The photo: Stopped for this shot while driving home in the rain today.
Attached my Cokin polarizer and gradient filter to darken the sky and adjust the bright spots. Handheld.
Processing: RAW Conversion with CS4, b/w conversion with hue/sat, contrast boost, levels, curves, USM at large radius, resize, Adamus Sharpening, Save for web.
The comments: Germaine's and others comments about the border is right on the money - I did not take the time to consider alternatives and should have....
As some have stated about the levels of details in the shot, I could not 'lengthen' this image any more - i was already at 800pix acress. I really felt that I could not crop the image down any because I feel I needed to maintain the foreground grasses that anchor the entire shot. The black letterbox frame does not negatively effect the level of details I was able to show, but I think it tended to overwhelm the details I did have. Simply adding a single line of grey above and below the image seems to have really improved it...(thanks glad2badad)...as shown here:
Oh, and this one ROCKS at full resolution....
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this is an incredible image and i like the frame despite the lower quality in the details, but i agree the details are would be more interesting if it could be larger
Ugh - I WISH this photo was larger. And, in this way, I think the border hurts you a little bit, because all the beautiful details (water drops and plants) are scrunched due to the limit of resolution. I don't hate the border - just don't feel it works in this photo - particularly this photo online. I would love to see a full version of this.
See, I disagree with "the limit of resolution". The image may have worked best at this aspect ratio/crop. Maybe there wasn't anything of interest above or below what's presented. By using the full 800px in width nothing really was lost in the details.
I agree that the border doesn't help with the dark tones...although it may have worked with just a one pixel grey line between the image and the letterbox. ???
Ugh - I WISH this photo was larger. And, in this way, I think the border hurts you a little bit, because all the beautiful details (water drops and plants) are scrunched due to the limit of resolution. I don't hate the border - just don't feel it works in this photo - particularly this photo online. I would love to see a full version of this.
Nice ripples in the water from the raindrops... lots to explore in this shot, but almost too much. A narrower focus on the textures and lines might be interesting (thought it wouldn't have fit the challenge as well). Nicely done!
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