I love this picture, but for my own personal reasons I wont go in to (long story), I cant post it in the galleries. But, it should not cause any trouble here. Rest assured, its mine, a recent one too. This is looking out a window from a big old Victorian style house built in the mid 1800s. The old indoor wooden shutters are original, and the view of the estate looks like the Southern USA in the mid 1800s too. Question: Should I crop the top some? And, should I darken the shutters a little? I did some PS work to bring them out more, but I dont want them to distract too much from the window view. Hope you like! marshall

hope you don't mind, it would have takent too long to explain so i did this.

Pictures appear to me, I shoot them.   Elliot Erwitt

firestorm, I had to put both of these in Photoshop to fully see what you've done, which seems to be (not sure of the exact terminology) a gradual widening towards the top half and re-cropping some too. You also took out a bit of the shutter at the top left. This gets rid of the distortion of the wide-angle lens effect of the window narrowing towards the top, but seems to make the image flatter. I sort of liked the angle of the window. This is a VERY tall window, and your effect, while an excellent job (I'd love to know how you did that) seems to take away from that tallness feeling. I guess depending on what you like, that could be either good or bad. It does seem to give a better view of the outside. Thanks much! Any other opinions on what to do will be appreciated.

To me: no need to crop on top .. but give it a try .. hard to imagine that before for i don't know how much you'd like to crop. Some darkening on the shutters may be a good idea .. but on this one too: please post a second shot to show how much you have in mind. And, as Firestorm already did, some perspective correction is necessary (but to me, he did to much of it). Dunno if this is of any help to you ... Ohh, btw.: like the view out of that window too.

So much you can do with such a beautiful shot! I would correct the perspective a tiny bit, and lighten up the area outside (but this depends lots on monitors).

you've got some wonderful suggestions... i just luv the subject matter... & find it beautiful too... as is :]

Misha been a while since weve talked. I like the perspective change you did. Looks to be about halfway between the original and what firestorm did. Also, I like the sepia effect. Didnt think of that but it fits in well with the old theme. Ive seen perspective demos here in the past, but never picked up on it. Is there a tutorial somewhere here on that? I gotta learn that one! Thanks!

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/~photo/newweb/index.htm

There's a nifty perspective tutorial at the link:

Thanks! I've been needing to learn that.

I don't think I'd crop the top - at least leave in the window stile - otherwise it may syart looking more like a door. Just my 2 cents.