Does this work?

[Wicked Dark]

Does anyone else have this problem? You look through a batch of photos and immediately sort them into keepers, junk and we'll see. The first two are pretty obvious and the latter usually end up segregating themselves into one of the first two buckets. My problem is an image that I keep going back to without making a decision about it. Sometimes I'll mess with it in Lightroom to see if I can rearrange things or wake up things enough to jog my memory as to why I even took it in the first place.

This is such a photo - I did a bit of tweaking in terms of contrast and cropped it slightly, but I still don't know about it.

http://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Nature/Its-not-as-cold-as-it-looks/P2173488/791370222_GrcJY-XL.jpg

I won't tell you why I like it or don't, but await your thoughts.

[Wicked Dark]

Wow. It's either so stunningly perfect that you're all speechless and green with envy or it's so wretchedly terrible that you've all had your eyeballs removed so as not to endanger them with it again.

[Richard]

Hi Wicked, Not sure with this one (which is why I didn't comment before.) I don't immediately like it, but at the same time I couldn't tell you what was especially wrong with it.

I think if I was looking through a book of your best photos, or shots that you are proud of this wouldn't feature. So unless it of personal significance I wouldn't class it as a keeper.

Saying that, I think my standards are improving the more I practice, and their are shots in my library that at the time I thought were keepers, which now I would bin, but I like to have that record of personal progress.

[Marko]

With the caveat that I'm looking at this on my very inferior laptop monitor..

As I scrolled down, I thought meh.
when I got to the bottom for me I saw the form of a man which makes the image stronger, for sure.
If that too is what you saw...I see the issue - the lighting...hard lighting to deal with. So- if this were mine....I would mess with it further in PP. I'd probably dodge the dark midsection and burn in around the 'form' even more.
If I'm off about 'the form' then woops - it could be that strong Guinness I had w/A.L. last night.
Hope that helps -Marko

[jlabel]

Its a soft and nice picture, tho that said, this is very boring if you stare at it for more than 5 minutes.

[Wicked Dark]

Ok points made, but almost anything is boring after 5 minutes.

[Bambi]

Wow. It's either so stunningly perfect that you're all speechless and green with envy or it's so wretchedly terrible that you've all had your eyeballs removed so as not to endanger them with it again.

lol. colour me conflicted. First off I have photos exactly like that: not sure to keep or not. I can definitely see why you took it. I would have too. I am thinking that a tighter crop to focus on the branches might work. Or you could try some artography :) in the end you may find that chucking it would give you less to think about :)

[Wicked Dark]

heh. It's probably one of those that works better in a series than solo. Taken with the rest of what I shot Wed morning, it goes a long way to convey time of day, conditions and the overall feel of my little forest bog. Those blue shadows and white highlights aren't retouched, morning sun is like that and capturing the duality and the softness was what I was after. Like I said, probably better with the set. Thanks for the input and ideas.

[Jason]

I would have had the same thoughts that you had WD. The light is fairly dramatic, and probably paired with the other shots you took, it would fit nicely. The subject matter is just not terribly exciting standing alone.

It's funny because I just had the same conflicted feelings about a shot I took two days ago. I was just messing around with it in PS and posted it to Flickr. I looked at it once and then deleted it. Guess lots of us go through that! :headslap:

[casil403]

See first thing I thought of is how would it look in BW? You might get more interesting contrast b/w the snow and the shadows. Right now I can see why you took it as I probably would have as well...and I like the glints in the snow, but as it is right now, it's not grabbing me....sorry. :sad:

[Wicked Dark]

It's ok folks...my approach is often on the subtle side and sometimes it doesn't translate.