Assignment 1: Response to Tutor's Comments

I submitted my first assignment with some trepidation.  I always find it  difficult to get a measure of the standard of my work until those first assignment comments come in.  I have to say I was delighted with the how my tutor found these first images.  The feedback was very thorough and constructive with useful comments on how the images might be improved.  I have been through the comments and reworked the images accordingly.  The results are included below.

The first image that could be improved was the first one of a sunrise behind the lake.  It was felt that I included too much foreground and could have tilted the camera a little to include less of that and more sky.  Obviously I am unable to do that but I have cropped to a more panoramic format and cut out some of the foreground reeds.  When I looked back at my original images I had taken one in vertical format and have included that here.  It does include less reeds and more sky.  Perhaps this would have been a better image to include in the first instance.

The second image that could be improved was of the mist in the Ancholme River Valley.  My tutor felt that it was rather too blue so I have warmed it up a little as seen below.

This image of the snowdrift was also felt to be too blue so I have adjusted this slightly and also cropped a little to the right and top as suggested.  I decided to keep in some of the grasses to the extreme right.

Again in this image of the ice covered lake below I have cropped to include less of the foreground reeds which it was felt overpowered the picture.  I like the circle of snow half way up to the right and so have cropped to still include this.

 It was felt that the two images below were too blue so I have again adjusted the white balance to alter this slightly.

 In the originals of the two images below it was felt that I had made the sky too dark.  In retrospect I was guilty of over filtration.  In both images I combined an ND grad with a polarizer.  I have been able to lighten the sky in Lightroom by using the inbuilt grad.

Another comment made was that I could perhaps be more self-critical, something I will work on.  I suppose I find this difficult, as by the time I submit image,s I have done the self analysis and settled on images that I am pleased with.  Can I submit images that I am criticising or should I not be submitting them at all?  This comment has been made to me before by another tutor so I must work harder to adopt a more self critical approach.