Landscape shooting...Newbe

JasonL · August 18, 2008

Hello everyone. I was in Lancaster PA this weekend and I took this shot while walking arround with my little guy. He was off looking at Ducks while I grabbed this. There is no photoshop done on this, yet...........Any opinions good or bad are welcome. I am looking for advice to get better. Thanks !!!!

Shot with a Nikon D200, 18 to 200 VR lens

OsirisPhoto · August 18, 2008

Jason,

There are some interesting elements in the shot that keep my eyes occupied for a while and the reflection in the water is nice. It would have been better to see more of this.

The image seems over-saturated and with too much contrast... is your monitor calibrated?

Hope this helps.

jeffmeyers · August 18, 2008

Work on the composition a bit, Jason. The rule of thirds and all that helps with a landscape shot like this. The gazebo shouldn't be in the middle. You may want to check the exposure compensation and contrast in your D200 settings. It's seems a bit bright and the green channel is close to being blown out.

JasonL · August 18, 2008

OsirisPhoto wrote:

Jason,

There are some interesting elements in the shot that keep my eyes occupied for a while and the reflection in the water is nice. It would have been better to see more of this.

The image seems over-saturated and with too much contrast... is your monitor calibrated?

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the response, My monitor is not calibrated, I am looking into getting something to do this, any suggestions? Is there a way to get more of that reflection in the water? I am very new to this. On the saturation note......I personaly like alot of saturation, I like vivid colors, but also would like to please others. I know it is also hard because everyones monitor is different. I will post a few other pics for people to see. So how do you tell where to "stop" with the saturation?

JasonL · August 18, 2008

jeffmeyers wrote:

Work on the composition a bit, Jason. The rule of thirds and all that helps with a landscape shot like this. The gazebo shouldn't be in the middle. You may want to check the exposure compensation and contrast in your D200 settings. It's seems a bit bright and the green channel is close to being blown out.

Hey Jeff thanks for the reply, it's much appriciated and i checked out your website, nice work. I know abot the rule of thirds, but I wanted the gazebo in the middle of this shot. If you look at my last response, I would like to know more about saturation limits. I am working on getting a monitor calibrator this week to set up my PC's.. Any suggestions? Thanks again, your all a big help.

JasonL · August 18, 2008

New Guy Looking for advice
Hey everyone, This is a picture straight from the camera. I am really trying to get my pictures as close to done straight from the camera without doing alot of post production. That is kinda my goal with photography. I would love to hear some opinions about these photos. I had posted one of these in another thread, but wanted to add a few here. thanks in advance for the help. Jason
Nikon D200, 18-200VR, 50mm 1.8, sb600, sb800
#1 Back of hotel

#2 Farmland Lancaster PA

#3 Small Church Lancaster PA

#4 Truck In weeds

anwmn1 · August 18, 2008

Jason-

Are you shooting manual, aperture priority, auto, or a preset?

The Gazebe looks over exposed to me and I can't find the focus point- meaing where the camera focused -as there is no spot that seems really sharp.

As far as composition I think the gazebo is fine where it is but I would crop the right side to eliminate the half bench. This will but the gazebo even more center but you have other elements like the tree, park bench, and houses in the background that allow ones eyes to move around the image.

I am not sure what you are using for editing and I personally do not know jack about photoshop but you need to adjust the black and grey points if you can on the shot straight out of camera.

If you are not shooting manual you need to get there- and fast. It is not that difficult if you take a little time. Also learn to change your white balance and metering. The blue truck is an example of needing to spot meter on the truck and adjust the white balance so the grass is not blown out. It is also overexposed which you can tell by the hot spots on the leaves, hood and fenders.

JasonL · August 18, 2008

A mode

anwmn1 wrote:

Jason-

Are you shooting manual, aperture priority, auto, or a preset?

The Gazebe looks over exposed to me and I can't find the focus point- meaing where the camera focused -as there is no spot that seems really sharp.

As far as composition I think the gazebo is fine where it is but I would crop the right side to eliminate the half bench. This will but the gazebo even more center but you have other elements like the tree, park bench, and houses in the background that allow ones eyes to move around the image.

I am not sure what you are using for editing and I personally do not know jack about photoshop but you need to adjust the black and grey points if you can on the shot straight out of camera.

