Japanese Garden at Sunset

[fx101]

I nabbed this shot after visiting a local japanese garden a little before sunset.
Used a D200 at 20mm @ f/8.0 with an ND grad and polarizer.

Do the colours and composition work?

[llewpics]

It seems just a bit underexposed. Also, to me, most of the interest is in the left side of the photo - the rocks for the foreground, and the bridge about 2/3 of the way up. I would try a portrait crop of the left side of the image - but excluding the building in the upper left ...considering you do allow editing of your photos - I have included my "idea" ....cheers!

[arne saknussen]

Overall I think t is a fine photo. My criticism would be to relate the title better. I see elements of a Japanese garden but a lot of other elements that could be any kind of garden (for instance, the bg trees). If you could isolate the bridge and the tree that seems to be near it (or the tree, the bridge and water with reflections), it might be more focused as to being a Japanese garden.

[fx101]

Llewpics: I agree that the image does look underexposed. However, that was more of a lighting problem as the shadows got clipped. In particular, I wanted to go for a darker stylized look so I post-processed the image to bring back the shadows in order to further achieve that goal. The result is below. As for the portrait crop, I actually really like the river-bend on the right side. The portrait crop looses a bit of context. Instead, I tried a wider crop omitting the building on the left (which is definitely out of place).

Arne: I agree that this is not a genuine "japanese garden," and the trees far in the background don't help. Unfortunately, I tried several different crops and ended up with what i mentioned above. Playing a bit with the shadow balance when post-processing I think focuses the attention on the lower parts of the image. I hope this draws attention more toward the "japanese" elements in the foreground. Or would a tighter crop with the bridge and right tree in the frame and the small island marking the bottom of the frame work better?

[trout bum]

I like the shot and the crop is a definite improvement. To me the greens are a little flat, maybe underexposed as mentioned. I'd tinker with the color balance etc. but it sure looks like a fun place to be with a camera. =)

[JadynH]

For me, no changes needed as it is very clear and looks so real that I can feel the relaxing ambiance in the place. Good work!