SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
2 edits | [CritEditY] Help please I have not done much landscape stuff. What needs to be done to improve this photo? What did I do that is ok if any? What can I do differently the next time to make a better photo?
Shot in Aperture Priority-Shutter 1/400-f/6.3-70mm-ISO 400. 7:15PM | |
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rschimek62
Premium
join:2004-04-01
Elmont, NY
| i have darken the photo a bit.... | |
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blueflat
@tmodns.net
 from:
SueS 
| close to perfect as is.
good:
focus
composition
exposure
colors
red accent color of main human subject
(former national geographic cliche)
stop motion
person facing right, as in right-reading, for westerners.
plain sky light gives plain soft low-contrast light on the trees etc.
hmmmm:
sky one tone, bland blue, no clouds - painted some in with paint and smudge tools. darkened sky and treetops to emphasize person.
as is has three planes of interest, but nothing at far infinity nor anything right up close - added clouds to give interest at infinity, added copy of plants as if close underfoot, to make it closer to a three-fer.
boater facing right in the right side of the image looks like departure, good-bye, sad, gone. moved to other side for conversion to hello, happy, coming to see you.
unmodified:
brightest white, first eye draw, is the foreground ripples -try darkening them.
all of which is just playing, one minute each, fyi, changeable subject to what you had intended. | |
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Jodokast96
R.I.P Bassman442
Premium
join:2005-11-23
Erial, NJ | Re: [CritEditY] Help please I agree that the sky is a bit bland, but the canoe works as is. I do find the tree on the left a bit distracting, but I think cropping it would throw the rest of the picture off balance. | |
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Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ
| I'd say the biggest mistake, which was not yours really, was the time of day the photo was taken. I see a good use of the rule of thirds, a subject, a skyline, etc, etc.. The trees seem bland 'not your fault, the sky seems bland, again, not your fault'.. What you could have done? Shot it closer in. Make the canoeist (aka; the subject) larger with a smaller portion of the background and sky.
Also, Was the image bumped up in shadows because it was underexposed?
Either way, don't kill yourself over it. | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
1 edit | Thanks, all the replies are very helpful. I pulled in by the lake and saw the canoes and quickly grabbed the camera. I only had time to set the camera settings and check to see if I would be able to get some sort of composition, but I did not know exactly where I wanted the canoe in the photo, so I got two shots, one farther to the left by the clump of trees and this one. I did not know how to make the sky more interesting, and was not sure how to darken the light water at the bottom. I also do not know how to do the lighting to make something like the canoe stand out in a photo. All comments are very helpful for me and I appreciate them good or bad. Seems other people can see things I miss.
Forgot to mention this was not underexposed. | |
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Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ
1 edit | In the future you'll learn to know that mid-day shots are hard at best. Then you can 'zoom in' on the subject to selectively eliminate the mundane. In this case some clear but bland sky and some trees. I would have thought that just grabbing the tip of shore that juts in from the left..
ahh heck.. let me crop what I would have tried to take so you better understand where I'm coming from.. now, I can't help exposure but, at least you can see how I would have shot it..
EDIT: I think I have the ratio off so, take even a bit more off the top and call it a day  | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO | Re: [CritEditY] Help please It was shot at 7:15 PM, hardly mid-day. I didn't even get in the car till 7:00 PM. I like your crop, but at the time I thought I needed the trees on the left. I just don't get many opportunities for landscape shots here, so not much practice. | |
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| | Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ
| Re: [CritEditY] Help please I suspected it was late afternoon but, it might as well have been mid-day because the light is/was bad.. If you have too, drop the ISO, decrease the aperture and maybe increase the exposure. Though, clearly the subject is the canoeist so, don't confuse the subjects in my opinion. Just know that tight crops are perfectly fine for landscape shots. Wide-angle will often loose detail in the background and muddle the foreground if it's too far away, as is the case in this shot.
Like I said before, I certainly wouldn't kill myself over it. It's just one of many more to come I'm sure | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO | Re: [CritEditY] Help please Thanks for the help! I think because of not much time to react, I was making sure I was getting the shutter speed fast enough to stop the canoe. Maybe it didn't need to be 1/400? | |
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| | | | Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ
| Re: [CritEditY] Help please it's all relevant. 1/400th only means something when all else is known..
