Piles on Forth.

[seaslug]

Sony A57 Sigma 150-500 @ 500mm 1/1000 F5.6 ISO 1600.

[loose cannon]

I certainly like the idea behind the image and with a little work with the dodge tool this image could come to life.

The posts are obviously the main focal point but are a fraction dark to my eye and also a little bit soft. The dodge tool could be used to lighten the posts, not all over, just on the sunlit side and very gently and selectively. It would be good to see some of the detail in the timber.

The sharpening is trickier to do if you're not familiar with layers and masks but I'd suggest maybe increasing the sharpening setting in the camera for future images and see how that looks after a few test images. The softness could be due to the uploading process but it looks very soft on my monitor. Over sharpened images look terrible but it's worth having a play with the in camera settings until you are happy.

I've done a quick edit to show what I mean. It's rough but it's quite difficult to work on a small jpeg so I've over done the dodging and sharpening slightly just so you can see where I coming from. Trying to get the foliage on the posts to 'pop' a bit.

Hope this helps

. The dodge and burn tools are probably the most important tools at the disposal of a photographer. I have mine set to 3% so any adjustments made are gentle and subtle. Less is more.

Anyway, it's all subjective and I'm just showing you what I'd do if the image was mine.

[seaslug]

I see what you mean thanks Mick.