[aine-caitlin]

I took this picture at the Botanic Garden here and was trying to get a different perspective on this much-photographed spot. I'm posting two different versions of it - one with minimal processing and one with more processing. Any comments or ideas are welcome.

[Wedding Shooter]

What a lovely image.

I think I would prefer something in between the two in terms of the processing. I am also finding the large rock in the foreground slightly to dominating in the image.

Perhaps a slightly warmer white balance on the first image would make all the difference in terms of colour.

But it is a beautiful spot - I can just imagine putting a bridal party into that scene

[DJ1234]

I like the surreal effect of the second image. However, I've tried to do similar stuff and everyone tells me I've gone too far. But, that's what I like. I prefer the second though and would be interested to know how you got such intense colors.

D.J.

[Zig]

Never listen to Chris when he talks about largeness of rocks: he shoots weddings.

I think that your composition is perfect for a wideangle shot: I definitely would have(and do) take 'em like this.
The low viewpoint lends an originality to the treatment, enabling the viewer to esplore tones, textures and repeating themes; this is an example of someone using a wideangle to good creative effect, IMO.
Large rocks,er....rock!
Now, I do like a tad of diffusion..and whereas I find this effect works well in mono, I'm not sure here. However, it does work well when the horizon is softened by a large-ish aperture...I'm guessing f5.6 here on a lens I'm guessing to be the equivalent of a 28mm on 35mm??(Maybe showing myself up here!)I'm a bit thrown too by the dicontinuity in colour...it sorta stops me as I find there is an unstated barrier between cool and warm colours here: I'm expeiencing the lines drawing me in but the colour blocks freezing me out..if ya see what I mean?? I wonder if you could do the stock landie thing of simulating a warm-up filter by going to photo-filter, adding maybe 30% of an 85 filter(or doing it as another layer so as to play about a bit)?
BUTand the reason I've chanced writing a lot here), I really think you've taken a lovely shot here: you've a naturally creative eye and I so want to see more of your stuff!!!
Oh, and that's a gorgeous Irish name btw!

[Irma]

#1
Placing the big rock in your foreground is good idea. Some color is missing to shine those autum trees in the background. Working more your contrast between (warm cold colors) with the blue in the rocks also would look well. You might like to work as well a bit more the texture and detail of the big rock to grap attention, as your composition places it as your main subject in the picture.

#2
I like this treatment very much but I think the picture has more posibilities without soft focus and giving more texture and colors as I mentioned before.

[Toad]

Hi - well now for my 2 bits... I like the textures and definition of the foreground rocks in #1 but I prefer the dreamy, translucent qualities of the background (bridge, stream, foliage) in #2. I would like to see a combination of the 2. You might have to fade back the luminosity or mess with the densities of the 2 layers a bit to make the combination more cohesive. In PhotoShop, this would be quite easily done with masks and layers - not sure how that would be done in Paint Shop Pro.

Well done! I like to see people do variations on a theme.

[aine-caitlin]

Thanks to all of you for your input. I used a plug-in filter called Aetherize to get the look in the second photo. I was afraid I had made it a bit too dark. I was going for a dreamy look, but not uninviting. But you’ve given me some great ideas here that I can use to play around with the shot a little more and see if I can come up with something in between the two that I’m more satisfied with.