First Critique

[Meng]

And I'll start off with a shot of English Bay, go figure. I'm sure it displays shortcomings in my technique and eye that wouldn't be apparent in photos taken from here where I live. In the city I'm way out of my comfort zone in all ways, not just photographic ones.
So rip it up, exposure, composition, subject matter, artistic content, if there is any. The full monte.
I'm on a laptop so I'm posting at 800 long side, I can go 1024 without running out of screen if that would be better.

[mbrager]

Hi Meng: welcome to the forum. Interesting your first critiques post is of a place I used to visit very frequently and which I have very fond memories of. My aunt and uncle used to live in one of the buildings that would be within view of the pathway here. I like the lines of the photo, the picture is entirely sharp, and I was drawn in by the trees framing the background beach and water. I also looked a second time at the man in the foreground, wondering what he is doing. All in all, a nice peaceful autumn scene of a lovely part of the country. Thanks for sharing. Mike

[Mad Aussie]

I quite like the photo myself.

Composition wise I think you missed by 'that' much Firstly, the cut off seat looks like a mistake ... if you aren't goping to include it all ... really cut it off! Make it look purposeful. Secondly, there's a wonderful curve in that roadway of autumn leaves and trees just begging to be in this shot. By swinging slightly to your left you would have achieved both of those points and had a ripper composition in my view.

I see a yellow cast to this photo also. I realise that there is a lot of yellow and orange elements here but even the browns and greens are yellowish. A colour balance correction would help I think.

[Meng]

I quite like the photo myself.

Composition wise I think you missed by 'that' much Firstly, the cut off seat looks like a mistake ... if you aren't goping to include it all ... really cut it off! Make it look purposeful. Secondly, there's a wonderful curve in that roadway of autumn leaves and trees just begging to be in this shot. By swinging slightly to your left you would have achieved both of those points and had a ripper composition in my view.

I see a yellow cast to this photo also. I realise that there is a lot of yellow and orange elements here but even the browns and greens are yellowish. A colour balance correction would help I think.

Here is the complete shot before the right side crop. I agree the bench looks like a cobble job, I was trying to eliminate the blown out sky in the right top corner, if my PP skills were better I suppose I could fix that or is it unrecoverable? I wasn't level either and rotated to the right to bring the background buildings into vertical and that took a bunch of the scene away. I agree with you about the just missed it, a step or two back and a swing to the left. If you were going to crop the first one where would you do it? Mid-bench or take it right out? I looked at it both ways, three ways now and the way I did in the original post seems the best to me, either of the other ways takes most of the water from the frame and taking the bench out all together compresses into a blah thing. I did take a bit of the yellow cast out with a white balance adjustment and I think it does look better your way. Thanks for taking the time Mad Aussie, after you read this if you could take the time to reply with your opinions it would be nice.

[Meng]

I almost forgot to thank you also for your comment mbrager, thank you. That is a beautiful part of the city isn't it? Living right on the Bay must have been great, your aunt and uncle are to be envied.

[Mad Aussie]

Too easy ... my pleasure.

Personally, I wouldn't have cropped this at all. It is what it is, and cropping just removed elements, such as that twin building, but didn't achieve the desired result of removing the blown out sky. That sky is not recoverable I'm afraid but I wouldn't let it ruin the shot for me.