You may have needed 1/400th just to stop camera shake and everything else needs to fall into place because of that.. so then, what kind of shot can you take if you need the shutter speed to keep the image sharp? Well, then you're definitely needing to open up the aperture or increasing the ISO , thus losing sharpness.. Give and take...
So, what is the EXIF data? | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO | Re: [CritEditY] Help please All EXIF is there with my original post. | |
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Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ
1 edit | I see you edited the original post..
So, f6.3 is too narrow a FOV at what should have been either HyperFocal or simply Infinity - My guess is f11 through f16 would have cut it nicely. Slow the shutter to about 1/125 or so, maybe even 1/60th with ISO about 200, maybe 100.
f6.3 is for when you want to separate the subject at moderate distances, that doesn't seem the intention of this shot. Am I right?
To elaborate - with a decent lens, f22 at hyperfocal will capture everything in the scene perfectly sharp. From there you decide how to open the aperture or increase the ISO to capture the shot you need. If you want the water ripples, increase the iso slightly, if you want more exposure and still keep the canoe still-ish, lengthen the shutter some.. experiment..
My guess for this shot..
ISO 100, F16, 1/60th - 1/25th
ISO 100, f11, 1/125th - 1/60th
Focal length, 100 - 300mm, likely 200mm on the nose judging by your 70mm shot. | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO | Re: [CritEditY] Help please That canoe was not just sitting there, it was moving right along. I thought I needed a fast shutter to stop it, maybe I didn't. In the light I had there was no way I could have used f/16. | |
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| | Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ
1 edit | Re: [CritEditY] Help please Well - you decide for yourself.. Think about it..
The canoe is traveling, yet VERY slowly. The trees and water are moving too, again very slowly.. I honestly think that ISO 100 -200 at f11-16 at between 1/25 and 1/125 would have preserved the subject while showing motion without losing sharpness. Though, the only way to know for sure is to have been there and tried it..
If your camera has a 'user' setting - I suggest thinking ahead and setting the camera up for a shot like this, then take one in auto, the switch to user mode and shoot it again. See the difference and then tweak your user mode settings..
Taking the same shot with different settings is really the only way to know. My settings may work for me because I might be able to pan the canoe, or even pan towards me grabbing the edges of the ripples, you may not - Then again, you might be better than me at it and can track that canoe while exposing a bit longer with an even smaller aperture.. What I can do and what you can do is only separated by trying  | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO | Re: [CritEditY] Help please Thanks, I will certainly try different things. | |
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| | | | Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ
| Re: [CritEditY] Help please said by SueS :Thanks, I will certainly try different things. Hey, I just ordered the "Singapore Special" from the Chinese restaurant today.. What the heck is that? I have absolutely no clue. (though if it show up in high heels - woo hoo!!)
Yes, try different things | |
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| | Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ
| said by SueS :In the light I had there was no way I could have used f/16. You could have - you just didn't. What happened to ISO 1600? What happened to ISO 400 at 1/60th? So, you could have.. | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO | Re: [CritEditY] Help please I shoot ISO 800 lots but, things get ugly at any ISO above 800 with my camera.  | |
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| | | | Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ | Re: [CritEditY] Help please expose to the right - use the histogram.. in short, try to overexpose at higher ISO.. It cleans 'em up. | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO | Re: [CritEditY] Help please I actually darkened this photo. Histogram was all the way to the right. | |
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Kringle
Dr.D
Premium
join:2004-02-27
Pierrefonds, QC | Two words: Circular Polarizer. | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
| Re: [CritEditY] Help please Something I know nothing about. I don't shoot enough landscape shots to even think about getting one. Might put it on my Christmas list, but then you will have to teach me how to use it. | |
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Kringle
Dr.D
Premium
join:2004-02-27
Pierrefonds, QC
 ·Bell Sympatico
| Re: [CritEditY] Help please said by SueS :but then you will have to teach me how to use it. It's a deal. Actually, CPs are good for anything that has a reflection that you want to minimize so don't think of it as "only for landscapes". | |
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Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ
| what camera are you shooting with? If it's a P&S and it has a 52mm thread, well, I'll GIVE you a CPL. Granted, not the best one I own but, a decent one. I noticed a slight softness with it using a Vivitar Series 1 105mm F2.5, though, I really and truly doubt another lens would be sharp enough to make this CPL the limiting factor. It is a Tiffen after all.. | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO | Re: [CritEditY] Help please I would want one to fit my Tamron 28-75mm. | |
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| | Pentaxian
Premium
join:2008-01-23
West Milford, NJ | Re: [CritEditY] Help please Two things - What is the thread size of this lens and, does the front element rotate when focusing? | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
| Re: [CritEditY] Help please said by Pentaxian :Two things - What is the thread size of this lens and, does the front element rotate when focusing? Front does not rotate. Filter size is 67. Thank you! | |
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blueflat
@tmodns.net
from:
SueS
| as others have already suggested,
in camera,
to emphasize the person and demphasize the sky,
you can darken the sky with a polarizer or a neutral density gradient filter or a warm-tone gradient filter.
