I was at my sister's 50th birthday party and had just unboxed my new D7000 and 17-55 f/2.8 a few days before. I hadn't shot with it much. It was late afternoon and I saw a glint of sun on the blades of this windmill so I went outside to try and get a shot. I had to shoot at ISO 800 just to get a holdable 1/80 shutter speed at f/2.8 since I didn't have a tripod and the 17-55 is not VR.

.I think it needs some edge sharpening/
Overall, a bit flat. I did some selective burning. Edge sharpening. Both in LR.
And I took the liberty of doing a BW conversion to push apart red yellow tones from blue cyan for more depth and drama. Done in SEP 2.
If you want these taken down, please let me know.

Scott

sbeme wrote:
If you want these taken down, please let me know.

Scott

Not at all, I appreciate the constructive input Scott. I think it works better in black white and suspected that it might. Thanks.

I do think I prefer the B&W. There is nothing I can point to as a serious flaw with this image. I just don't see it as very interesting.

Camperjim wrote:
I just don't see it as very interesting.

And I understand that. It was the first thing I got to shoot with the new camera other than a few birthday candle shots. I will wait until I have a shot that I think is worth discussion before posting again. Thanks.

+1 @ BW

Red Rover wrote:
Camperjim wrote:
I just don't see it as very interesting.

And I understand that. It was the first thing I got to shoot with the new camera other than a few birthday candle shots. I will wait until I have a shot that I think is worth discussion before posting again. Thanks.
Please don't let me discourage you from posting. I just got a new camera and my first shots were images of a newspaper to test the lenses and focusing.

I'm not discouraged at all. There is plenty of good info here. Thanks.

The bottom and foreground is uninteresting. It also seems the structure is tipping backwards a bit. It would benefit from clockwise rotation, noise reduction, darkening the bottom, some sharpening, a mid-tone bump, and some dodging and burning.

Don't be discouraged about posting a windmill shot. I think the basic issue here is the perspective. You were attracted by the glint of sunlight on the blades, which occupy maybe 5% of the image. It appears that you stood at a comfortable distance from this windmill, pointed the camera at it, and pressed the shutter. It's what I call a "forensic" shot; it proves that you were there. But it's the same perspective that anyone who stands there will get. The black and white conversion immediately above helps a lot because it adds some drama that isn't in the original exposure, but a more interesting composition would help it even more. Maybe stand closer and shoot up. Go wide and accentuate the distortion the wide angle brings. "Work the scene" before you put the lens cap back on. And keep shooting!

I wonder about working this scene. I have tried plenty of times to shoot a windmill without much success. Maybe it needs dramatic skies and weather and some sort of story to catch our interest. A shiny new metal windmill doesn't help. A rusty old one standing alone on an abandoned ranch might do it. Or maybe go for some patterns like shooting up from the inside. So I am just thinking how could you make this scene more interesting?

Karen ... diggin' the B&W lemonade.

Karen,
Nicely done.
Scott

Thanks, Kent!

Thanks, Scott!

Yes Jim, hard to find an interesting context for a windmill, but good light has got to be a major plus. Think sunrise and sunset.