Curve road P1

by MSK HAIDER
(Monor Park, London, UK)

I was chatting to my wife at Mile-End Park in London, suddenly I saw this road behind my wife and then I took the picture.


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Mile End is an interesting part of London – very 'inner city', but also quite a few parks (and of course, the new Millennium 'Bridge' Park)

These parks are nice to wander through and get away from the hustle and bustle for a while, and should make good photographic matter. I'm not sure if this shot hits the mark though. Let's have a look through the good elements first . . .

First, the sky – it may not be sunny, but the clouds do add an element of drama to the photo. Then there is the sweeping curve of the road. Sweeps like this usually gain photography brownie points because they lead the viewer into the photo.

And onto improvements. The scene is nice, ok, average . . . there's just nothing to really lift it into the 'good' category. But maybe there was a better way to take the shot. My eye is drawn to three elements of this photo that could have lifted the shot.

First, that lamp post. It's just a distraction. If it were an old ornate Victorian lamp post it would go well in the photo. But it's not, and I think it should be cloned out. You can read digital photography tutorial on how to repair photos with the clone tool here.

The second thing that springs to mind is those residential tower blocks in the distance. At the moment they are peeking out behind the trees. I'm wondering if they could play a bigger part in the scene. If 'MSK' had moved to the left a bit they could have been more prominent in the scene.

The final thing in the photo is the couple walking in the distance. They're too small to be a focal point, but just a little too large to ignore. I've no idea if these people would have minded being a big part of this photo (maybe sitting on a park bench, with the photo taken from behind them?). It might have been worth asking them; it's surprising how many people will co-operate, and they usually enjoy seeing the result on your camera screen.

The other thing I would recommend here isn't about the scene itself, but the post processing. With the 'moody' clouds and the bare trees this could be a winner if it were converted to black and white.

This would be easy to do using any image editing software. If you have Photoshop there's a tutorial here to get the best black and white picture.

Thanks 'MSK' for the submission, and I hope there are a few tips here for you.


Ed.
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