Canon 10-22 First Walk C&C please

[cliffhanger407]

I recently got a Canon 10-22 and I'm very happy with it. Went for a photo walk with some friends and ended up on train tracks. I accidentally lost the EXIF on the upload of the first two photos, the last one has it intact. Some compositional tips would be greatly appreciated, as well as anything else you feel needs improvement. The last two are obviously the same image processed differently; I couldn't decide which version had more impact so please let me know what you think. Thanks for looking.

#1: 10mm, f/7.1, 1/40s, ISO 100
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3358/3211386943_b564b6ca00_o.jpg

#2 22mm, f/4.5, 1/100s, ISO 100
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/3212231646_5837937464_o.jpg

#3 22mm, f/4.5, 1/100s, ISO 100
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3262/3213184969_597352e245_o.jpg

[shaun raney]

I like number 1 and the texture of the wood and the rocks.
The vanishing point is fun to look at too. The curve in the track is probably only noticeable in a picture like this.

[howaboutnow]

Very cool, I like them both in color. Number one is my fav

[cliffhanger407]

Thanks both of you :). I've got thick skin and can take some hefty criticism if anybody has stuff to offer. I figure I can only learn if I get told what I'm doing right and wrong, specifically.

[yokotas13]

i love how with ultra wides you can see hte variances in the sky.
like dark on the right and light on the left on #2.

god i miss this lens already

[tonydee]

I think the shots are fine... but the subject matter needs an extra element of interest. Maybe you could have enticed your friends into the frame? Even something as simple as someone idling along can add another dimension. As Shaun said, the wood and rocks are great in the first shot. In the second shot, you don't get down as low and don't capture equivalent extreme-foreground interest, but I can see trying to do so would have distorted the signal lights in the mid-foreground and not worked. I can't help feeling the camera was pointed a smidge too high though: a little less sky and more ground. The bridge might reach the Rule of Thirds placement, but the ground doesn't.

Sometimes these ultrawides benefit from a little distortion correction in post-processing, removing the lean on posts and buildings near the sides.

Yokotas13: I'm trying to feel sorry for you, honestly! ;-). The Sigma 12-24 goes full frame... maybe worth a try? I'm pretty happy with mine, though it's not one of the first lenses I pick up: 24-105 and 70-200 are more widely useful, if you'll excuse the pun.

Cheers, Tony

[Metalstrm]

Somehow this reminds me of that Chernobyl PC game STALKER. I think the images are good, but need a more definite subject per se. I also find my eyes wondering to the "HUNGR" billboard. Is that "HUNGRY?". The images have got a certain desolate look that is appealing to me. I think you could perhaps expand on that a bit more. I wish I had an ultrawide!

[cliffhanger407]

Well... ask for people and you shall receive people. This one wasn't my favorite from the day (I wish the people had been more in the foreground) but it's the best example I had with people in it.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3365/3212238016_91a36b4619_o.jpg

I appreciate your comments, I definitely tend to agree that there's something lacking from the images, but I just can't put my finger on it. Maybe I'll try to get back out there with the lens set wider in the second shot, put the sky in the top third with the bridge there, and then the building leading up to an extreme foreground in the bottom two thirds? As for the HUNGR billboard, yeah, it says HUNGRY, and you should have seen it before I desaturated it. It was bright yellow and your eyes went straight to it. If I were going to print it, I'd be sure to clone it out, but I didn't feel like doing that much editing on these shots just yet. I'd probably reshoot when there's a better billboard up there first, honestly.

While we're on the subject, does the post-processing work (in your opinion)? The color photos are trying to look like Velvia film, and the sepia is just a standdard BW conversion with a tint to it.

BTW Tony, I'm jealous of your Mamiya :). Do you have a digital back on it or do you shoot film through it?

[yokotas13]

I think the shots are fine... but the subject matter needs an extra element of interest. Maybe you could have enticed your friends into the frame? Even something as simple as someone idling along can add another dimension. As Shaun said, the wood and rocks are great in the first shot. In the second shot, you don't get down as low and don't capture equivalent extreme-foreground interest, but I can see trying to do so would have distorted the signal lights in the mid-foreground and not worked. I can't help feeling the camera was pointed a smidge too high though: a little less sky and more ground. The bridge might reach the Rule of Thirds placement, but the ground doesn't.

Sometimes these ultrawides benefit from a little distortion correction in post-processing, removing the lean on posts and buildings near the sides.

Yokotas13: I'm trying to feel sorry for you, honestly! ;-). The Sigma 12-24 goes full frame... maybe worth a try? I'm pretty happy with mine, though it's not one of the first lenses I pick up: 24-105 and 70-200 are more widely useful, if you'll excuse the pun.

Cheers, Tony
nah, 24-105 is too slow

and i refuse to buy 3rd party lenses unles they are proven to produce better quality images than canon lenses.

[Synenergy52]

The shots are nice, I think composition could be worked on though. The first shot, the rail road tracks would look better if they begin at the same location across the frame of the image. They start from two different parts. symmetry. just my opinion though. The b/w effect on #3 is beautiful.

[PETERSYMES]

I think they are all good shots from the point of view of demonstrating the width of the lens but don't nail me for interest, 2 and 3 look HDR ish and a fair am mount of noise in the sky on the right.

They let anybody walk on the railway in your neck of the woods then??? Wouldn't try it here would end up in court on a trespass charge.

[tonydee]

BTW Tony, I'm jealous of your Mamiya :). Do you have a digital back on it or do you shoot film through it?

I shoot 120 film. Only just got it a few weeks ago, and only developed one roll so far. Nothing great in the results, but the image quality is breathtaking and I know when I do get the right image and framing, it'll be good enough to print large. It's a great, tactile experience just using the thing though. Was only about JPY38,000 (maybe US$400) second-hand with the 80mm f2.8 lens... kind of wish I'd known what MF/LF film could do before I bought just about everything Canon sold up to and including the 70-200mm f2.8 IS. Well, except the 180mm macro, and I've only got one of the tilt and shifts. But now I'm lusting after a Tachihara 4x5, or a Pentax 67II, and it hurts too much to think of everything I've got invested in Canon, so maybe a 5DmkII will come first anyway.

Cheers, Tony