Hey all! After watching a lot of videos from the Elia Locardi BTS I have been really inspired to kick my landscape photography into a higher gear. These are some cityscapes I did tonight and later merged them in Lightroom. I would love some constructive criticism or opinions on how you guys think they look. I know HDR is somewhat disliked depending on the person so I want some opinions on if these look natural or over done or anything you guys can pick out to help me improve! Thanks for any help!
Shot on a 7D mark ii with a Canon EF 35mm f/2
Hey Harrison!
It's not that HDR is disliked, just glowing edges. Lots of people do it badly, that's why it's disliked. So don't be disencouraged to improve your HDRs.
So let's talk about the first picture:
- Composition: It's nice that you used the water is a mirror for reflections. I love doing that too, a lot. So kudos for that! But I think the power pole is too prominent in the frame and the bridge on the right hand side could have been used much more prominently. Also you cut off the reflection, which destroy the mirroring. That's some kind of no-go :P
- Post production: Overall it's not a bad HDR, I can just see some weird looking anomalies on top of the power pole. I would have brought out some more shadows on the bottom of the towers as well.
Second picture:
It's nothing super special for me, due to the composition with the camera pointing downwards onto the bridge. But technically I like how you closed the aperture (to around 11?) to give the spec lights the star shape. Although I don't like the composition too much, there are still those three round things which work as a leading foreground element.
I think, you're on the right track, just work a bit more on the composition :)
Hope that helped! Have a great day!
That's what I was trying to say about it being disliked I didn't know how to explain it lol.
Honestly, I know I was cutting the reflections off, which I never really do, but I went there with the mindset to only use my new 35mm (on a crop) to have some fun with it so I went in there kind of knowing I may have to cut some things out. As for the light pole, man I wish that thing was not there haha. I might go back and take some more shadows out now that you point it out!
Yep I believe I was at 11. It was more of a new composition for me, I hadn't been to the bridge I was on before to photograph the one shown so it was a new angle for me but saw a nice scene. Thanks for the help I appreciate it! Have a nice day yourself!
The powerline serves as ironic counterpoint to the tall building on its right - I don't see the issue. You cut off the reflections? So what - the light area along the bottom of the photo would've been hella distracting.
If you live in NYC, get to the Eggleston show: http://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibition/thedemocraticforest/
I plan on going back and taking this pano and making it an HDR pano I think that would look nicer.
You can't tell these are HDRs, so I doubt they'll get any hate on that score. In terms of technique, I'd say you didn't do enough underexposure, esp on the 2nd one. The highlights on the bridge supports are are pure white, and because everything else is so clean you really notice them.
In terms of composition, I'm not sure I agree with Mathias. I think you're seeing "democratically," like in a William Eggleston or Stephen Shore photo. You're not photographing a "subject" against a "background," you're trying to use the whole pictorial space. I like that; I wouldn't change anything in the 1st photo, compositionally - I think you nailed it. (I'm sorta torn on the sky, especially on the right - maybe it's too light, maybe it's not)
I'd also warn you that a lot of people don't "get" the whole Democratic Forest idea, so if you're trying to do stock or advertising photography, maybe you should listen less to me and more to Mathias.