Mountain Valley lake

[MxFlyer43]

I took this picture in Olympic National park, Washington with a camera I'd had for only a week(nikon coolpix 995) Since I'm very new to photography as a hobby or interest ANY and all comments are welcomed.

[Steph_B]

[QUOTE=MxFlyer43]I took this picture in Olympic National park, Washington with a camera I'd had for only a week(nikon coolpix 995) Since I'm very new to photography as a hobby or interest ANY and all comments are welcomed.

/QUOTE]

Hi!

Welcome to our forum!

Congrats for having kept the horizon straight! This is a common composition mistake made by beginners. I used to have a tilted horizon on most of my shots in my first rolls! And there is nothing more anoying than having that perfect sunset and the sea spilling on one side of the frame!

This was a difficult situation because of the large dynamic range of the scenery (dark mountains + light reflection + central clouds). Your camera exposed the pic properly. As you can see, a longer exposure would have burnt the lake totally, while a shorter exposure would have given you pitch black mountains....

Now, probably the biggest problem with this pic is the composition: what is the subject? Is it the Lake (is this Crescent Lake btw?) or the sky? or the mountains? These three subjects are all competing for attention and share about the same surface (with a predominance for the Lake). Usually, a lighter subject will attract the attention of the viewer, while a darker subject will in a lesser extent (obviously, there are some exceptions!) .

There are lots of rule concerning composition. The best way to master/understand them is to ALWAYS ask yourself what is the subject of your pic. I found that looking at postcards in tourist shops are very helpful. Postcards are like photographic fastfood: they are always prettily much built the same way and respect the same basic composition rules. They are seldom exceptional but they can be a good reference for 'good' pics.

I guess the best way to learn is to practice. Rejoice, you have a digital camera! Instant feedback and no processing costs !

BTW: faced with a similar situation, I would have kneeled and taken a pic of the sky mostly. I would have kept a little bit of the lake (about 1/3 to 1/5). I would also have used a tripod and a long exposure to blur the water.... Because of the large dynamic range, consider converting your shot in BW. It's often softer on highly contrasted scenes.

Hope to see more of your posts soon!

Cheers,

Steph.

[MxFlyer43]

crescent lake sounds familiar but I'm not really sure. Thanks for the advice.

[shesells]

crescent lake sounds familiar but I'm not really sure. Thanks for the advice.

MxFlyer.. I took this into photoshop and lightend it a little to bring out the detail. When I did, I saw something beautiful going on. Layers of bluish mountains and clouds floating over them. It's really quite a gorgeous photo. Try to bring out light a little and you will see what I mean.
Kit