[groesener]

I really like this photo - which probably means I need to be taken down a notch. I'd be grateful if you'd go ahead and rip it to shreds - politely of course, and fairly.

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[hcc]

Great shot. Very nice proportions, with the railway tracks undulating toward the background on the right.

Where did you shot it? Which river?

Thank you for sharing.

[groesener]

Great shot. Very nice proportions, with the railway tracks undulating toward the background on the right.

Where did you shot it? Which river?

Thank you for sharing.

thanks, HCC, This was shot on Isthmus Slough, about 5 miles south of Coos Bay, just off the junction of hwy 101 and hwy 42. This shot is facing more or less south.

[Mr Manual]

You have done a beautiful landscape justice with this photograph. Personally, I would have taken the picture from a lower angle as to give a quirky perspective of the rails. Stopping down further than f8 would lend the trees better sharpness but obviously this would come at the cost of pumping up the iso as there isn't much headroom with the shutter speed. You could probably get more detail from the clouds by toying with the highlights in post processing - if you're that way inclined. This same composition at dusk could give you something magical with the trees on the right silhouetted against the twilight sky.

[johnyates]

If you're prepared to do some PP work:
1) level the horizon
2) add some fill light.

[FlashMuller]

Well,
on site it seems as if you have done pretty well. The rails are a brilliant object to add depth, i especially like the s shape of the track.
You might mike this an even better shot with post processing, as johnyates already suggested.
The top right part is pretty dark, but it seems as if it still contains information, so you could level that up a bit (= filllight).
Of course level the horizon.
There appears to be some CA where the trees touch the sky.
Playing with the sharpness sliders always helps :-)

If you dont PP, this should be your image to start it...

[groesener]

So, ah...heh heh...um...well, it's like this:

Turns out, after reviewing your several critiques, I put my glasses on and realized I'd posted the wrong picture. There were two nearly identical shots, and I wound up posting the one that I had originally not worked on as much as there were a couple things I didn't like quite as well.

That said, I went to Aperture and worked a bit on both images, and am going to post them side by side (well, above and below). I'll post the reworked original first, since so far we've been considering that one, and then the alternate. On both of them, I leveled the horizon (totally overlooked that on both) and used the Dodge brush in selected areas to bring up some of the dark details. I'm not sure if that's the equivalent of photoshop fill light, but the curves adjustment wasn't helping. Oh, also, FlashMuller, good call on the CA, it was a simple thing to see and fix once I was looking for it.

I really appreciate the comments, guys.

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[groesener]

Ok, so here's the other picture, which I originally liked better because of the upper left sky. Do you think there's enough to elevate this over the other one?

[FlashMuller]

Both are way better than the original and very good shots. I personally still like the top / original one more, as the golden light on the other side of the hill adds s.th. to the image.

[PPPPPP42]

They both have desirable features and I really like the composition. You could play with the angle if you like as was suggested to see what it looks like with the rails moved around (higher, lower whatever). In the upper picture there are spots on the wood ties of the bridge that got blown rather badly and ended up a little distracting. Plus you are losing quite a lot of interesting detail in the dark areas across the bridge.
Definitely a spot worth working more though. I would consider HDR or possibly shooting at a totally different time of day when the sun doesn't put so much in shadow. There's a lot of color in the grass on the other side of the bridge when its sun lit I should think and it would contrast the darker colors of the roadbed nicely. I feel like it also lacks a focus of some sort, its a nice background for a picture without something in it, but with less of a dark area I think there would be a lot more to look at and that might not be necessary.
Actually if I had a spot like that I would HDR it to death (at the right time of day) there's just so much color and detail and texture to be brought out, those shots make the best HDR and even the rust on the rails will look great.
That's enough of me sounding like I know what I'm talking about.