Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

I am expecting plenty of criticism on this, don't hold back :-)

Some info on the church:
http://www.spaldwick.com/history-of-spaldwick-church

Graham

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

It will take someone far more skilled than I to offer much criticism. It's a flawlessly sharp and finely detailed capture, with marvelous colors conveying the cool temperature in a touch of warm light. I wish the steeple were not touching the ceiling so to speak, and had a bit more room. The steeple seems out of proportion to the church but with the age of the thing, that is probably typical. Did you have much work to do to correct the verticals? I can only imagine how it would challenge me, but my camera is quite cruel that way. Knowing that about my camera and my skills, I'd have shot vertical to give myself and the steeple some room, and it still would be looking strange I suspect. If it were my photo I'd probably get rid of the little modern trappings along the road line on the right, a rail type of thing and what looks like part of a car.

It's quite a lovely image, one that puts the viewer into the "feel" of the scene and gives plenty to explore.

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

Thanks minniev. I didn't need to do much correction for distortion, I rotated it slightly about the horizontal axis to remove the "falling back" of the tower and just a shade anti clockwise rotation to compensate for the pint I had with my lunch in the village pub ;-)

Graham

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

Minniev puts this very well. I have little to add, except there are some artifacts on the sides of the steeple visible at high magnification. In normal view they are not noticeable. I could not find a car, but the horizontal white line to the right of the church doesn't add anything and should probably be removed. Other than these tiny things and giving the steeple a little more sky at its top, this is a brilliant photo. Love it!

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

To my eye the church steeple needs to be straightened (it appears to have about 2 degrees of right tilt). And while I like the propotions and the place you've anchored the edifice, I surely wish you could get rid of the fall-off on the hill on the right hand side (a la transform skew).

Atmospherics here are impeccable - snapping cold, that one.

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

Hello Bob' the actual tower of the church is vertical, try it by dragging the window in until it centres on the internal corner between the two buttresses closest. But because I wasn't standing directly at 45 ° to the base of the tower it makes the spire appear slightly offset and this leads to the feeling that the whole church is not vertical. Well that's my theory :-)
I was hoping someone would pick this up.
Graham

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

I think you need to retitle your topic "The Leaning Tower of St. James the Great, Spaldwick". You're right, by whatever means you have arrived here, the photo is level as is. I imported it into LR5, then used their Lens Correction Leveling function to see if that would change anything. It didn't budge at all. So, as any pilot would tell you, you've got to trust your instruments.

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

After 50 years a joiner (carpenter) making sure everything is plumb and level I have an eye for it ;-)

Graham, who being an honest man admits that he laid a trap :-)

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

Hi HT, thanks for commenting. I am very much an "as is" photographer and depict the scene as I saw it when I took the picture. I do use various methods to make the picture say what I felt when I was there, grimy, warm, cold and all the human emotions. But all the elements that I saw stay in the picture, either accentuated or lessened. I suppose you could call it photographing the environment. The white lines you see are electric fencing for livestock. I have added a bit to give the spire some room, it had none. I was limited as to where I could stand to take the picture and to give more headroom I would have had to tilt the camera upwards causing the tower to fall over backwards, then I would have had to correct the perspective and probably lost all of the headroom I had gained. Oh for a tilt and shift.

Graham who is full of excuses ;-)

Heirloom Tomato Loc: Oregon

Hi Graham. I understand your leaving the electric fence line if your policy is not to alter anything. I posted a landscape last night of the Willamette Valley Vineyards (I shoot few landscapes because I'm so much of a homebody) and chose not to delete any buildings or cars or anything else, so I understand and respect your opinion on that. I am glad you gave the spire a little more head room. I'd bet money that your photo of that church is the best photo of it ever taken. You really have the touch!
Best regards,
Hope

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Whether this is an optical illusion or not, I had a go at correcting it. After about 5 or 6 re-dos, I had something that LOOKED straighter. Apparently, my straightening required -0.5 degrees of tilt.

ANY more than that and the picture looked over-tilted. Either the original was VERY close, or it is indeed an optical illusion. I didn't find the near buttress to be long enough to give a convincing guide, so I did it by eye.

jgordon Loc: Boulder CO

Graham,

I loved some of the images you have posted on the Ugly Hedgehog. This one is good, but doesn't move me as much as some of your others.

The composition might have something to do with it. The tall element of the church leads the eye up toward the top of the photo, but having arrived at the top there isn't much to see. The sky, which fills the top of the photo isn't all that interesting.

The tall spire defines a rectangle on the left side of the screen. So, any deviation from exact vertical is going to bother some viewers because the line defined by the spire is seen in comparison to the edge of the photo.

There is a magnificent tree adjacent to the church on the left side, but because of the scale of the church, the impact of the tree seems diminished.

Overall the colors in the photo are not particularly vibrant. Perhaps that works to give a sense of cold weather, but the colors are not particularly exciting.

O.K., these are just my impressions and I don't claim to be an expert and I am certainly not in your league as a photographer. Still, my overall impression is that you have made some great images and this is only a good one.

Jerry

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

Hi Jerry, I can't argue with any of the points you make, I do in fact, agree with them all, apart from the reference to great images.

Thank you,

Graham

Nightski

Why?

I saw this last night. I wanted to see what others said, because straight away, I loved it. The detail is exquisite. I think you have done the colors perfectly. I am not usually a church photo fan, because they are overdone and somewhat boring, but this...

It's such beautiful setting. I agree that shooting it vertical may have been a good option, and maybe crop out some foreground to bring that gorgeous church in a bit.

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

Why? Because of all the things mentioned in earlier posts :-)

And are you saying that church pictures are hackneyed? ;-)

A vertical shot or cropping would have made it a shot of a building, I wanted to show it firmly planted in the English countryside the way it has been for many centuries :-)

Graham