Woodland harmony or mess?

[Steve B]

A couple of weeks ago I visited Banstead Wood and took some standard bluebell shots. Before leaving I tried a few intentional camera movement shots, which I've not really done before. For the uninitiated it involves wiggling the camera round deliberately for a couple of seconds using an ND filter to balance the exposure. Some of the results were interesting, but nothing to be excited about. As an experiment, I then combined a straight shot of one image with an ICM image of the same location using the double exposure filter in Nik's Analog Efex Pro 2 software and played around with the contrast controls etc. I then moved to Nik's Colour Efex to play around with tonality and feel.

I can't decide whether the picture has merit or is just a cluttered mess. One of those where beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder, but I'd welcome honest critiques.

Steve

addressbook (2 of 2).jpg by steve brooker, on Flickr

[Mike Farley]

I can't decide whether the picture has merit or is just a cluttered mess. One of those where beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder, but I'd welcome honest critiques.

I'd say mear miss. I find it atmospheric, conveying the sense of a woodland scene, but the light tones at the top are too distracting for my taste. Possibly the main trees being so central does not help. Have you tried them in an offset position?

[Sarahrs]

Ohhhh. It's interesting. I would have a go at reducing the contrast and exposure. I think it might help creating the look your after.