the polarizer would have darkened the sky if the sun were to the left or right, but not if the sun were at your back or ahead of you.
it would also have darkened the reflections on the water.
but the polarizer price is the loss of ~2 stops. the gradient filters would not have that light loss for the center. all require some extra fussing under time pressure.
in camera,
to give interest in the sky, choose a day with clouds.
the clear flat skies are the day of and 1-2 days after the passage of a cold front. little postcard-puffy clouds arrive about day 3-4, bigger ones later, and overcasts and rains precede the next cold front. about 10 days between fronts, depending on location, month, jet stream, etc etc. | |
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Pistolpete
Why is every day a C.R.A.F.T .day
Premium
join:2006-03-06
4,000 Holes
·Fast.co.uk
| I agree with the other comments regarding clouds,they add so much to an image.Blue skies on the other hand, although good for the sunbather:),not so good for the photographer.If you are considering moving into landscape photography,then I would certainly buy/use a tripod.Shoot in RAW or auto bracket your shots. | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
| Thanks, I like all the edits on my image, they have way more pop than I know how to do. Our trees are not the spring summer green color, with fall coming we already have lots of yellow in the trees.
I do have this question though. I thought shooting during the golden hour was to have the gold light in the photos. Do you shoot in the evening and remove the golden color cast, or just not shoot in the evening? I kind of like the golden colors, am I the only one?
I would like your thoughts on shooting during the golden hour.
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Jodokast96
R.I.P Bassman442
Premium
join:2005-11-23
Erial, NJ | Re: [CritEditY] Help please Like anything, it will vary by subject and shooter. The bigger reason, IMO, is not the color cast, but a more subdued light. | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
1 edit | With all the help received I am posting another reworked version. I cannot get the pop that everyone else gets, but this is the best I can do. I think it is much better than my first try. Once again I'd like some input and suggestions. Thanks for helping! | |
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blueflat
@tmodns.net
from:
SueS
| nice clouds!
how did you do that?
for more pop, try increasing contrast and sharpness, and saturation too (increased colors without increasing the black levels). opposite for less pop.
another trick is to use the density curve, and slam the bottom 5% of blacks(0-5%)all to pure black (0%)and the top 5% of whites (95-100%) all to pure 100% white.
expanding on what others have mentioned:
a photo can be an exact record or modified.
keep the unaltered original in case anyone wants to see what the camera recorded, make a b version and work only on that.
you had some theme or purpose in mind when taking the photo, was it expressed in the photo?
it's your photo, make it do what you want.
and you also will be thinking of where the photo will be used. a contrasty impacty version is good for the entertainment room or a photo contest, while a bland soft muted version is better for over the quiet living room couch or for the background in an ad.
your choice. | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
| Re: [CritEditY] Help please Thank you! I spray painted the clouds using 3 different colors. I used the color picker on another photo.
Thanks for all your help! I did not think about putting something in the lower right hand corner till you mentioned it. Now the composition feels much better to me. | |
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blueflat
@tmodns.net
| now try breaking all the rules... | |
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SueS
Premium
join:2007-05-16
Macon, MO
1 edit | Re: [CritEditY] Help please How about this? Does this break them? | |
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