant the image? from there i think we can better explain when to slant with examples?

i find the 1st "wood rest" for the tracks right at the bottom abit heavy & distracting. if TS tilt the cam upwards to omit it, more of the pole structure can be included (now cut off quite abruptly).

like others mentioned, it is quite flat, can up contrast.

the effect is not "dirty" enough to look old school. maybe adding frame with "white gear teeth" pointing outwards + vignet + "scratching lines" + dirt patches helps?

but the other thing i feel if the frame is white is that the sky will blends into it.:think:
 

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