I was thinking if in any way I could improve these images. These images were clicked a year back when I bought my first camera. Thought I could edit them now. The problems that I have notices is that the aperture(f5.6) was not ideal for the shot, hence the foreground is not sharp. Anything else would be very helpful.
Many photographers have trouble with depth of field because, for the most part, they don't have to deal with it at all. Therefore, they forget it's a tool to work with. One of my frustrations is that many modern lenses do not even have manual f/stop capability and it is necessary to adjust aperture back-asswards through shutter-speed priority modes. I forget who said it, and I can't find the quote just now, but like him, I'm old enough to remember when I had to turn the aperture ring myself.
Exactly. Its really hard to work with kit lenses.
I think that your post-processing is pretty good here, giving a pleasing, very appealing soft glow to all three images, that just makes me want to be there!
To my eye, they could all have been improved with minor compositional adjustments at the time which would give the scenes a more dynamic character. Firstly I'd put the sun a little more off-centre in each, increasing asymmetry in this dominant compositional element (including the glowing reflection in the first).
In the first, I'd move right and angle the camera left a bit, still keeping that reflection slicing down between the two rocks as you've done, but right of centre, and including more of the left rock. Maybe move closer to the latter as well.
In the second, I'd try to get more vertical separation between the two near rocks, perhaps stepping left and closer, and angling right a little, putting the sun left of centre.
In the third, I'd move back, bringing the dominant rocks further in from frame edge, as they look a little cramped. Again, I'd try for that vertical separation as in the second, but realise that may not have been possible while keeping the sun in frame.
Like your aperture observation, I know this is after-the-fact and won't improve these three images, so I hope you don't mind. Still enjoyable images!
Thank you so much for the ideas, I'll keep them in mind. Hopefully i'll get something better next time. Thanks again for taking your time analyzing the images so minutely. Its a great pleasure.