Most certainly - you're free to do whatever you want to change it and make it better and more acceptable. As I just told lighthouse, perhaps it isn't salvageable and the image should just be scrapped. Worse things have certainly happened to me through my many years of existence! :)

As for your changes, I think I honestly like the vertical crop the best with the wide crop coming in second and wide crop 2 third. The B&W just doesn't do much for me and comes in last; all by itself! However, all cause me 'great sorrow' since I seemed to have lost some aspects of the original that drew me into the photo to begin with - Hah!

I sure do appreciate you taking the time, St3v3M, to edit and send your works of art. They give me several different perspectives to look at and keep in mind. Hopefully you had a lot of fun and enjoyment - honestly - and it broke up this latter part of the day for you. It really can be fun to play around with images that aren't your own. It's a great time for experimentation. I know, because I like to do that to enhance my PP'ing skills, learn, and see what interesting productions I can end up with. :)

Thanks again. If you have any other thoughts or versions, let me know and feel free to post. :thumbup:

Tom

Hi Everyone,

I contemplated posting this for about a week, but finally decided to see what all of you have to say critiquing this image. I hope it gets posted since it is 31.5 MB.

I had to run an errand and knew I was running out of time to take this shot, so I headed out one early morning to try to catch the sun correctly. When I arrived, it was completely grey and overcast - bummer! I drove right on by another 40 miles and ran several errands. On my way back, the sun was slightly shining, so after finishing at my last stop, I went out of my way to arrive at this spot again. I got out of my car standing along the busy highway (speed limit is 70 mph), put on my blinkers, and stood in front of my car along the guard rail being blown every time a semi drove by! I snapped a few shots, and then saw the sun about to be at an optimum place in the clouds. I waited, and when I thought it was just about right, I pressed the shutter release button and this is what I ended up with.

I feel like it has a lot of varying quality features all in the same image. The way I included the sun star, some minor sun flare, the disappearing perspective of the highway initially being initiated by the guard rail and the rumble strip, the slow curvature of the road disappearing into the gap of the hills, the late fall and almost disappearing color of the leaves (just enough for color), the sun lighting the golden field to the left and counter balanced by the bright yellow tree(s) to the far distant right, the well lit guard rail on the front side and the dark shadow directly behind it (good contrast), the alternating light and dark vegetation, and the nice definition of the clouds amongst the light to dark deep blue sky from left to right. :) I just think it kind of all comes together and the area of the picture is really quite large, on a fairly mild downward slope which the wide angle lens has captured.

Taken with a Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, 15 mm, ISO 200, f/16, 1/640 sec, no flash, white balance = Shade, and spot metering (forgot to change it before taking the shot). Post processed some in ACR and Photoshop CC. Maybe just a tad in LR 5.2 - not sure. This image was not cropped at all.

OK, fellow photographers, have at it! Thanks ahead of time for all your thoughts, praises, constructive criticisms, and helpful suggestions. They are really appreciated. :)

Sincerely,
Tom