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Keeping Prague Moving
Keeping Prague Moving
George


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Powerlines (Advanced Editing VII)
Collection: 2009-2011 Challenges (Chronological)
Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II
Location: Prague, CZ
Date: Dec 1, 2009
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/125 sec
Galleries: Urban, Street
Date Uploaded: Dec 5, 2009

Not the usual power lines, I know.

Progressive-loading JPEG only to cut down on the KB

Expected criticism: too dark, too boring.

Post:
Wow, better score than expected. Not the best ranking, but that's okay. It was my last day in Prague, and my girlfriend really liked these specific buildings so she told me to take a few shots. I'd forgotten to change the metering from EV -2 (for a previous shot) and I was metering for the buildings, so it came out quite dark. I didn't shoot for this challenge, but as soon as I saw "Powerlines" I thought this might work as an entry that's a bit different from the rest. The original is kind of dull, so the post processing did quite a bit to bring out the colors.

Statistics
Place: 46 out of 88
Avg (all users): 5.6181
Avg (commenters): 6.0000
Avg (participants): 5.4878
Avg (non-participants): 5.6699
Views since voting: 666
Views during voting: 247
Votes: 144
Comments: 4
Favorites: 0


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AuthorThread
12/20/2009 02:21:52 PM
Greetings from the Critique Club

Let me start out with what I like about this photo (and is what the other comments have already stated). The colors really take this shot from a lower 5 to a higher 5. The color scheme is "complimentary" which simply means the colors in the photo are across from each other on the color wheel. That makes the contrast really high between the orange building, blue-grey building and blue sky. The other element that makes this photo exciting is all the great repeating patterns. The foreground white lines on the cross walk, the windows and crosses in the windows, and the building itself.

Unfortunately the very elements that make this photo great probably bring the votes down for the challenge. I like to break the story of a photo down to 3 elements, Main subject, Supporting Elements, and Background. In your photo the building is the main subject. The power lines, street, bus, cars, signs, and people are the supporting elements, and the blue sky is the background. I think it is the fact that the power lines are only supporting elements (in my humble opinion) that kept this from being in the 6 range.

As far as the technical aspect, I don't see anything that would majorly affect your score. There are halos around the power lines from sharpening, but it would be very hard to avoid that in this situation. Another thing to consider would be opening up the aperture. I'm not familiar with the 18-55 lens you used, but most zoom lenses are not as sharp stopped down. You could safely hand hold down to 1/60th at 55mm on that lens and get a couple of extra stops on your aperture. I know on my 18-55 canon lens it is much sharper between f8 and f11. If it were me I would also go up to ISO 400 or even 800 to get that particular lens up to its "sweet spot". I am not suggesting that you needed more DOF, only that the technicals of the lens would have been better. I donĂ¢€™t mind the darkness of the photo at all and donĂ¢€™t think the voters did either. The great contrast and the good range in tonal values tells the voter that you had good control over the exposure.

To sum up, I like this photo and do not consider it too dark or boring in any way. 5.6181 is a good score here at DPC and the only thing it needed to be higher would be to make the power lines more prominent as Wolf stated in his comment. Of course that would completely change the photo and would then be a different story all-together, but would meet the challenge more!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
12/11/2009 12:42:48 PM
Great color. It's amazing that these lines can all fit!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
12/07/2009 07:57:57 PM
Neat colors. KFC lol. This made an interesting image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
12/07/2009 05:07:20 PM
Good capture. Nice colours. Maybe a different angle would have made the lines more prominent?
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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