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New to here, hows this Pic???
I am gettin pretty good at shooten these pics with my camera, but I now wanna go up a level and really get good stuff! Hows this pic, its from last friday on the St/ Lawrence river looking into Brockville ON. Canada! I love the cloud cover. what could be done to improve it? Thanks!
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There's a lot to focus on, in my opinion..
my eyes seem to drift all over the place.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bighitboy
I am gettin pretty good at shooten these pics with my camera, but I now wanna go up a level and really get good stuff! Hows this pic, its from last friday on the St/ Lawrence river looking into Brockville ON. Canada! I love the cloud cover. what could be done to improve it? Thanks!
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Good start. Taking good sunset and landscape photos is almost an art to itself. I think the good ones find a nice sunset and some structures that complement it -- often using wide-angle lenses to play with unusual perspectives. <a href="http://www.venhaus1.com/page.html">Take a look at this website</a> for some inspiration.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bighitboy
I am gettin pretty good at shooten these pics with my camera, but I now wanna go up a level and really get good stuff! Hows this pic, its from last friday on the St/ Lawrence river looking into Brockville ON. Canada! I love the cloud cover. what could be done to improve it? Thanks!
The photo's a good start, and like Lava Lamp says, sunset photos are an art unto themselves. Here's a couple of things to try:
1) Try having more sky and less ground in the photo. Right now you have about 50 percent of the photo as white, snow covered ground. The sky offers the visual interest in the photo. Use the rule of thirds to compose your shot.
2) Try a longer exposure time to get a little more richness out of the sky's colors and to lighten up the foreground.
3) Use a tripod to allow you to have longer exposure times, and also to sharpen up the focus.
I hope this helps.
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Inprovements
Quote:
Originally Posted by bighitboy
I am gettin pretty good at shooten these pics with my camera, but I now wanna go up a level and really get good stuff! Hows this pic, its from last friday on the St/ Lawrence river looking into Brockville ON. Canada! I love the cloud cover. what could be done to improve it? Thanks!
Sunsets are beautiful and one of the most often photographed outdoor subjects.
While the colours are always beautiful, most sunset photographs lack subject matter.
You really do need something besides the colour to hold the interest of the viewer.
Contrast enhancement, colour saturation, sharpening; etc. can improve what you capture but the subject matter is still missing.
Sometimes the sky and the colour is encough, if those elements are exceptional enough.
Fitz
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These are good suggestions, (and a great link!).
But I want to be as real as possible and help you out because I love shooting these kinds of shots too. Ithink the real issues here, are:
1) there isn't enough "landscape" to complement what I'm sure was a very beautiful sky. The foreground leading up the horizon will be flat and white/greyish, no matter how much you recompose for the sky. Then it becomes a "sky and cloud" shot, which isn't a bad thing, but I don't know if that's what you intend. Which leads me to:
1a) as with starting a business, the mantra "location, location, location" means everything in outdoor photography as well. I just think this location isn't that interesting from a photographic perspective. It reminds me a lot of where I live (which is also flat and grey this time of year), so I feel your pain... but you really have to make an effort to hop in your car (or even a train or whatever) and go find the more interesting spots in your region.
Not always practical if you have school or a day job, but if you want really compelling landscapes, the place has to be at least as interesting as the colors, if not more interesting IMO. With black and white, this is even more true because the shapes in the composition have to carry the shot.
Sometimes, when I don't have time to go elsewhere, but I want to shoot, I wait for the golden light, and then I shoot macro-shots. Close-ups of say ice on a water fountain, or pebbles in the snow or whatever. Making whatever is right at my feet "the composition", so that I can avoid the flatness of the land and its lack of real color.
2) I think you either need to use a longer exposure (thinking more than twice as long) or you need to catch the moment a little earlier during the "golden hour". This strikes me as being too dark, even though it's properly exposed in terms of balancing the aperture and shutter speed.
3) If you want to bring the treeline into the story you're telling, you have to get more detail and sharpness in there (which probably requires zooming in / re-orienting the shot a bit). The idea is to show the branchings and ice/snow on the trees a little bit... maybe with some of that nice light glowing on them. Otherwise the trees (at this distance and clarity) become a sort of "dark spot" that draws your eyes away from the colorful clouds.
Not trying to be harsh, I just want you to have some ideas the next time you go out to shoot. Keep them coming!
PS -- Go Sens! :)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PuckJunkey
These are good suggestions, (and a great link!).
But I want to be as real as possible and help you out because I love shooting these kinds of shots too. Ithink the real issues here, are:
1) there isn't enough "landscape" to complement what I'm sure was a very beautiful sky. The foreground leading up the horizon will be flat and white/greyish, no matter how much you recompose for the sky. Then it becomes a "sky and cloud" shot, which isn't a bad thing, but I don't know if that's what you intend. Which leads me to:
1a) as with starting a business, the mantra "location, location, location" means everything in outdoor photography as well. I just think this location isn't that interesting from a photographic perspective. It reminds me a lot of where I live (which is also flat and grey this time of year), so I feel your pain... but you really have to make an effort to hop in your car (or even a train or whatever) and go find the more interesting spots in your region.
Not always practical if you have school or a day job, but if you want really compelling landscapes, the place has to be at least as interesting as the colors, if not more interesting IMO. With black and white, this is even more true because the shapes in the composition have to carry the shot.
Sometimes, when I don't have time to go elsewhere, but I want to shoot, I wait for the golden light, and then I shoot macro-shots. Close-ups of say ice on a water fountain, or pebbles in the snow or whatever. Making whatever is right at my feet "the composition", so that I can avoid the flatness of the land and its lack of real color.
2) I think you either need to use a longer exposure (thinking more than twice as long) or you need to catch the moment a little earlier during the "golden hour". This strikes me as being too dark, even though it's properly exposed in terms of balancing the aperture and shutter speed.
3) If you want to bring the treeline into the story you're telling, you have to get more detail and sharpness in there (which probably requires zooming in / re-orienting the shot a bit). The idea is to show the branchings and ice/snow on the trees a little bit... maybe with some of that nice light glowing on them. Otherwise the trees (at this distance and clarity) become a sort of "dark spot" that draws your eyes away from the colorful clouds.
Not trying to be harsh, I just want you to have some ideas the next time you go out to shoot. Keep them coming!
PS -- Go Sens! :)
Well done, Puckjunkey.
Keep shooting, BigHitBoy. You have a good eye . . .
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