If you are not shooting manual you need to get there- and fast. It is not that difficult if you take a little time. Also learn to change your white balance and metering. The blue truck is an example of needing to spot meter on the truck and adjust the white balance so the grass is not blown out. It is also overexposed which you can tell by the hot spots on the leaves, hood and fenders.

The Gezebo pic was shot in A mode, and at F5.6 so there should not be one area that is "sharp" I was going for a complete in focus picture which i feel I did accomplish. One thing I have noticed on these threads is that on one persons computer something is blown out and others its not.......... and like i said, these are not edited yet. Do you have a suggestion for a monitor calibrator? As for the truck picture, It was very sunny out that day and was directly on the Truck.....Not much I could do there. What program are you using for editing? You have some great pics on your site !!!!!!Thanks for the comments. They are appriciated.

anwmn1 · August 19, 2008

JasonL wrote:

The Gezebo pic was shot in A mode, and at F5.6 so there should not be one area that is "sharp" I was going for a complete in focus picture which i feel I did accomplish. One thing I have noticed on these threads is that on one persons computer something is blown out and others its not.......... and like i said, these are not edited yet. Do you have a suggestion for a monitor calibrator? As for the truck picture, It was very sunny out that day and was directly on the Truck.....Not much I could do there. What program are you using for editing? You have some great pics on your site !!!!!!Thanks for the comments. They are appriciated.

Hey no problem and don't worry about the monitor thing. I am running an Imac and am not calibrated. There is calibration information on the smugmug help page.
F5.6 is way too much light for this scene. For wide shots like this most people shoot F8 to F11 and you can even push that to F15 to F22 depending on your syle and lighting conditions. F5.6 is more for portraits and selective focus.

Editing?? Well hmmmm.... I actually only use Iphoto on most occasions

. Sometimes I will use my Olympus Pro Studio software and I have played with photoshop elements but do not use. I am not the norm when it comes to editing- behind the times a little bit.

When you post shots people are going to give you feedback and some of it you may not like. There are times when you will post what you think is your best shot and people will point out issues with it. It is hard but just remember we are not trying to put you down just pointing out area where you can improve.

So next time- if still shooting Aperture- pic F11 change WB to cloudy- ISO as low as it will go- 200- 100 whatever it will let you do and then notice the difference.

JasonL · August 19, 2008

Thanks

anwmn1 wrote:

Hey no problem and don't worry about the monitor thing. I am running an Imac and am not calibrated. There is calibration information on the smugmug help page.
F5.6 is way too much light for this scene. For wide shots like this most people shoot F8 to F11 and you can even push that to F15 to F22 depending on your syle and lighting conditions. F5.6 is more for portraits and selective focus.

Editing?? Well hmmmm.... I actually only use Iphoto on most occasions . Sometimes I will use my Olympus Pro Studio software and I have played with photoshop elements but do not use. I am not the norm when it comes to editing- behind the times a little bit.

When you post shots people are going to give you feedback and some of it you may not like. There are times when you will post what you think is your best shot and people will point out issues with it. It is hard but just remember we are not trying to put you down just pointing out area where you can improve.

So next time- if still shooting Aperture- pic F11 change WB to cloudy- ISO as low as it will go- 200- 100 whatever it will let you do and then notice the difference.

Thanks again, I actully had it in Auto for the white balance. I am going to try and stop it down a bit next time I am out shooting and switch up The WB. See what kind of results I can get. Thanks will try. Oh what about the church and farm pics, any advice on those?

Brewster · August 19, 2008

re: farmland and church
try cropping the church photo tighter, there is a car just to the right of the building that could go, and tighten the grassy area in the front of the building.

on the farm scene: use the rule of thirds to move the horizon away from the center of the frame, and perhaps a polarizer to give the clouds some definition.

JasonL · August 19, 2008

Brewster wrote:

try cropping the church photo tighter, there is a car just to the right of the building that could go, and tighten the grassy area in the front of the building.

on the farm scene: use the rule of thirds to move the horizon away from the center of the frame, and perhaps a polarizer to give the clouds some definition.

Thanks brewster, good eye. I actually was playing with the croping of the church one and never thought to tighten the grass in th front. i will give that a whirl tommorow. I need to look through pics and see if i have a better farmland one. I was on a moving train and shot throught a window to grab that pic one handed while holding on. One of those wish I was outside with a tripod kind of places. Thanks for the help.

Landscape shooting...Newbe

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