Critique Required Sleeping woodland monsters

[Hamish Gill]

I found these creatures sleeping in the forest of dean today ... I was very careful not to wake them!


Sleeping Beasts by Hamish_Gill, on Flickr


Sleeping Beasts by Hamish_Gill, on Flickr

 

[Beth Carter]

you should add eyes, a mouth with sharp teeth and lots of steam. make those monsters come to life.

love the low angle and the wide perspective. great exposure in the second.

 

[Lesley Jones]

They're great Hamish - especially the second one. I like the low angle and the treatment you have given works brilliantly with the upper part of the trees. I like the "grabber" in the bottom right hand corner with those spiky things leading your eye up to follow the line of the trees

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Agree with Lesley, the 2nd one especially looks like a dinosaur

Great low angle Hamish

Glad you got away before they woke up!

 

[Hamish Gill]

you should add eyes, a mouth with sharp teeth and lots of steam. make those monsters come to life.

love the low angle and the wide perspective. great exposure in the second.

Cheers Beth!
A bit beyond me in terms of photoshop skills else I think i probably would
You can have a go if you like?

They're great Hamish - especially the second one. I like the low angle and the treatment you have given works brilliantly with the upper part of the trees. I like the "grabber" in the bottom right hand corner with those spiky things leading your eye up to follow the line of the trees

Cheers Lesley!
They were really well camouflaged, I did like the way the tall bits sort of blended into the background ...

I have gone off these pix even since yesterday ...
Getting annoyed with my self and photography at the moment

- - - Updated - - -

Agree with Lesley, the 2nd one especially looks like a dinosaur

Great low angle Hamish

Glad you got away before they woke up!

Cheers Chris, Yeah me too

 

[Lesley Jones]

I have gone off these pix even since yesterday ...
Getting annoyed with my self and photography at the moment

- - - Updated - - -

Hamish - step away from the monitor. NOW! Going back over what you did yesterday is never a good thing. (Well... sometimes, but only to check for colour casts and things like that). Doing what you/we do well is OK and it makes us feel warm and comfortable. Doing something unusual can feel a bit scary, but it's OK to experiment and play. I've tried to not go back over old work, but I've been so rubbish at Photoshop that certain things simply have to be put right. I feel I owe it to the photographs to not leave them in such a state. I'm a perfectionist at heart and I know how you feel. Life is too short though, so if you feel happy with images one day, put them to bed and move on.

Actually, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of these, but for what it's worth, you said "sleeping woodland monsters" and that is exactly what I can see - in the second one especially. In one image you have created a fantasy world where monsters sleep in the woods. I think that's pretty impressive

 

[Hamish Gill]

Thanks Lesley ... I get like this at this time of year!
It usually coincides with some explorations in film photography, but I think this year it might be video that I turn to ...
Thanks for the kind words ... I actualy feel instantly better after reading that!
Im glad I got accross what I saw when I was there in te monsters

 

[Lesley Jones]

No problem. It's not just that I believe in your new found world, but you've done it without going all dark vignette or heavy filter. It's really very delicate for a woodland monster

 

[Beth Carter]

well if you insist. here's a quick mock up.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Cheers Lesley ... Yeah, a vignette was far to obvious a route tto take ... I just did te level of detail in these isn't right ... There is to much to look at ...

Very good Beth! How do you do smoke so effectively???

 

[Beth Carter]

with my favorite smoke brush set - particle smoke brushes and white or black. make a new layer and use one of the smoke brushes. then add a mask and use another smoke brush from the set to adjust the edges as needed. adjust opacity to taste. rinse and repeat for each new piece of smoke, but it goes quickly. had 8 or 9 smoke layers for this one, appx, 10 minutes.