Thread based on a suggestion by Catswhiskers.
Just a starter for 10, but hopefully Gandalf will be along shortly with his entire photo portfolio 
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Erm, I guess it depends how you want it to look. Iâd change the title though, âMisty Pilesâ sounds like a very unfortunate condition⌠
Bit more artsy?
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Sample crop.jpg
Usually when taking a photo I use the rule of thirds which is never put an object in the center. So for example I cropped the photo into a 16:9 format and placed the pilings into the bottom/right third of the photo.
One of many things you can do and the intent is to draw the viewers eye to the object you are highlighting in the image.
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Going to try that again!
As to every rule there are always exceptions and a centred object without any peripheral distractions will always be the main focus of attention. Maybe just meâŚ
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Interesting thread. I must admit that on the whole I like Donâs original best. The piles arenât really the subject of the picture. As I see it, the subject is the water and the way it merges into the sky on the horizon. The piles add interest and a reference point for scale, so itâs good that they are there but I donât feel the need to place them critically, nor to make them larger. You lose some of the sense of vastness if you pull the piles nearer to the viewer.
In the different crops the interest on the horizon is to quite an extent lost and thatâs why I prefer the original. Without prompting when I asked my wife to say which she preferred, she came up with the same preference.
So itâs âNice photo Don and donât mess with itâ from us!
Best
David
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I would move the piles slightly to the right (by cropping) and get rid of that little dark triangle in the bottom right.
I like the original picture, but the tiny bit of dark something (wood, boat?) in the bottom right hand corner is a distraction and so a minimal crop to remove this works best.
However, I also like Seakayakerâs rule of thirds crop.
Yes I agree on removing the dark triangle (which I hadnât noticed as itâs under the enlarge photo icon on my iPhone). But I would do that by cropping the bottom, not the right hand edge because of losing some of the detail on the right hand side of the horizon and that would mean it was unbalanced compared to the left.
Best
David
Just to say that I cropped mine deliberately centred so people could see the difference from what they had posted, not that I thought it was best! The other thing I did was slightly rotate the âhorizon lineâ.
Itâs brave of you to ask for opinions Don; hereâs mine.
The picture is quite dull. The colour palette is centred on a not very pleasing blue with reflective hues that add to the dullness. Maybe that was the intent.
My primary dislike of it is that itâs such a cliche, a dreamy seascape with mystical cloudy background and an object that breaks up the foreground to give it a sense of scale. Or whatever. Itâs exactly the sort of picture thatâs easy to skip past in the âLook At My Photos Arenât I Cleverâ thread because of what it represents; somebody imagining that a dull unimaginitave but mainly cliched photo is worth sharing.
How could it be improved? Personally Iâd be ok with copy n pasting into it a couple of Boticelli-type women looking coquettishly over their shoulders at me the viewer.
ATB Don, you did ask. 
I suspect you will get loads of different answers about how to improve it, some people will like it and some wonât.
My resonse is a question. What, if anything, could you have done differently to get a result that pleases you more?
Reminds me of the cover of Kristin Hershâs latest lp:
http://dis.images.s3.amazonaws.com/105875.jpeg
Thank you for all the responses.
It is interesting that most recommendations involve some sort of cropping. Again, these were mostly to enhance the viewerâs perception of what would constitute a âniceâ scene. And most of us seem to accept that different people have different points of view (I didnât really intend that pun !)
Recommendations regarding colour balance, contrast or the likes of sharpening were mostly absent.
I posted a modified version of that picture a few years ago in the âNice photosâ thread because it reminds me of the circumstances during which it was taken. I modified it by cropping and rotating slightly to get the horizon more or less level and I adjusted the brightness and contrast a little. I also had to âthin-out ?â the pixcel count to allow it to be stored on Flickr.
How close the original photo (this thread) or the adjusted version (previous Forum) was to the real visual scene, I donât know, but the photo does stir the memory in a similar way so there must be some emotional likeness.
Anyway, the purpose of the thread wasnât so much to enhance (or tweak) one specific (and rather mediocre) photo of mine (I am, however, grateful for the comments). It was to encourage others to post theirs and for the more enlightened photographers on the Forum to provide guidance on improving photos in general, both before pressing the button and afterwards in the computer. Iâm sure many of us have a lot to learn and will be very grateful for advice, no matter how harsh !!!
Hmm. TBH if you look at it that way most photographs are cliches - indeed, for many years most paintings were too. As for dull - that, surely, is in the mind of the viewer? Itâs a competent photo, better than the run-of-the-mill snap that most people take.
It is really difficult to take (or imagine) a photograph that is unlike any other. Even Ansel Adams could be described as cliched, I suppose - but that doesnât make them any less superb. The problem is that most photographs are of real things, and most real things/views/events have already been photographed/painted.
Which, AIUI, is why the impressionism, pointilism, cubism and all the other -isms plus abstract etc. - it was felt that it was all done before (plus photography, to an extent, degraded some of paintingâs reason dâetre. So yes, lots of people have taken lots of photos of misty water scenes with something in the mid-field. Of its type, this is a reasonable photograph.
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I guess having suggested that I should give you a go. The attached is as taken and was a grab shot between other people.
I rarely do more than crop, but here, are there options at the taking stage as well as post processing? What would you do?
I would have used a longer lens, to keep well away from it!
Best
David
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