Jim Overfield  


Frozen countryside by Jim Overfield

February 2025 - Frozen countryside

About the Image(s)

It was -10? F and I was not dressed for that kind of cold when I pulled the car over to the side of the road, got out to fire off a few quick shots of this scene before running back to my warm car. The original had very little color and I decided to process in B&W, something I seldom ever do. I worked on various adjustments in Lightroom for some time and the image still seems flat. I welcome all feedback from the group and please feel free to download and experiment. Handheld full frame camera body with 70-200mm zoom shot at 200mm, 1/200 sec, f/8, ISO 100.


12 comments posted




Sylvia Williams   Sylvia Williams
I like this photo. Looks like a postcard.
  Posted: 02/09/2025 23:16:27



Sylvia Williams   Sylvia Williams
I played with it a little in photoshop. Not sure it is better.   Posted: 02/09/2025 23:17:48
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Jim Overfield   Jim Overfield
Thank you Sylvia. I do like how you were able to make the image appear less flat, with more definition. Thank you.   Posted: 02/18/2025 17:05:43



Yvonne Cary Carter   Yvonne Cary Carter
  Posted: 02/12/2025 16:03:00
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Yvonne Cary Carter   Yvonne Cary Carter
Jim, Looks really cold! I"m a fan of black and white. I like your framing with the fence and shadows in the snow for foreground. The trees create an interesting background. I lightened the house and darkened the fence a bit. Overall, I like your photo.   Posted: 02/12/2025 16:08:15
Jim Overfield   Jim Overfield
Thank you Yvonne, I Like the work on the fence line. As often as I looked at my image, I simply never considered the kind of improvements you made to the smaller details.   Posted: 02/18/2025 17:19:24



Sabine Nehls   Sabine Nehls
Jim, It was bitterly cold when you took your photo, as they say in Germany. We don't have sub-zero temperatures like that here. Respect that you left your car for a photo.
I like the composition, a house to the right and left, snow in the foreground and the white trees in the background.
I don't have any tips for you on converting to black and white. Personally, I find it very difficult to photograph white, in this case snow, and then edit it.
As Yvonne described, I would also lighten the house.
I could also imagine cropping the image at the top.
The panorama format is well suited to this in my opinion.   Posted: 02/14/2025 13:12:37
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Jim Overfield   Jim Overfield
Thank you Sabine. I had played with cropping the image as you did, knowing the bright sky could be distracting. But when I did crop, I felt the image lost balance so I left it in. In any case, this was a challenging photo to work with and I did benefit from the feed back from group members with improvements I simply overlook. Thanks for your feedback.   Posted: 02/18/2025 17:26:49



Linda Mui   Linda Mui
Jim, this is a beautiful winter countryside scene-there's something about the simplicity and calmness that really resonates. I love that you converted it to black and white; it really enhances the peaceful, serene vibe. I can imagine it was freezing out there, but it was definitely worth the effort to capture this shot! To make it stand out a bit more, increasing the contrast could help bring out the details in the snow and landscape. You could also try adding a subtle vignette to the corners, which could add a bit of drama and draw more focus to the center of the image. Great work braving the cold for this one!   Posted: 02/18/2025 11:06:13
Jim Overfield   Jim Overfield
Linda, thank you for your comments. A vignette is a great idea I'll try. Thanks.   Posted: 02/18/2025 18:30:29



Randy Bell   Randy Bell
This is a really nice scene. Even though it was very cold, you still braved the weather to get the shot. I like that you converted it to black and white. I tried to play around with the image, basically trying to add some contrast and tone down the highlights a bit. Not sure if it is better than your version or any of the other suggestions by the group.   Posted: 02/19/2025 01:05:24
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Jim Overfield   Jim Overfield
Randy, I'll review the work you, and others in this group, have done. Thank you for your time and effort, very much appreciated. Thanks.   Posted: 02/19/2025 03:44:09



 

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