neutralhills ,

Thanks for the comment.
I am using the rest of the family to practice my portrait work.
This is an area that I am really lacking so using the family as free models is great.
Plus I am learning how to keep a little kid interested in what is happening!

Good picture, makes me smile I have one just like it and I think every parent should have a mess like this to clean.

Thanks for the comment.
I am still learning the portraits with children so family birthday's I always have my camera!

wow he really went to town, good shot.

Thanks for the comment leaves!

I love the dramatic lines in this photo. At first I thought maybe the bars in the foreground were distracting, but the more I look at it the more they seem appropriate. Good thing this place is no longer operational... it looks like hell on earth!

Ramon,

I have a shot without the bars.
the one with the bars is the preferred shot from all the people that I have exhibited it to...

more lines and angles I love ..love the light and shadows ... nice shot !!! it has a certain abandoned feel to it1

Lindy,
Thanks for the great comment.
I actually have quite a few more from this series.

This was entered into the Western Idaho Fair under the Idaho category.
This picture received a 3rd place ribbon.

A little bit of extra contrast might help...

a touch more contrast. Otherwise I love the minimalism and texture

Thanks for the ideas.
I will touch it up and repost!

No really abstract, would work better in Texture.

www.vazaar.com/user:mikeock/photos/id:13991/

Upped the contrast and sharpness a bit.
Better?

Wow.
Very unique take on this.
How did you achieve these results?

Ancient Chinese secret.
For a blood and urine sample (and it has to be yours), I will let you in on the secret.

I'm kidding.
You can keep your fluids.
I'll "try" to explain how I did this later.
I promised my 3 year old son I would take him to McDonalds, and he is not letting me forget.

Lol.
take care of your kid first!
You think he would let you forget?

Ok, I finally have some free time to type out what I did.
I am going strictly by memory, so what I'm about to type is to the best of my knowledge (a.k.a. I might be forgetting a few things, or maybe not).

1. I downloaded the first photo that you submitted.

2. I opened it up in Photoshop CS2. Then I went to "Image", then "adjustments", then to "Shadow/Highlight". I set shadows amount to 50%.

3. Under "adjustments" again, I went to "Selective Color". Here is a list of colors I adjusted:
~ Red: yellow +100%/cyan -100%
~ Yellow: yellow +100/cyan -100%
~ Cyan: cyan +100/yellow -100%

4. Next I created a new layer with "Hue/Saturation". I bumped up the master saturation to 25%.

5. From there I took a soft round brush set to black, and brushed away the saturation layer on the backgound but left the car alone. This allowed the car's colors to stand out over the backgound.

6. Then I created another layer with "Selective Color". From there I went to "neutral" and adjusted the neutral yellow to -40%.

7. Then, I took a soft round brush set to black, and brushed away the neutral yellow layer on the car only.

On the first photo, I did add a spotlight filter to darken up a bit. I can't remember exactly how a set the spotlight, though. Sorry.

I believe that's it. I am a natural blonde, so more than likely I am forgetting a step or two. :)

Take care and don't be afraid to ask for advice.

Blizzard,

thanks for the info.
Looks like another set of post processing tips that i will have to add to my bag of tricks!

Just work on the photo you have, and try to bring out the best qualities in it.
If worst comes to worst, just convert it to a b&w. ;)
I still love the possibilities this shot has.
Hell, if it was tweeked a bit, I would use it as an album cover if I was in a band. :)

Oh...and one more personal opinion that amounts to nothing: Don't crop it.

Blizzard,

I have a version that I am working on editing.
Once I have it completed i will post it out!
thanks for the kind words about you liking the image!

Is this a pit stop where they never returned? Hmmm... Great image, but I'd like to see some more post-processing, maybe brighten the image a little while maintaining the darks and lights. Good image all around, I really like it! :)

nrcowlishaw,
Thanks for the comment.
My edited version is here:
www.vazaar.com/user:mikeock/photos/id:13059/

All i did was tone it.
I can post the original if you would like?

Nice sign...Seems like you might want to play with deepening the blacks, bumping the contrast, and add some sharpness.

ldw,
I will do a repost tomorrow with what has been stated so far.

For some reason it looks a little tilted to the right to me. Maybe that's just because the building itself is, but you might want to try to align it horizontally with the top of that shack.

On the other hand the large building to the left might look tilted if you do... You could give it a shot though...

sniker,

You are correct.
On this is it a toss up between the main element being slightly tilted or the whole picture.
I have looked at this and this appears to be the best presentation!

Perhaps this should win a prize for Most Unusual Pet!

Rofl.
My aunt has so many animals running around their small farm it is ridiculous.

I'm afraid this lacks a proper subject, is completely tilted and pretty noisy in some areas. Also, it would have been nice to choose to either have only the silhouette of the tree line (pure black) or keep some details in this area (so shades of grey).
I'm actually not quite sure what you tried to achieve here.

This shot was hard to crop.
I forgot my tripod and noticed this scene as I was driving.
The only way to get this shot was to place the camera on my car, thus the tilt.
I liked the colors and the clear silhouette but was unsure on how to present it properly!
Thanks for the useful critique!
Hints/Tips/Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

This is the same building as this post:
www.vazaar.com/topic:abandoned-structures/photos/i...

This is from my second shoot at this location.
Grain added to this one.
Always amazes me that I get my best shots upon the first visit to such places.