Autumn trees

autumn is ace isn't it? All this colour to play with. Main thing here is the metal wheel thing - should we be making more of this point of interest? You've tucked it away in the corner really - its a bit outside the usual "rule of thirds" position. So maybe I'd have been tempted to walk up a bit closer to it, and get it leading the eye in towards the trees. Use the curve so it takes you in from the bottom right of the shot and delivers the eye into the lovely trees? With the shot as it is, the sky isn't really adding much, so I'd suggest you crop that out and fill the backgroud with the trees, also the wall to the right bottom corner isn't adding to the shot and you could easily clone that out by copying grass over it. Cropping will also allow the wheel thing to have more dominance in the shot

autumn is ace isn't it? All this colour to play with.

Main thing here is the metal wheel thing - should we be making more of this point of interest? You've tucked it away in the corner really - its a bit outside the usual "rule of thirds" position. So maybe I'd have been tempted to walk up a bit closer to it, and get it leading the eye in towards the trees. Use the curve so it takes you in from the bottom right of the shot and delivers the eye into the lovely trees?

With the shot as it is, the sky isn't really adding much, so I'd suggest you crop that out and fill the backgroud with the trees, also the wall to the right bottom corner isn't adding to the shot and you could easily clone that out by copying grass over it.

Cropping will also allow the wheel thing to have more dominance in the shot

Hello, Peter. I started a mod, but had to take the dog for a walk. On my return, I see that Ade has critiqued. Never mind, we are thinking alike. I like the mod you have done yourself. You say it was an overcast day, but there is still some obvious light there, especially on the top of the wheel and parts of the trees. However, the sky behind the trees is quite bland, which couldn't be helped on a day like that. I can see part of a wall in front of the foreground green area, and wonder if you could have got a good angle on that, by standing back a bit, and using it as a lead-in to the very interesting wheel structure. I think you have placed the wheel quite well, which caused me a problem when cropping, because your positioning is better than mine, lol. Anyway, I cropped all sides, concentrating attention upon the most colourful trees and the wheel, removing the bareness of the grassed area. I selected the sky areas and darkened them to bring some slight colour into them. I added a touch of contrast but didn't want to go too far because you had already saturated the colours. I used the dodge tool on the lower parts of the trees, just to lighten them and accentuate all the autumn colours that were available. As you had already sharpened the image, I just selected the wall and made a bit more of a feature of it by using "clarify" and selective sharpening. Hope you feel it's ok and that you might be able to do the same yourself. Pamela.

Hello, Peter. I started a mod, but had to take the dog for a walk. On my return, I see that Ade has critiqued. Never mind, we are thinking alike. I like the mod you have done yourself. You say it was an overcast day, but there is still some obvious light there, especially on the top of the wheel and parts of the trees. However, the sky behind the trees is quite bland, which couldn't be helped on a day like that. I can see part of a wall in front of the foreground green area, and wonder if you could have got a good angle on that, by standing back a bit, and using it as a lead-in to the very interesting wheel structure. I think you have placed the wheel quite well, which caused me a problem when cropping, because your positioning is better than mine, lol. Anyway, I cropped all sides, concentrating attention upon the most colourful trees and the wheel, removing the bareness of the grassed area. I selected the sky areas and darkened them to bring some slight colour into them. I added a touch of contrast but didn't want to go too far because you had already saturated the colours. I used the dodge tool on the lower parts of the trees, just to lighten them and accentuate all the autumn colours that were available. As you had already sharpened the image, I just selected the wall and made a bit more of a feature of it by using "clarify" and selective sharpening. Hope you feel it's ok and that you might be able to do the same yourself.
Pamela.