Composition with poles

[AndyWelder]

I'm sure everybody who lives near a river or an old harbor knows what I'm talking about: There's always a seemingly random group of wooden poles sticking out of the water somewhere. Who knows for what purpose.... Anyway, it was my inspiration for doing this render, in fact a couple of renders , where I tried to reduce it down to the very basic elements that make an image: Color, texture,shape, composition, rhythm.
I think many will call this kind of renders crap, bull etc. and possibly think of it as blasphemy but just let me know what you think, that's why I posted them.

[Mahnmut]

I don´t call this anything bad!
Although in my humle opinnion the first one could gain a lot by a more contrasting lighting.
The second is wondeful as it is!

My best regards,
Jan

[Oshyan]

I agree with Mahnmut, the 2nd is excellent, first just needs more dramatic lighting and/or higher contrast. Well, with the first I think the water could be deeper, it looks a bit shallow for the size of the poles.

Anyway, not a bad idea for an image at all. People make composition studies and aim for simplicity in photography all the time. Those kinds of things shouldn't be off-limits just because you're using TG. :-)

- Oshyan

[Henry Blewer]

I would work on some wear on the pole tops also. They tend to split and decay from the tops quickly when exposed like this. I agree with Oshyan, Terragen 2 is a great tool for many types of photographic studies.

[Dune]

I like these photographic studies. I've put something like this together a while ago, but with elongated 'rocks'. I'll locate it and put it up at file sharing, as it may have some interest to others as well.

[jo]

Nice images :-). The poles are never really that random as they used to be part of a jetty or quay or breakwater etc. so there is usually some general underlying structure even if things have gone a bit askew. In what seems like a previous life I used to sail my dinghy out past a number of old jettys like this. When I looked at your images I couldn't quite figure out what might have there :-).

Regards,

Jo

[AndyWelder]

Thank you all for the replies/comments.
In retrospect I have to agree with the shadows on the water needing more contrast; will start working on that.

I would work on some wear on the pole tops also.

That's beyond my/the software's capabilities: The poles are actually cut down, branchless trees

BTW, I like the term (photo)graphic study, never thought of it that way.

Oh, and about the poles: A colleague, who's into fishing, also had an explanation: Eel fishers use them to attach their eel traps and other fishermen plant them to attract fish because fish do like the shelter they provide.

[AndyWelder]

In order to get more contrast the lighting was set to default, sunlight strength upped to 5 and three of the four cloud layers disabled,  also camera exposure went back to the default value of 1.
Normally I prefer more exposure and values for enviro light on objects between 2 and 3.
And yes, I'm more happy with this render now. Thank you all for the advice!

[Oshyan]

Looks good. 4 cloud layers seems like a waste of render time anyway given they're not visible.


- Oshyan

[AndyWelder]

Even though they're not visible, they do have an influence on the light (QED). In general I like the way the sunlight is filtered and how it changes in character with different clouds used. In this case it was too soft.

[Oshyan]

Yes, of course it does influence the light, but you almost certainly should be able to achieve the same effect with just 1 layer.

- Oshyan

[RichTwo]

Blaspheme at Will, whoever that poor soul may be.. . to tweak and push and shove and squeeze every little nuance that TG2 can do is what you've done and what I'd strive for if I can find the time and get down to it.  Keep on keeping on, my friend!

[AndyWelder]

Here's an iteration on the second render: Different seeds for the pole populations, a couple of SSS's used to create dry land and two populations of autumn trees (one is from dandelO's Seasons Pack), an extra fog layer and a slightly different camera position.
The inspiration came from a bitter cold morning this week where there was a lot of groundfog over the marshes and streams near the office.

[Simius Strabus]

Nice pics. Oh, about the poles? Fishermen place fishing-nets between the poles, to catch fish.

[mhaze]

The last one is superb!