Given that the West Midlands in the UK isn't really the sort of place you would choose to shoot a sunrise or sunset, I figured I'd better get a shot of something that doesn't try to compete with the beautiful HDR ocean coastlines I'm sure we'll see as part of this challenge.
I'm not sure it's perfectly in focus but I shot it as I stood in the road on a blind bend on a country lane so using a tripod wasn't really an option.
Given the anticipated quality of the other entries, if this gets more than a 5 I'll be delighted.
In terms of editing - a crop, Neatimage, USM, some desaturation of everything other than yellow and that's about it.
[Dec. 8th, 2008 07:22:05 AM]
Clarification - by 'more than a 5' I mean a >5.000 not >5.999.
Statistics
Place: 134 out of 167 Avg (all users): 5.0864 Avg (commenters): 6.6250 Avg (participants): 4.8108 Avg (non-participants): 5.3182 Views since voting: 1306 Views during voting: 297 Votes: 162 Comments: 12 Favorites: 1 (view)
First impression: The sun is clearly the first thing that grabs your attention here, and with the position in the sky it seems to fit the challenge. The lack of color is surprising for this challenge, but something different is also refreshing. I like the different tones of the headstones, it helps to set them apart and give depth to the photo. I don't know if it's processing or just the way the photo was shot, but the background trees are jagged, and the foreground has an odd texture about it. The photo isn't something I would hang on my wall, but I applaud the uniqueness of it within the context of this challenge.
Further reflections: After reading your comments, I'm glad that you went in to this with the understanding that it may not score well, but you were willing to take a chance with it anyway as an out of the box type of shot. It may not have scored high (though it did get over your 5.0!), but it garnered a favorite, and some very favorable comments from voters who appreciated its uniqueness!
To improve: I realize you didn't have a lot of flexibility to set up this shot considering where it was taken, but I might have played with the shutter speed a bit, choosing something just a bit faster to keep the sun from being so bright, but while keeping the headstones still nicely exposed. As far as processing, maybe the funny texture I mentioned above came from the neat image?
I hope you found this critique helpful. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
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