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Junkyard

Junkyard

Out in the middle of nowhere, this swampy forest used to be the place for an active junkyard run by an odd character. Today, the scrap is abandoned, but hundreds of rusty car wrecks remains as a memorial.

Constructive critique on composition, printing etc is most welcome!
Location
Sweden
Equipment Used
Wista Filed 45DX
Film & Developer
Ilford FP4, developed in Adox XT-3
Paper & Developer
Ilford Warmtone, selenium toned @ 1+9 for approx 5 min.
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  1. Yes
Is this print for sale?
  1. Yes
I always judge a picture by how much it makes me look( clarity, tone etc) and want to ask questions about the why ( the story behind the situation) This works on all my levels which governs my interest
 
I think this is really wonderful, but maybe a bit of cropping could give it more oomph.

If you crop the top so that the far left bit of sky behind the dark tree trunk is just cut off. This is approximately 60-65mm down on my monitor. Doing this crop removes the lighter foliage and allows your eyes to be drawn more to the lighter subjects that are below instead of the lighter foliage competing for your eyes.

Then from the bottom crop the bottom until just below the bigger stone to the right and below the small root section with lighter foliage showing on the far left of the picture. This then will look make the bottom look more like a soft vignette effect, but in fact, is just the bare earth reflecting less light. This is approximately 20mm up on my monitor.

Doing these two crops will then emphasise the main vehicle, (which looks like an Austin A30) far more and also makes the tree hanging door stand out slightly more, but at the same time, doesn't make it too intrusive a subject.

You will end up with a more pronounced landscape version, but I think the image will be stronger and draw the viewer more into the subjects you are depicting.
 
If you haven't tried it yet, this would work as a wonderful platinum/palladium print. As mentioned a little cropping on the top will emphasize the central car but it works both ways.
 
Thank you all for your valuable feedback.

Cropping the print seems like a good idea. I did consider a tighter crop when setting up for printing, but in the last minute I opted for a more spacious composition showing more of the luminous foliage. I thought it looked almost like stage lighting putting a spotlight on the wreck. In retrospect I agree with has been said above; the foliage is perhaps a bit distracting and a tighter crop gives more attention to the wreck.

@jeffreyg : I must read up on Pt/Pd printing! From what I have seen on internet is seems like Pt/Pd prints are something extra in terms of tonality. I suspect the process is a bit tricky though, involving chemicals that are expensive and hard to get (in Europe) ?
@Mick Fagan : Nice to learn it is an Austin A30, thank you for the information!

Once again, thank you all!
 
I also think this photograph is great. I happen to like the way you cropped it. I think the larger composition illustrates the fact the the cars are a hidden little treasure in a huge forest. Funny someone way back when took the time to hang that door from the tree….
 
This is what happens when you forget where you parked...

Just play with a couple of cropping 'L's - think there are several interpretations. I might consider shading the sides a little to make more of the open overhead light. It looks like a flexible negative, so you have plenty of choice. Personally I try to avoid strong vertical elements too close to the edge of a frame, as I never know where the edge will lie naturally.

Is this the place in Sweden that is in the guide books?
 

Media information

Category
Critique Gallery
Added by
henpe
Date added
View count
2,945
Comment count
14
Rating
0.00 star(s) 0 ratings

Image metadata

Device
NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D300
Aperture
ƒ/5.6
Focal length
50.0 mm
Exposure time
1/20 second(s)
ISO
200
Filename
_DSC8414_bilskrot_1920x1080_sRGB.jpg
File size
1.1 MB
Date taken
Sat, 18 December 2021 6:34 PM
Dimensions
1157px x 1080px

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