Reflection

[Skyblue]

Here goes my second attempt - I've got my box of tissues ready :cry-an::clown:
I took this pic a while back in the fall - was having to take pics of water features for an assignment I was doing.

Thanks in advance :)

[tomorrowstreasures]

i think for me the biggest thing to fix would be the foreground. the sidewalk/ steps over take the image. to me, i a nice square crop would do the trick on this.

[kat]

I think tt has the right idea. I find my eye goes right to the reflection of the sky and it takes away from the stone bridge reflection. The colors also seems a bit dull and pretty close to the verge of some blown up areas (highlights). A bit of contast boost maybe.

I do enjoy the reflection..a good play to the eyes!

I'll let the pros go on with this! :)

[Marko]

Gotta be honest as always...I have to wonder why you included the stairs here as for me they don't add to the shot in any way yet they take up almost 40% of the photo.

That said, even without the stairs there's nothing that's really compelling about this image; there's no sense of drama or tension, the colours are just okay. The focal point for me seems to be the dark area under the bridge and nothing interesting is going on there.

For all these reasons, I'd say this shot is confused and I'd recommend a reshoot over saving this image. Just my :twocents:.
Hope it helps - Marko

[tirediron]

I don't want to be a negative band-wagon jumper onner, but yeah, this image isn't really working for me. I think perhaps that it might have been stronger if you had used a CPOL to actually eliminate the reflections. This would have made the water appear darker and provided a perfect patch along which to draw your eye to the bridge.

[Mad Aussie]

Exc ellent image to put in critiques Skyblue. No point throwing in something that's really good if theres little to learn from it now is there??
The exciting thing is I've seen lots of people come here to ph.ca and produce average images and progress so quickly it's a boost to everyone to see as well as the photographer themselves.

This image holds so many lessons.

I can see why the stairs are there ... they lead into the water.

In the end though the stairs have been under exposed and create a bright distraction instead of a feature within the photo.

I think you can save this photo somewhat with some post processing and a crop as TT has suggested. I'd crop just above the stairs but leave the tip of that rock in as foreground interest.

Next I'd use the curves or similar to get some depth and constrast back into the colours.

Then I'd pull out the burn tool and using a light exposure (maybe 10% max) brush over those bright rocks everywhere.

Switch the dodge tool and lighten up those dark rocks underneath the bridge itself.

Finally some sharpening unless it's already sharp and uploading it here has softened it a bit.

That's my take on it.

[jlabel]

This picture seems a bit too soft for me, I mean focus

[Skyblue]

Thanks everyone for your comments. The photo is untouched as I do not have a program yet for that - any recommendations of programs for a Mac?

I have attached another copy of the photo with the stairs cropped out.

[Mad Aussie]

Hope your don't mind Skyblue but here it is with a few quick touches as I suggested ...

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u104/Mad-Aussie/09%20photographyca/skyblue-1.jpg

[Skyblue]

Thanks MA - I don't mind at all - it's very subtle and I can see the difference. I am going to go back to the park and take a few more pics and see if I can get a better one.

:thankyou:

[Mad Aussie]

Thanks MA - I don't mind at all - it's very subtle and I can see the difference. I am going to go back to the park and take a few more pics and see if I can get a better one.

:thankyou:
If you can go back and re-shoot it then all the better indeed!

Here's a hint ... when taking a landscape shot (or any shot really) once you have decided what you want IN the photo ... have another look and see whats in the frame that you DON'T want in.

It's easy for us to see what we want but we so often don't notice the things we don't until it's too late.

Decide what you main feature is ... look for things that might compete with it and either use a lower f-stop to create less DOF OR re-frame/zoom the shot so you cut out the things you don't want.

[Marko]

These cropped versions look way better than the original. Nice!

[AntZ]

These cropped versions look way better than the original. Nice!

Agree. A definate improvement. I like the symmetry now.