Morning Scenery

[ashjamesgav]

Haven't posted in awhile, and when I have posted it has been mainly portraits.


C&C is appreciated. If negative, please tell me how you think I can improve/what you think I did wrong.

#1 http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/48/l_8ac89318c83744ed8a9d0ba1a8f57e4b.jpg

#2 http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/62/l_f3a542e454ca463eb3f4f0060c163533.jpg

[JuiceBox]

1 seems quite soft. Two; eh. I can barely tell what it is.

[gmacmt]

You have the right idea with the first shot, but the composition is lacking. The power lines are tough to get around, but nice work on getting a great foreground.

The second shot doesnt really do much for me.

Use a different image hoster than myspace. It brings the quality down to a cell phone camera and is probably why they both look soft.

www.flickr.com

[joedlh]

It seems to me that you could find a location for a sunrise photo that does not have the wires and cell phone towers in it. I mean, there's a sunrise every 24 hours at most points on the planet (excluding the poles).

[Tawcan]

The wires and towers are rather distracting in the first shot. It also seems quite soft. Did you crop this from a bigger pic?

[ashjamesgav]

Thank you all for the comments. This was actually taken on my way to work (in my car), so there were plenty of telephone wires everywhere. I got a couple where they weren't there, but didn't get enough of the foreground in it. I could probably get the lines out in post-processing. Which ones are distracting... The ones you can see in the sky or the ones on the bottom left?

[ashjamesgav]

Oh, and the second is of a car that was in front of us. Again, about 6 in the morning, so I figured I'd play with shutter speed and see where it took me. I'm strangely attracted to it :). I got my 40D about a month ago, haven't had as much time to practice as I wish I could have. But that's why I'm here :).

[ashjamesgav]

I think I just really like that the trees are blending into the sky. Anyway, any suggestions on how to make the first shot not look as soft? Myspace does bring the quality waaay down and made the sky look kind of grainy, but it is still kind of soft even when I view it in DPP.

[ashjamesgav]

You have the right idea with the first shot, but the composition is lacking. The power lines are tough to get around, but nice work on getting a great foreground.

The second shot doesnt really do much for me.

Use a different image hoster than myspace. It brings the quality down to a cell phone camera and is probably why they both look soft.

www.flickr.com (http://www.flickr.com)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3242/3061358429_fae398d402.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3282/3061358859_8ecb244a15.jpg?v=0


Uploaded from Flickr.

[ashjamesgav]

Thank you for the suggestion of using Flickr, there is definitely a difference, looking at the side by side.

[Racerman]

if you used photoshop to clone out the power lines in the first one and then used like a second photo with a 50/50 or 70/30 composition of the trees to the sky would look a bit better I think with the birds copied across :)

just my thoughts, hope they help in some way

[ashjamesgav]

if you used photoshop to clone out the power lines in the first one and then used like a second photo with a 50/50 or 70/30 composition of the trees to the sky would look a bit better I think with the birds copied across :)

just my thoughts, hope they help in some way


So you think take out the lines, add more of a silhouette, and add a few more birds? The trees at the bottom were actually very scarce, so I copied/pasted/cloned some more into there. I could probably just move the image up a bit, move the birds down some, and add some more black to the bottom.

[ImageMogul]

It seems to me that you could find a location for a sunrise photo that does not have the wires and cell phone towers in it. I mean, there's a sunrise every 24 hours at most points on the planet (excluding the poles).

Hello ashjamesgav, and welcome back. I think I feel compelled to echo joedlh on this one. For this type of photo (#1) , preplanning a shoot at an interesting location devoid of distracting human elements is key. Its not that there are not attractive elements in this photo, but none of these elements have enough strength to sucessfully engage the viewer. The shot is quite wide with much empty space which again, doesn't keep your eyes engaged. You obviously have an eye for beauty, go where the beauty is and capture that rather than trying to construct a pleasing image from bits and pieces. I am looking forward to seeing further photos from you.

Regards,
Mark

[ashjamesgav]

Thanks again for all of the comments. I will try to recreate this shot, as I said, it wasn't something that I prepared for - it was just a beautiful morning and I just had to take a photo of it on my way to work (I was in the passenger seat, I'm not that dangerous behind the wheel :lol:). It may be a little soft due to camera shake since I didn't have a tripod in the car, and the car was moving :lol:, but I will attempt to take a picture in that general area again in the morning.

Any C&C still welcome, but I'm mainly looking for what I did wrong/how I can fix it in the future.

PS, here is my edit to get rid of the lines:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/3061754571_9662d2ca7b_b.jpg