Back in the game, First shot

[Zeph]

Hi guys,

After being on the forum for a little while as I look for my own DSLR I finally got to borrow one and go for a bit of a bushwalk at a local river.
This is my fav from the walk with very little being done except a crop and a slight change of curves to help balance the picture back out.

Feel free to offer any advice as it's been quite a while since I have shot and am really keen to get back into it.






heers
Zeph

[sirhc55]

Zeph - the background in this shot is very nice with the colour helping to liven up the foreground. I do find the light patch on the right (in the water) a wee bit distracting. Overall not bad

[Matt. K]

Zeph
Your image has some very nice elements in its construction...but suffers from a common problem with amateur landscapes...the empty foreground. There are no rules in photography but if there was just one it would be....avoid the empty foreground when composing landscapes. Some small object/element/person in the foreground of your image would have made it perfect.
(PS...I once offered a challenge to a bunch of photographers to show me an example of a landscape that had an empty foreground....yet was an excellent image. I've yet to see it).

[aim54x]

As Matt has already pointed out, you do need something in the foreground (lower left would be where I would have tried to get something) but also, the image appears fuzzy and full of artifacts, are you heavily editing a JPG or saving the web copy in very low quality?

[Zeph]

Thanks for the feedback guys,

@Matt - I find landscapes to be one of my biggest challenges which is why I really wanted to get some ideas on how to improve them. It really is so easy to overlook the foreground when you are focused more heavily on the main subject.

@Aim54 - It was compressed slightly but for some reason imageshack.us are now doing something really strange when you upload, I will need to test to work out what has caused the quality. This shot was taken from camera, cropped and had a very very slight curve adjustment done to give a little more detail through the log in the water.

This location is very close to where I live now so I am sure I will do many visits to see if i can improve it over time

Thanks again and look forward to getting more involved in the forums
Zeph

[Steffen]

That's why you should always bring a rubber ducky to bushwalks

Seriously though, as empty foregrounds go, this one isn't too bad. There is actually a fair bit of structure there. Maybe you can play (locally) with the curves a bit to bring out the churning in the water some more and add interest to the foreground that way?

Cheers
Steffen.

[biggerry]

Hi Zeph, welcome to the forum and wonderful world of digitalslrs.

With regard to your image, can you advise on a few things, what camera did you use? what was your processing to get to this version (websize)?

The image looks dull in terms of colour and I am sure there was more in it before it got posted, as Cam has mentioned, there is lots of artifacts from jpeg compression or downsizing.

Composition wise, a simple crop will make this scene quite a bit stronger. The foreground, as mentioned is a bit bare, however you have a nice leading line (the water flow) though the frame, i think accentuating this by cropping 20% off the bottom will go along way to improving it.

You exposure is pretty good here, you have nailed it without significantly losing detail in the highlights and shadows are nicely detailed. I would liek to see a full res version to really see what you started with.

Hope to see you around the forums more often and feel free to join in the discussions and comment other peoples images.

[Zeph]

wasn't sure how to delete this post so edited and ignore but view the one below..

[Zeph]

Camera was a D70, 18-70mm @ 18mm, F22, 6 second exp -.3 step, and had a circ polariser filter on because i forgot about it

Here is the original with cropping about an extra 20% off the bottom and a bit off the left too as i found my eyes being drawn too far left with nothing to pull me deeper into the image.

I was worried at first about this being a bit dark but that has no PP other then the crop.

Feel free to edit and post. (this was uploaded with Imageshack which resizes to 800 max width for forums, I have uploaded the original image and also the full sized crop to the links below the image.)



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

http://www.my-it.com.au/pics/Creek.JPG
http://www.my-it.com.au/pics/DSC_0166.JPG

[Matt. K]

Whoa...that's much better! Now it has some atmosphere and invites the viewer to look into the background. I think there's more to be had with a little more post processing. Brighten up the foreground just a tad and punch up the contrast on the rock on the left of image...but that's just now my personal taste. Here's a little tip...note that the image has 3 dark corners...2 top and bottom right. Try darkening down the bottom left hand corner and see if that locks the eye into the center of the picture. It usually does.

[biggerry]

now we are talking Zeph... the D70 is a fine camera and still works perfectly now.

as Matt has mention some extra processing love will turn this from a ordinary pleb shot to something tops.

How you get to that final processing is of little importance I think, everyone has to develop their style (to an extent) and workflow. I had a quick hack at your full res jpeg - thankyou for providing it, it makes having a edit much more meaningful than some dinky thumbnail. I edited this in CNX2, so your mileage will vary depending on program, if you want specific details of what I did feel free to ask, it was a 2.5 minute effort.

The main things I did was
1) lifted shadows, acentuated the two main focus points, the water flow on teh bottom left and the bright light in the top right, note, these two items intersect the intersection of the thirds. Also the leaf litter and little dam on the right add a nice secondary element too.

2) adjusted the colour and contrast (contrast was the last step), also brightened/desated the smooth water area, this makes it look more attractive imo.

3) crop to get the key elements in teh right spots, see 1).

let me know if you want it removed.



3)

[Mr Darcy]

Imageshack which resizes to 800 max width for forums,

You are almost always better off doing the resize yourself as the editing software tends to do a better job than the hosting site.

wasn't sure how to delete this post so edited and ignore but view the one below..

It is much better to keep the original and add a second image anyway. That way we can see the progression of ideas and processing.

I much prefer your second image to either your original post or Gerrry's rework. I love the moodiness in it and the crop sings.
That said, I would like to see the very dark areas on either side of the cascade lightened a little to bring out some detail there. Gerry's post proves that the detail is there to be enhanced.
I will give it a go in the morning - if no one else beats me to it.

[Zeph]

Thanks so much guys

I really like that rework Garry, I will have a play tomorrow if i get a chance around my currently ridiculous work schedule and post what i come up with

I will really have to spend some time now having a play with this

On a side note i'll be doing a storm chase tomorrow night through SE QLD so there may be a few photos come out of that with any luck

Cheers
Zeph