I took this photo last month - the levels, colour balance etc are all as original. Yes, it did look as washed out as this! I'm after comments on the composition, please. Thanx! Mike.

Duh! You want the picture AS WELL?!? Is there NO pleasing you people!?

It seems OK to me. I think you want something in the foreground. But I think the postition of the boat is fine. BTW. I scrolled the picture until the top of the stone wall equaled the top of the picture. It seemed to look better this way. You know what. I just re-looked at it. On second thought it lookes fine especially with the color from the sky and the color on the boat. So the color is fine. But I still think you may want to add somthing in the foreground. Bsteph

I agree, the foregroung was bit too empty. This fine piece was bit unbalanced. It could work, if you would have more sky as well, idea like two empty spaces (sky and mud) and boat in the middle. Vertical pic. And, im freak for b&w images, so just had to trie a fast one. Wonderful pic to work with. .n

Thanx - yeah, Alpha has come up with pretty much what I was going to do after reading Bsteph's comment. Unfortunately I didn't get one down the length, but I pass where it is at least once a week, and it isn't going anywhere in a hurry, so I'll see what I can do! ;-) Nice rendition of it, Antoonio. Better than the original I'd say! (",)

Funny that. I can never quite express what I think is wrong, or right, about compositions. I just 'see' them and if someone asks me why is it like this or why is it like that I can't give them any better answer than 'it looks right'. I've learned a little bit of theory on composition but it confused me. I don't think I can give any criticism cos I just don't know what words to use! My eyes can't type very well....

Hey Jordyart can I mess with this ona little....Make that a lot? I promise no fire or hands. =:-) > Bsteph

Marsh, if you know is the pic "right" or not, then you can comment. Just listen yourself, try to notice where you start watching the pic, where your gaze vanders and why. There are few basic rules, but rest is from you. There either is balance, or not. Sometimes, unbalanced pic is better that balanced. Depends what the artist wants to say. ...hmmm, could there be a change for quick tutorial... .n

Well, I know the basic rules...but I find myself breaking them all the time. What can I say..when I look at this pic my eyes wander from one end of the boat to the other, and back again, etc etc. Maybe if the angle had been a little bit different the boat would have been in a better perspective...ugh this is just too hard to explain! :-)

I know what you mean - strange - on my original, my eyes fix on the boat as a whole - on the cropped ones they wander along the top line of the boat, yet the cropped ones LOOK better....?!?! BSteph, Of course you can - did you REALLY need to ask?!? ;-) I think all of you 'regulars' know you can play about with any of my pics - it's if someone does the nicking & reposting thing I'll get offended, and I trust u guys way more than that! Unfortunately as Alpha found out, if someone's gonna do it, they won't exactly e-mail asking, yeah? (",)

Thanks Jordy, I have to ask though. It's only good manners. Thanks for saying yes. I'll try not to do too much to it. Bsteph

Hi Jordyart, Ok I'm done. I basically moved the brickwork starting at the ties upward to move the boat and the rest upwards. Then I repasted the dried seaweed upward as well. This made the picture smaller and moved the bost upwards without removing the more interesting parts of the picture which could be lost by cropping. Then I adjusted the colors with some selective lassowing. Making the seaweed and grass greener, the boat redder, the sky bluer, I also attempted to increase the water but that didn't work so I setteled on trying to make a morning fog instead. That's it. Bsteph

Hey - darn fine work on that wall! I could see a difference, but had to read your text to see exactly what it was! The colour change is nice too - makes the whole picture 'jump' out that little bit more. And good saving yourself with the 'fog' - probably just me, but it adds a touch of sureality to the pic - contrasts wierdly with the bright blue sky! (Maybe it's coz I'm used to the miserable grey sky we actually see here!) Thanx (",)