Farm Ditch in Winter

[Tom Robbins]

It took a while, but sunshine finally reappeared after long spell of cold and clouds in the Midwest. Photographs with snow taken during this time lacked detail due to the soft light. As a result, today's blue sky was like opening a door of opportunity.

Ditch, view toward the west

Ditch, view toward the east
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Nothing fancy going on here, it's just a rural ditch photographed from a county gravel road from opposite directions around noon on a sunny January day. If there's any theme at all here, it might simply be an appreciation of sunshine in the dead of winter.

Thanks for looking, and for any suggestions regarding improvements.

 

[Rachel Foster]

Tom, you got it! Those are great.

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Thanks for looking, and for any suggestions regarding improvements.

Hi Tom,

Composition looks balanced to me, you might want to explore an S-curve to the image to boost contrast a bit, unless you're confident that the result is what you intended, a bit darkish rather than bright.

Cheers,
Bart

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Tom,

This is dramatic and even, may I say tectonic! This reminds me of the clefts in the rocks we get in California on the San Andreas fault lines. So you pictures aren't merely well balanced, as Bart says, but in a way also awesome and humbling. When I see this, it makes me remember we're just visitors here!

Asher

 

[Tom Robbins]

All, thank you very much for your generous comments!

Bart, I recently moved all photo processing to a new PC and CS4. I've yet to calibrate the monitor, my old reliable RAW converter (Raw Shooter Premium - 2006) doesn't work with my 5D MKII files, and some of the tools used with CS3 didn't make the transition to CS4 on the new PC. And, I've yet to calibrate my eyeballs to the new screen and software. Those are my excuses, and I'm sticking to them until I can up with with better ones.

Seriously, you're right; judicious adjustments at the right side of the curve will bring in some pizzazz to both shots. I'd hate to lose any highlight detail, so will postpone making changes until I'm more familiar with the new workspace.