Which do you prefer...

[Terry]

This is a shot from early Sunday morning that I liked. It was such a beautiful morning and something about the old blue bug with the sky and water captured me. From a composition point of view there is a lot of open space. It doesn't bother me in the shot but I would like other opinions. I also did a pano type crop as an alternative...all comments and critiques welcome.


View attachment 3042



View attachment 3043

Thanks for looking,
terry

 

[Guy Mancuso]

I like the bottom one the V shape of the rocks lends itself really well to that crop. Nice shot

 

[Jack]

Definitely the top one for me... Has a more Zen quality to it, plus it shows the subtle pastel sky gradient more fully.

 

[Bob]

For me, I would crop off about a third of the left and the top.
OK, now you have it.
-bob

 

[Joan]

Very tough call, Terry. I like them both. I believe I'll vote for the original as I like the sense of freedom and peace that gives to the man and his bug.
Wonderful shot.

 

[TRSmith]

I think they both work but after staring at them for awhile, I like the sense of air and space in the full crop just a tad more.

 

[jaapv]

Maybe a little vignetting, to concentrate the image?

 

[Haya]

They are both great , but if I had to choose I'd go with the bottom one!

 

[jlm]

bottom crop from the bottom image, top crop from the top;
grounds the car better and shows the expanse of the sky by contrast

 

[Terry]

TR - my gut was saying big one so I am going to print it that way first.

Jaapv - very good point. When I get this ready for print i will be adding a bit of vignetting. I posted these as a work in progress but should make it a bit more completed next time! Jack has a great workflow that he taught us in Moab and Carmel and these images haven't been through most of the steps until I fiitured out which one to work on.

Haya - thanks. For me I think I'm going to start with the bigger one and have it for my office for when I want to day dream. But I'm sure I will end up printing the cropped version as well.

 

[Jack]

Terry, try centering the vignette at about the man on the bench ---

 

[thomasl.se]

Terry,

For me it's really no contest; the uncropped "flies", I think it's a lovely picture. I agree on vignetting, for which I would use NIK's darken/lighten center feature in Color Efex. Jack's center recommendation is looking good.

Thomas

 

[helenhill]

Terry , there both lovely but its the second shot that PULLS me in the most......Best,Helen

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Sorry I'm with Helen here. The bottom one screams composition and pulls me in more.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Except i would have left just a touch more room at the top to pull VW from being dead center on the horizon than i vignetted a little than lightened the car to jump more at you.

 

[thomasl.se]

Hm... the original pulls me in with vignetting, whereas the pano (I didn't try anything on it) is almost like a tube squeezing the bug back out. As a color picture, I think it's a mistake to cut away the colors reflected by the water: the pano feels cramped and cropped.

edit: I'm still talking about Terry's pano; not Guy's above.

Best rgds,
Thomas

 

[Jack]

As I said before, the top one, no question.

,

 

[Bob]

Terry,
On second look,yeah, it is the top one.
AND I like it very much.
-bob

 

[Terry]

Thanks All,
I completely missed that this bubbled back up yesterday. I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a printer and this is high on the list of shots that I want to print.

This shot is one that makes me want to move back to San Francisco....when I lived there Sunday morning I would take a coffee and the newspaper and drive over to Baker Beach pop open my beach chair and relax with the view of the Marin Headlands, the Golden Gate Bridge etc.

 

[MikeScecina]

Beautiful, Terry. I have to go with the top one also. I really like the tire tracks and detail in the foreground as well.

mike