4th New York Independent Battery - Devil's Den - Gettysburg Battlefield
by glad2badad

Comment by ArnaMarie:
I didn't vote on this challenge, but I agree with the two issues raised by atupdate/Tim. I'll add one more thing. To me the image looks cluttered, in lack of better words. This is because of everything going on in the hillside. All of the rocks, shrubs and different coloured grass is stealing my attention away from the actual monument. Of course this is not something you can do anything about, but perhaps a different angle might have done the monument more justice? I don't know..I'm still learning :)

Update: Oh..someone beat me to it. Note to self, refresh window before leaving a comment an hour before the initial viewing of the image

Message edited by author 2015-05-04 10:10:39.

4th New York Independent Battery - Devil's Den - Gettysburg Battlefield
by glad2badad

Comment by glad2badad:
Appreciate the feedback. Yes, used HDR in PSP X7. I thought it was pretty well balanced and I backed off on it's impact (thank goodness). :-)

As for focus - the face of the statue is what it is ... no more detail available. If you look at the base of the monument, the plaque, the concrete, etc... it's all tack sharp, as is the Cannon. That was the focal plane. Thought I had that part correct at least ...

4th New York Independent Battery - Devil's Den - Gettysburg Battlefield
by glad2badad

Comment by JakeKurdsjuk:
Sometimes HDR is your friend, sometimes it's not. Here, it's not.

The textures and details of the background do nothing for you here, and if nothing else they pull the eye away from what's supposed to be subject of your image. There are more details in the rocks than there are in face of the statue. Tack onto that the over structured and over-pinked look you can get from some HDR programs (I'm thinking this has HDR Efex Pro 2 written all over it) and it's a quick and easy 5 for me.

Composition is sound and all, but there's nothing really interesting here and I'm no fan of the processing. Frankly, I'm more interested in what's next to the statue's elbow than anything in the foreground.

4th New York Independent Battery - Devil's Den - Gettysburg Battlefield
by glad2badad

Comment by PennyStreet:
This is a good shot of the battleground, ok for the composition. I gave it a 6 because the lack of contrast in colors and lighting leaves it a bit dull looking, overall.

4th New York Independent Battery - Devil's Den - Gettysburg Battlefield
by glad2badad

Comment by dtremain:
FWIW - Considering my scores, what do I know, but my thoughts...
It is a busy picture - lots of rocks, bushes, etc. in the background.
The tree line seems to have a light border between it and the sky (result of processing, I'd guess)
To me, the biggest problem is that the cannon is pointing out of the picture to the left. It would work if the cannon was on the other side of the statue, or if there was some space for the cannon to point into.
I think this monument would have worked better photographically if you'd included only the cannon or the statue, but not both. Maybe there is a better angle that would "condense" the elements - making them appear closer together.
I think this is an excellent example of a historical group placing things with no thought of photography. Here's a cannon. Here's a statue. How we place them doesn't matter. With a little thought, a better arrangement could have been used making the scene more memorable and accessible.
You have some very nice color / texture in the ground cover.

4th New York Independent Battery - Devil's Den - Gettysburg Battlefield
by glad2badad

Comment by atupdate:
Since I'm not a paying member, I couldn't vote on this image. But if I did I would have given it a 5, as it clearly meets the challenge. There are two things that bother me about this image.

1. The light doesn't look balanced. The background has a bunch of detail but the face of the soldier has very little. Since the soldier and background are basically facing the same direction, my eye expects about the same amount of detail. As is, the background looks over processed.

2. The crop is a little tight for my taste. A bit more space on the bottom and sides would have given the monument more breathing room and better convey the size of the battle field.

As is, it is a monument shot with the background being dominate.

Tim

4th New York Independent Battery - Devil's Den - Gettysburg Battlefield
by glad2badad

Comment by herfotoman:
Probably not enough eye-candy.

I do think it is a reasonably well balanced shot, exactly the one that should be used in the History text books, or Google. It displays the monuments in good colouor and perfect definition, it places them in their right perspective, and there are some nice lines formed by the horison, trees and paving.

The clouds are a bit dull. The cannon is perhaps too close to the left side of the image.

4th New York Independent Battery - Devil's Den - Gettysburg Battlefield
by glad2badad

Comment by illini75:
Nice colors and processing.

Filling to the brim . . .
by glad2badad

Comment by MargaretNet:
Well processed

A Dolphin's Tale
by glad2badad

Comment by ray_mefarso:
love it. That eye is riveting. As the background is quite clean I would have been tempted to clone out the pole