I'm new to photography and editing (first post here), but really enjoy getting out there and shooting. Just got back from a trip with a lot of fall colors, and this was one of my favorites.
I currently edit for my personal preference, but I would like to keep getting better, any comments would be great!
Very nice image Jeff and must have been a great time.I am not an editing guru, lightroom, photoshop etc so others may comment there.When you get a good refelection like this I sometimes try and feature the reflection part more. I've taken the liberty to crop your image.I don't know that it works on this but you might see what I mean.
Hi Jeff, welcome! Your shot is a pretty scene, makes me want to visit it myself. However, as nice as the scene looks, you don't have a center of focus that draws your eyes into the photo. Something in the foreground like rocks sticking out of the water, or a tree stump, or a diagonal line from a shoreline or tree limb that breaks up all the sameness and horizontal lines and leads you toward the center. Or it could be an old abandoned cabin set in the trees that grabs your attention immediately. The photo needs something more to take it to the next level. Does that make sense?
Yes it does. I will revisit my photos from this session and see what else I have, I know I have some with reeds in the fore ground but no reflection. If I find one, I'll add it here for you to see.
Thanks.
1. this looks like cropped off piece from some big picture - as suggested before you need to find POI and build composition around it
2. trees are out of focus - carefully focus according to f-stop, use Lifeview and if you have use magnification feature of the camera. always check results with 100% zoom.
3 light is flat - choose a time of the day/night to have interesting light conditions (golden hours, blue hours, clouds, fog, etc)
Do not hesitate to delete low quality/bad pictures (technical, artistic).
Lots of times when you outdoors you can see a beautiful scene in front of you but its almost impossible to make a picture out of it
Agree in full.
Thank you Bruce. Focus was the biggest problem I had when I got to reviewing my images on the computer. Where it looked sharp on the camera, it was clearly a little fuzzy on the screen.
I will see how to do that on my Canon, as being able to check my focus would save me a lot of heart ache when I get back only to find less than crystal clear images.
Jeff, lot's of good suggestions here. I would also suggest don't stop thinking about how to shoot the scene. What caught your attention? I assume it was the fall color on the trees. Let that begin the thought process... could you have gone telephoto? Wide angle? Walked around and shot it backlit? Framed it with something? Found a point of interest? You will often find as you think of a different perspective it will lead to another train of thought and eventually you'll find the best shot through process of elimination. Always keep shooting!
Yes, it was the color of the trees that I was really struck by. I have more from this session, I will take a look at, doesn't have the reflection that I liked, but perhaps would be a more technically proficient photo. I will take a look after work today and see what you think about one or two others.
Maybe they'll be better, maybe not.
Thank you for the comment.
This one still has the focus issues, but was a different comp i took from the same place.
I struggle with this type of photography. I had a mountain behind me, and found that when eventually the sun caught the trees in front (like your shot) the sun was too harsh. I live in Califrnia and it is only in the fall that you get interesting skies with clouds. I think that your shot is suffering from the same. Like Geoff said cut out the sky and use more of the reflection. I like also the suggest of finding some interesting log or stone to concentrate on.