Cairns (First Critique Request)

[Tim A]

It has been a long while since I've shared, and I've never posted in this section before. I have however been taking many pictures and this is one from today.

I was along the shores of Flathead Lake with some friends - we had the day off school. One of the guys grew up in the Philipines and a game he said they played all the time was setting up piles of rock like these, standing back, and seeing who had the most accurate throw. So, with nothing better to do, we did the same.

Photoshopping - noisewared, levels, curves, brightness/contrast, and hue/saturation - all very subtle changes. A perspective transformation to fix a slanted horizon line. Also USM and of course the border and sig.

All comments always welcome...thanks for looking.

Tim

http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/data/500/2242Cairns.jpg

[Flagpole]

G'day!

This is very cool shot. I like the colour and texture. The only gripe I have is the composition. I would love to see the fore group of rocks slightly more to the right and off centre. But that a minor gripe.

Just a quick question regarding DOF. What aperature is this taken at? Did you use a tele lens to get a shallow DOF for the shot?

I find on the G2 even at F2.0 the DOF is extremely large which makes for a fairly challenging task when trying to get a blurred background.

Flagpole

[Tim A]

FP,

Thanks for your comments. I agree that the comp would have been improved by pushing the foreground cairn closer to the right border. I'll play around with some crops today.

Regarding the DOF. The Av was f4, no tele-converter used. I was zommed in at 21mm with a 7-29mm range. There was also quite a distance separating the cairns, they weren't close together. I too was pleasantly surprised by the depth of field.

Thanks again for the feedback! Others...

Tim

[stoneylonesome]

I don't fine the Comp. that bad I would have liked to see all the stacked rocks in focus and the mountain ranged blurred. I guess if the DOF was increased to include the last stack it would have been better IMHO.

[tim]

I like the scene and it's a nice picture, though I too would have tried for a greater DOF. There's a 1/3 2/3 rule about DOF, something about the hyperfocal distance, that might have been helpful.

I'd also like to have seen it shot with the focus on the large pile of rocks in the middle distance, or even on the mountains in the background, just to see how it looks.

[charlesu]

Very interesting. Very cool. I also think, since this is a landscape shot (of sorts) it might benefit from a landscape format. Epsecially if composed to fill far right to far left (roughly in thirds).

Thanks for sharing. The idea is inspiring.

[ssim]

I like it. It would have been interesting to see the focal point on the center cairn.

[Hellashot]

By using a wide appeture the background is not in focus. That added to the objects in focus being at the bottom of the frame makes it a difficult image to look at. Your eyes don't automatically go to the bottom of a vertical from - they go to the middle - where it's blurry. I'd like to see an appeture of f22+ because the background looks that it'd be breathtaking.

[cactusclay]

I think it's an excellent composition. As far as the rule of thirds goes, I think you just about nailed it. Nice rhythm and repetiton. Perhaps, a smaller apature would have made it better.

[boomer1959]

I like it as it is. Well done :D

[Tim A]

Well I am impressed by the feedback! Like the subject says I've never used the Critique forum before, I'll be sure to use it again. The insight gained from your responses was subtle, but very valuable. I'm still new to photography - it's been a year less 4 days since I got the G3, and though I've learned lots, but there's still so much more to pick up on. A common response was focussing in on the middle cairn or better yet the whole scene. I never even considered this, it would have been easy enough to do, just didn't think of it. Will keep this in mind the next time it applies. This was just one of a few suggestions that I'll mull over and file away for future reference. Feel free to keep replying, but this thread has likely run its course. Thankyou once again!

Tim