New Camera, New Genre..looking for suggestions

[twiggles]

Hello,

I want to thank all of you for taking the time to give critical feedback. Don't hold back, Im just starting landscapes and art photography, so any comments are welcome. I will not "talk back" to justify why I did this or did that...I will take all feedback seriously.

The skyline was cropped, sharpened, and radio towers and airplane in the distance were cloned out. Shot in faithful with 28-135IS Kit lens on 40D

The sculpture has had no PP. Just converted to JPEG, shot in Faithful with 85 1.8 on 40D
I would like to see how you would PP this image, as it stands, I know it is dull and boring...play away!

[abuseddog]

I enjoyed looking at the first pic, but found the second lacks a little crispness. :)

[mickdo100]

Hi I also like the first, would have liked to seen it with the stadium more to the right or left of the photo, but thats just my preference at the moment. Look a lot better than anything i could have done! lol. Could be my eyes but the second one doesn't look that well focussed? Thanks for sharing though

[Aweitzel]

I like the first one. in fact id say its printable.

[twiggles]

Would you propose cropping from the left side to offset the stadium? I would be a bit concerned that it would make the left side of the image "heavy" any input?

[twiggles]

Also, just thought I would share a funny story about the skyline...i almost got arrested taking that picture haha. Apparently the park is closed after dark :rolleyes:...

As for the second image, I would be really interested in seeing some examples from you all PPing that image. I always love to see what talented people can do to turn a boring, flat, slightly soft picture into something cool...I leave you with this challenge. (I learn from seeing)

Thanks for the comments thus far. Its awesome how people come on here and offer good feedback to help others with this art. Rock on!

[KarlosDaJackal]

It might just be me, and I haven't measured it but it looks like the horizon is off by 2 degrees in the first one, it looks like all the buildings are leaning to the left.

I think their is too much going on in the centre, nothing to the left and very little to the right. I would chop of the left hand side. I still don't like the fact that we have a bridge in front of a stadium in front of a well lit road, in front of a city all blocking each other in one place on the frame, but its not always easy to find the best vantage point when dealing with something of that scale.

[MagikTrik]

The first one is good of course but I really love the "idea" of the second one also. It could use a bit of work if your not opposed to that. Also the second picture could have maybe used a bit more consideration too, the tree to the right bothers me a little but the 2 together at the bottom look kinda cool. Maybe if you could drop down a little bit more, try to use the subject to block the tree on the right and show & frame the other trees. Concept is the easy part, for instance I know there is an incredible shot in my parent's backyard when the sun goes down but after 12 years I still haven't quite figured out how to shoot it properly ;)
Maybe just sharpen & slightly saturate (but not so much to take away from the obviously "graphic quality" of the idea) or convert to high contrast B&W (depending on what kind of color separation you'd get).
Maybe I'll give it a go when I get back, I'm going out on call in like 3 seconds... but your definitely a lot better than I was when I first started looking at landscapes & such as photographic subjects.

[Flo]

first one seemed to be leaning a bit, so I did a level, small crop to the right of the stadium.and some sharp.....it is a nice shot;)

Second doesn't lend itself to play.I tried.http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/emmaloudawg/cincyskylinecropped1024-1.jpg

[twiggles]

Wow, thanks for the horizon comment. I didnt even notice until now...now its driving me nuts hahaha. I will definitly correct that in PS...now looks like I need to invest in a tripod with a level hahaha...

[twiggles]

Any Suggestions on how to get the skyline capture without the CA around the building neons? (*While not doing HDR) Is this a lens issue or exposure issue? Reminder, this was shot with a kit lens (28-135IS). Whould I have been better off using my 85 1.8, 70-200 2.8L IS, or sigma 10-20 (probably too wide)?

[KarlosDaJackal]

Any Suggestions on how to get the skyline capture without the CA around the building neons? (*While not doing HDR) Is this a lens issue or exposure issue? Reminder, this was shot with a kit lens (28-135IS). Whould I have been better off using my 85 1.8, 70-200 2.8L IS, or sigma 10-20 (probably too wide)?

If this is your lens reviewed here (http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/190-canon-ef-28-135mm-f35-56-usm-is-test-report--review?start=1) the obvious answer is use it at 70mm and stop down to f/11. All lenses will give CA when given bright lights surrounded by darkness, just find the best setting that still works for the shot with whatever lens you end up using.

[twiggles]

If this is your lens reviewed here (http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/190-canon-ef-28-135mm-f35-56-usm-is-test-report--review?start=1) the obvious answer is use it at 70mm and stop down to f/11. All lenses will give CA when given bright lights surrounded by darkness, just find the best setting that still works for the shot with whatever lens you end up using.

Thanks, i have seen this site before, but I tend to skim through the "lab talk". i like to see real world examples. This lab section though is one I will definitely pay more attention to since it will give me a benchmark for finding the lens sweet spot.

[Bill Boehme]

It might just be me, and I haven't measured it but it looks like the horizon is off by 2 degrees in the first one, it looks like all the buildings are leaning to the left.

A more dependable way of determining if an image is rolled about the line-of-sight axis is to look for a vertical reference rather than something that is horizontal. Finding a true horizontal is difficult and can be misleading if the reference is not perpendicular to the line-of-sight ... and sometimes a non-level horizon can cause an optical illusion that makes things look like they lean. In this image, there are plenty of good vertical references along the edges of the buildings and it turns out that the image is extremely close to being perfectly straight.

[joedlh]

#1 Nice shot, good balance between darks and lights. It looks tiny bit tilted to me.

#2 is a nice study in form.However, I think the background that appears on the bottom is a distraction.

[twiggles]

Hey,

Here is the Skyline straightened, cropped and with some contrast work done...what do you think? Now, I think the brigde looks a bit awkward at the bottom...? I had to cut it like that since I rotated the image to straighten the buildings.

[SwingBopper]

Here's another take on #2 maybe going a little more abstract.

[mfrank123]

here's my take...