Whitby Abbey

a couple of shots from whitby abbey this weekend , c&c welcome.
[IMG]http://i484.photobucket.com/albums/rr203/timritaharry/whitbycopy-1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i484.photobucket.com/albums/rr203/timritaharry/IMGP2682_edited-1.jpg[/IMG]

The first one has nice light on the stonework and the verticals are all vertical. I am less sure about the framing though and would be tempted to try a square crop just including the two windows. Either make the photograph very symmetrical, or very asymetrical.

The second one doesn't work for me I am afraid. The light is flat in this one (not much you could do about that I suppose) but you could fix the badly sloping horizon and the slight converging verticals caused by tilting the camera up.

With converging verticals either try to eliminate them or have very strong ones for effect. I am probably getting a reputation for moaning about converging verticals so you should probably ignore me, but I do feel they are a good way of spoiling a nice photograph!

Best wishes, Kris.

The first one I find different and powerful. I like it. Well done in seeing something unusual in terms of composition.

The second one is leaning very heavily and needs something more to make it a great image. There's a more powerful shot from the other side of the pond, including some reflection in the water. This one is a bit drab for me.

I like the composition of the 1st, is it me though or does it look slightly out of focus - particularly the centre column?

I agree with previous comments on the 2nd, doesn't quite work for me

Simon

Another vote for the first one,

I like the effect of the sun lighting the walls and the moody sky behind, and I quite like the composition. I do agree with simonkit the front pillar looks a bit out of focus.

The Second pic as Womble and John have already mentioned doesn't work for me.

Regards
PaulM

Also a vote for number 1 - altough it looks a little soft. As womble said, perhaps a Square crop would work well?

thanks for everyones constructive thoughts ,i wish i could have had more time (i was with the missus and a few relatives), would like to go back on my own sometime. ive just had a look at the first image (raw capture)and it looks much sharper before i uploaded to photobucket and then to the forum. does photobucket alter the image in any way or is it just me seeing things ?
regards, tim.

Far better to resize before you upload than let the website do it for you.

Tim,

To my eyes there is a distinct difference in sharpness between the first and second shots, so it may not all be due to the resizing that happens on upload?

Hmmmm, I kind of like the potential in the second one.
I gave it my 5 minute work over. Hope you don't mind, if so I'll remove it immediately.

I took care of the verticals and gave it a more brooding atmosphere by converting it to a semi-toned B&W. I was surprised about the amount of detail I could pull out of the sky, with this low res. jpeg.

i like it , thanks malo, tim.

Martin has breathed new life into that second picture with a B&W approach, and made it work a treat. I really like what the B&W tones have done, instead of my eye being lost and distracted in the lacklustre colours my eyes are now focused more on the form of the abbey and its relationship with its counterpart on the right side.

And those birds?! Those birds have certainly been alarmed it looks like, providing great drama which also works well in B&W. Definatly one for the wall, methinks.