washington DC

[juanse]

One of my first pictures poster, I still have lots to learn about SLR... C&C are greatly welcomed!

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u230/juanseriofrio/IMG_0425a.jpg

[-MasterChief-]

welcome to POTN! here are a few points to consider:

1. the Washington Monument, being your main subject, has to be straight. i understand that its lens distortion causing this, but you can edit the distortion in PP.

2. IMHO, it needs a tighter crop. not too tight, but at least get rid of a lot of the dead space on the left side of the photo.

3. invest in a circular polarizer -- trust me, you will love it!!! specially for landscapes.

keep on shooting!!! :D

[SHULTSIE!!!]

DC is a nice place to shoot... Just got here a few weeks ago, and I found myself taking a shot similar to this, but with a Tokina 10-17 fisheye.

[infinite012]

Agreed with roeddel. Alternatively, you can "straighten" your image in Photoshop CS2 with the lens correction tool.

My plan for taking a picture of the monument will go something like this: Go out when there are clouds and then take a vertical shot of the monument (dead center in the frame). Try to get as long of an exposure as possible to somewhat blur the clouds, and then futz around with the picture in photoshop.

[BottomBracket]

Juanse, welcome to the forums! Do you live in the DC area? I am from NYC but I go down often to be with relatives in Maryland. There's quite a group of POTN members down there, just look at the POTN Member's Activities forum.

You pic has potential, and I say this since you have a compositional sense not to put the monument right in the center of the picture. Putting it on the side makes it more pleasing, with negative space balancing it on the other side. As others have mentioned, the monument seems to be leaning a bit to the left (keystoning), no doubt caused by the effects of a worm's eye view and wide angle lens distortion. As this wasn't taken in Pisa, a quick use of the Transform tool in Photoshop would be judicious - it will straighten the monument.

Thanks for sharing, would love to see you post more photos.

[juanse]

Hi,

Thanks to all of you for your comments and suggestions.

BottomBracket, as you said I tried to have that compositional sence. I tried to show a the monument half-mast flags (I am a Virgini Tech student) and the federal reserve buildings. You probably cant notice the flags because of the small size. I have one question, i am starting to use PS, do you think you can help me straight the monument?

Thanks again!

[mogearnotalent]

intresting