Whats wrong with this picture?

[SteveH]

Not wanting to be too inflammatory but following on from various discusions on the value of critisism and the need to compare ones work to that of others I wanted to post this image.
I should mention that I'm of the opinion that, generally speaking, critics and critisism are a good thing that can help us push beyond boundaries of complacency and limited self-appraisal.

I've been using this image as a standard to test out various printing papers from various sample packs over the last couple of weeks.
I must have made 20 prints on 20 different papers and have really enjoyed digging deep into the digital printing process.
Tonight though, it finally struck me that there is a serious and inexcusable flaw with this print that is going to mean that I go back and work on it again from scratch.
Maybe I got lulled by the generally warm praise this print has recieved by family and friends but I suspect mainly it just shows my lack of familiarity with high-quality digitally-corrected images (although I've seen the same fault in the work of some "reputable" darkroom printers).

I'll post the corrected image in a few days but was interested in the range of critical comments anyone cares to offer. (Apart from the shadow detail that seems to be lost in the upload).
cheers
Steve

[msk2193]

Steve,

Looks like the image is well saturated throughout. The wall / corner is straight.

The only thing I would have considered on site is making the old lettering on the facade stand out more by making it darker through the use of a color correcting filter.

FWIW, my two pence!

[Bill_1856]

Nothing wrong with it except that it's boring.

[SteveH]

Nothing wrong with it except that it's boring.

Bill
Happy for all criticism but if it's unqualified then its pretty meaningless.
Why is it boring?
cheers
Steve

[SteveH]

Steve,

Looks like the image is well saturated throughout. The wall / corner is straight.

The only thing I would have considered on site is making the old lettering on the facade stand out more by making it darker through the use of a color correcting filter.

FWIW, my two pence!

Thanks
I should re-state that it has become a lot heavier from uploading. The original jpeg is a lot clearer on the same screen.
But there's a technical issue with it, that now I've seen it, bugs the hell out of me.
Just wanted to see how many other people here notice it.
cheers
Steve

[David R Munson]

Steve - the reflection of the truck in the front window? Is that what you're waiting for someone to pick out?

As for being boring, I have to say I basically agree, though I'll go into why. What made you want to photograph this scene and do so in the way that you did? When I'm looking at this, where do you hope my eye moves? What is it that you hope to stand out as the focal point (no pun!) of the composition? I see a photograph that is technically decent, but that doesn't draw me in. Why was it interesting to you? Whatever it was, it doesn't come across to me in the photograph. I want something to look at. I want interesting composition. I want a concept. I want beautiful light. I want *something* to make me want to look at it. So far I don't see such a thing.

[SteveH]

Steve - the reflection of the truck in the front window? Is that what you're waiting for someone to pick out?

As for being boring, I have to say I basically agree, though I'll go into why. What made you want to photograph this scene and do so in the way that you did? When I'm looking at this, where do you hope my eye moves? What is it that you hope to stand out as the focal point (no pun!) of the composition? I see a photograph that is technically decent, but that doesn't draw me in. Why was it interesting to you? Whatever it was, it doesn't come across to me in the photograph. I want something to look at. I want interesting composition. I want a concept. I want beautiful light. I want *something* to make me want to look at it. So far I don't see such a thing.

Hi David
thanks for your comments.
I guess I should have stressed that that this image was used as a test because of its range of tonal values more than for asthetics. Personally I like it but I'm actually kind of chuffed to have my opinion of it thoroughly demolished. I get so little informed critical feedback and I'm sure your criticism will help me re-evaluate it.
No, the reflection of the van is not the problem, its a technical problem from a purely print-makers perspective. One that I see too often in darkroom printing so am kicking myself that I didn't pick it up before hand with my (new) digital printing process.
Though maybe its not as obvious as I thought.
Thanks for all comments
Steve

[Mike Anderson]

That white spot close to the lower right corner, on the edge of the sidewalk?

Or the little white dots around the perimeter?

....Mike

[SteveH]

This proving a better discussion than I had hoped. Thanks for all comments.
Unfortunately its now 1 hour and 1 cleansing ale the worse side of midnight here. And so to bed I go must..
Look forward to picking it up again tomorrow though.
And Mike, no its not the white dots - they're in the scene.
cheers
Steve

[Brian Ellis]

Bill
Happy for all criticism but if it's unqualified then its pretty meaningless.
Why is it boring?
cheers
Steve

I would have been more polite than Bill but since you ask why he said it's boring and he hasn't responded I'll hazard a guess that he thinks it's boring (and I do too) because it's such a typical subject, especially among LF photographers, with nothing particularly unusual or interesting about either the subject or how it's been treated that creates any real visual interest. You've made a very good documentary photograph of one part of an old building. If that's what you wanted to do, for example to have something to give to the local historical society, then you've accomplished that.

Having made many photographs of old buildings over the years similar to this one, and having generally found them unsatisfactory, I've come to think that as an extreme generalization old buildings like this are best treated in one of two ways. Either make a closeup of some very small part of the building - a window, a door, a corner, a sign, whatever - that's of particular visual interest for some reason or photograph the entire building and its surroundings. And if there's no small part of particular interest and if there's nothing of particular interest about the entire building as well as its surroundings then don't make the photograph unless you just want a record of what part of the building looked like.

I don't see any significant technical problems other than the shadow areas that you've mentioned. Of course we're looking at a small image on a low-resolution computer monitor, which isn't a very good way to judge the technical aspects of a photograph. If I was making the print I probably would have increased the contrast in the sky but that's more a matter of interpretation than a technical problem.

P.S. After typing all this I saw David's comment, which expresses my thoughts about why it's boring better than I did.