Longwood gardens picture.

[amd47]

Hello, I am new here, and I would like some constructive criticism on one of my photos, which I feel is my best shot. I am 13 years old so keep that in mind when you look at it.

[Ray Dockrey]

I like it and i think you are off to a great start. I would have like to see the colors a little more rich which means a slight boost in contrast but hats off to you. A great first shot. I really like it.

[OldClicker]

I see a great beginning. I like the different textures of the trees - top center has a bare, old tree look; left has the drooping willow look; right has more of a common tree look and across the water you have the evergreens. The front three tree types, the fence (especially like the quarter-circle fence end) and the patch of sunlight in the foreground all lead me through the gap in the trees to the water. From there my eye goes across the water to the grass on the far shore which provides a perfect stage - but there's nothing there. See what I'm saying? - TF

[caleb]

You may find that shooting during the golden hours (~1 hour after sunrise and ~2 hours before sunset) will make your photos better. It will make the shadow areas and the highlight areas a little more consistent. In this photo, the harsh sunlight overexposes some areas while the shaded areas look ok. I don't know a way around this from behind the camera during mid day.

To explain this a little better let's say there are two extremes: shadow and highlight.
During mid day: Shadow ----------------------Highlight
During golden hour: Shadow------Highlight.

The camera is limited in the range of light it can properly expose. Where during mid-day you may have a difference of say 8 stops and during the golden hours you may have a difference of say 4 stops. If the camera can only expose for a range of 5 stops, it's impossible to get the entire scene properly exposed during mid-day. Hopefully that makes a little sense.

[amd47]

There's two things about this photo,

I didn't edit it, and it was a photo that I just stood there looking at it for a bit, pulled out my camera, and shot the photo. I didn't use a tripod or anything.

[OldClicker]

There's two things about this photo,

I didn't edit it, and it was a photo that I just stood there looking at it for a bit, pulled out my camera, and shot the photo. I didn't use a tripod or anything.

"I didn't edit it..." Not necessarily a good thing.

"I didn't use a tripod or anything." - Usually a bad thing.

"...I just stood there looking at it for a bit..." I admire your ability to see a shot. I'm still at a stage where I just shoot things and try to make something out of them later.

Don't get us wrong - you asked for inprovements and we all can improve. It's a nice shot of a beautiful place and I would take the opportunity to shoot it often if it were near me.

TF

[icicle]

I agree, I feel there is potential here for a re-shoot of this, during the morning hours.
I would like to see this from a different angle maybe ten more feet to the gate side and 20+ feet back.

[jetrim]

The camera is limited in the range of light it can properly expose. Where during mid-day you may have a difference of say 8 stops and during the golden hours you may have a difference of say 4 stops. If the camera can only expose for a range of 5 stops, it's impossible to get the entire scene properly exposed during mid-day. Hopefully that makes a little sense.

While everything you said about "golden hour" (more like "golden 10 minutes") is true, I don't see anything wrong, exposure wise here. Nothing's clipped, no blown out areas in the sky or water, and although the difference between highlights and shadows is dramatic, it's well within the range of this camera's abilities.

I would love to see a bench/kids playing/couple walking/or whatever, on the far bank in the sunlit area of grass, but this is a lovely landscape shot in it's own right. Composition is good, exposure is good, color balance is good, and overall it's a very pleasing image, even if the WOW factor is relatively low. I really like the interplay of color & texture, highlight & shadow in this one, good job and keep it up :thumbsup:

[Frog]

Welcome to the forums.
I like this composition and where the fence is placed therein.
I do think softer light would help and I also agree with jetrim that a person or persons walking the opposite shore or one sitting on the near shore would add emotional value to the pic.

[caleb]

While everything you said about "golden hour" (more like "golden 10 minutes") is true, I don't see anything wrong, exposure wise here. Nothing's clipped, no blown out areas in the sky or water, and although the difference between highlights and shadows is dramatic, it's well within the range of this camera's abilities.

maybe it's my monitor's brightness and the environment I'm in but we seem to differ a lot of "too dark/blown out." Not in an aggressive way because no one is wrong (and actually when I print my images, they come out noticeably darker than on my screen, so if anyone's wrong it's probably me). But anyway, especially in the bright grass the loss of detail in sharpness and color seems to indicate improper exposure. I realize it's not 255/255/255, but I believe that having detail at a critical part of the photo would be nice.

maybe pm's are better to not derail the thread with minutia, but I'm interested in acceptable ranges or how you perceive them anyway... a lot of my landscape photos seem flat and i suspect my thinking is probably the reason.

[readingr]

I like this photo there is a lot of depth and the interplay with the trees works for me and the way the trees guide you down to the water and the far bank.

What would make this better is a little PP to lessen the brightness of the grass in the foreground running down to the water and cloning out the white object/litter on the far bank next to the lower branch of the fir tree.

The scene speaks volume of tranquility, peace, serenity for me and works as is, but would be better with PP.

I just read the other comments and noticed that you probably need to calibrate your monitor. Most monitors are set up too dark for office work and for photography they need to be a lot lighter.

Roger R.