Union Presbyterian Church sitting on the highest point in Allegheny County Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh can be seen about eight miles away (as the crow flies) from the parking lot behind the church. Shot was taken right after a severe weekend storm that came through. The cemetery is actually huge, taking up a very large and steep hillside. Some of those stones are really old.
Statistics
Place: 23 out of 112 Avg (all users): 6.0423 Avg (commenters): 6.4000 Avg (participants): 5.3800 Avg (non-participants): 6.2806 Views since voting: 1076 Views during voting: 317 Votes: 189 Comments: 19 Favorites: 3 (view)
As I said during voting, I think you did a great job composing this shot. But it is clear from all the comments (especially those that you decided not to mark helpful) that this image really needed more contrast in the foreground. Had you adjusted that contrast and added a bit more blacks in, this could easily have been on the front page or been a ribbon winner.
Even though this is a basic challenge, there is a lot of processing you could have done (curves, levels, etc.) that could have done to balance out the shot. I took a look at your histogram of the photo and the dark slider could have been pushed over to increase the blacks and really make the shot 'pop' - all available to you in basic. If you want, I can show you the steps I used to adjust the image and the final results so you can compare for yourself.
People provided you some valuable and useful feedback and it is just a bit unfortunate that you didn't see it as helpful. Cheers.
I wondered if this was yours as I was pretty sure this was a PA church I saw way back when I was in high school.
Nice shot Paul, though I do agree with comments about needing more contrast.
Thanks for the wonderful comments. Although I've had this member account for years, this was my first (real) entry. And I am patting myself on the back for a strong finish.
There was a lot of comments on the lack of contrast. Because this was a basic editing challenge, I had to get the church perfectly right, otherwise it would of been a failure. I believed I achieved that while still giving the overall shot a feeling of foreboding.
I wish you had pulled the greys of the church and the tombstones a little lighter so they would stand out more. Otherwise, this is a very nice image. The compotition is perfect and the mood is wonderfully foreboding.
this, this takes my breath away - wonderful work, wonderful perspective (I thought of doing something like this but didn't have the subject to make it work) LOVE IT!!!
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