Testing new filters in the floods.

We sold a spare lens recently so that we could invest in some new Lee filters, mainly so I could try my hand and some landscapes.

Went out today to try them out in one of the local flooded fields, think this was with a 2 stop hard grad and big stopper.

As this is all new to me, all comments are welcome as I need to learn!

Looks great to me

Works very well indeed.

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Will have to remember not to upload using the forum next time as the compression looks awful!

Must get a set of wellies so that next time I can walk round the fallen tree on the left to get it out of shot!

Looks like it works a treat, great photo btw.

Fantastic shot. Love the composition. If I would change anything at all it would be to possibly crop more off the bottom, putting the horizon on the bottom third line.

I hope you don't mind, but I tried that just to see what it would look like (and also a minor curves tweak). Result is this (apologies for approximation of your watermark - I just didn't want to put up an unmarked version of your picture):




Man, I love your photo. If I saw it nicely framed or on a canvas in a shop it would make my wallet itch

A great image - agreed great comp

Love the composition, the only negative I can see with this shot is that it's a bit too dark in the top left corner, this tends to destroy the detail in the trees. It may have been better not to use the grad, but I'm not sure.

A really lovely shot.

Regards
David

@josiahk

Thanks for the feedback, don't mind you cropping and thanks for thinking of the water mark! Putting the horizon on the third is something that I would normally try to do but in this case as there is not normally any water there at all I really wanted to show the symmetry with the reflections and also the frost directly in front of me.

As the frost wasn't easy to see I've made it stand out a bit more on a different b&w treatment below




@david

Thanks for the comments, it definitely needed the grad on the right hand side as the sun directly behind me was breaking through patchy cloud and lighting up the trees on the right, the darkness on the left is actually a clear blue sky!

Do you prefer the different b&w treatment as I'm new to experimenting with mono landscapes!?

I do prefer the one above, it retains more detail in the dark areas, When there are trees without leaves in a scene like this I think it is important that the structure of the trees can clearly be seen, hence my original comment on the dark area.

Regards
David

I normally prefer more contrasty shots, but in this case I prefer the original. It's much more dreamy and evokes a better emotional response. ( annoying and distracting water excepted )

Lovely symmetry and reminded me of a bowling pin on it's side.

Classic example of why rules are nonsense. Applyng the "rule of thirds" in this instance has ruined the composition which was heavily supported by the 50:50 horizontal symmetry.
....
The original





.. sans watermark ( arrrghh! ) is great. You got it right first time. Don't mess with it anymore

@Unlocker

Interesting. The reason I had cropped is that I found the lower portion of the photo to be a little bland as compared to the rest. The second b&w treatment you have done has brought out much of the detail though, and there is now much interest right across the shot (I had not even really picked up on the frost to start with), plus retains the symmetry. It also highlights my rather crude curves adjustment (which I now regret). It does lose some of the pleasant dreamy atmosphere of the original though.

Not sure where that leaves me for a preference, lol.

@Smeggy

I agree that no "rules" of composition should be adhered to slavishly, but I totally stand by my right to apply thirds to the picture to see how it turns out, and for my money I find the result pleasing and not 'ruined'. Perfect symmetry is not achievable in that shot anyway due to the branches in the water on the left. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion though. Otherwise everyone would be pumping out the same stuff.