Critique my photo please

All comments are welcome
Noticed after posting it is a little dark.

File Name CC POTN 3.jpg
Camera Model Canon EOS REBEL T3i
Shooting Date/Time 1/20/2015 7:19:16 PM
Owner's Name
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 0.3
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
ISO Speed 100
Lens EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II
Image Size 1024x585
Flash Off
Filter effect N :None
Toning effect N :None
Color Space sRGB IEC61966-2.1
File Size 380KB
Camera Body No.

Yes, it's dark. But the scene looks, well, like it's after sunset. So I think you did a good job of portraying that. However, it's uncertain what the point of the shot is. I would put this in the category of cardboard box photography: a technically correct shot of an uninteresting subject. It's basically a gas station on a rural road after sunset. Maybe I'm missing something.

joedlh wrote in post #17403922
Yes, it's dark. But the scene looks, well, like it's after sunset. So I think you did a good job of portraying that. However, it's uncertain what the point of the shot is. I would put this in the category of cardboard box photography: a technically correct shot of an uninteresting subject. It's basically a gas station on a rural road after sunset. Maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks Joedlh
Sunset is what I was going for, I was trying the after sunset and gas station to see if I could balance it all out in LR4, the other day I was reading a post, I think it was in Critique Corner, it was of a little girl in a red dress standing on a bridge and someone replied and said to turn down the red saturation using ASL in LR, I had never used ASL before, so I used it and zoomed in on each color and using ASL I adjusted each color, Tail lights on a car I made sure they were red, head lights I made sure there wasn't any colors bleeding in to them, yellows in the sign I made sure they were yellow without bleed over from other colors, the clouds I adjusted the purple and magenta and didn't notice any changes to the other colors that I adjusted before the purple and magenta.

Now I need to work on interesting subjects to put in with the sunsets, I still don't have the eye for that yet but I will be working on it.

Thanks for replying to my post
Don

What is your subject here? I don't understand what you are going for. Out of focus snapshot of a gas station? You need to work on choosing a subject that has interest. There is a tiny bit of color in the sky, but the rest of the photo is bland, completely black and has no good subject. Silhouettes can be nice but this is just black. Try to have a good range of tones.

Numenorean wrote in post #17404484
What is your subject here? I don't understand what you are going for. Out of focus snapshot of a gas station? You need to work on choosing a subject that has interest. There is a tiny bit of color in the sky, but the rest of the photo is bland, completely black and has no good subject. Silhouettes can be nice but this is just black. Try to have a good range of tones.

Thanks Numenorean
Well I was feeling good that I was able to pull that much out of the RAW file in LR.

Do you have in suggestions as to how I could have better taken that picture at 7:19:16 PM With the 18/55 mm kit lens?

As I said in the post before yours the subject matter sucked, I was leaving where I had taken some pictures of smoke stacks at a power plant, stopped for oncoming traffic saw the sunset and took Snap shot.
Thanks for your reply I do appreciate your commenting on my post
Don
Just went back and looked for focal point in DPP and it was focused on the sunset.

Focus on the subject more than the background. Stop down to f/11 or more to get more of the photo in focus and focus on the subject - but find a better subject. Use a tripod because you will need a longer exposure. The location doesn't look ideal for that time as it looks like it naturally has very little light from the sunset. Use filters to get the various areas of the scene to be exposed more correctly or take multiple exposures and blend them (not HDR/Photomatix stuff preferably).

But focus throughout, good exposure, etc. wouldn't help that photo because it needs a better subject.

Numenorean wrote in post #17404743
Focus on the subject more than the background. Stop down to f/11 or more to get more of the photo in focus and focus on the subject - but find a better subject. Use a tripod because you will need a longer exposure. The location doesn't look ideal for that time as it looks like it naturally has very little light from the sunset. Use filters to get the various areas of the scene to be exposed more correctly or take multiple exposures and blend them (not HDR/Photomatix stuff preferably).

But focus throughout, good exposure, etc. wouldn't help that photo because it needs a better subject.

Thank You Numenorean
I'm going to add your advice to my sticky notes in Windows Word pad under the topic Sunsets so I will have them with out having to surf to web next time I decide to try taking sunsets again, I know everyone thinks I'm a spammer or everything that they are trying to help me with goes in one ear and out the other, well I realize that when I go out to take pictures, I have the writers block of photography. So I guess there is nothing in the middle of my ears to grasp and process the information that's been provided to me.
Thanks
Don

DigitalDon wrote in post #17404640
Do you have in suggestions as to how I could have better taken that picture at 7:19:16 PM With the 18/55 mm kit lens?

not sure what you mean by "better" but you are at ISO 100 you could pick up one stop (ISO 200) without really loosing anything, and two stops (400) with a little compromise in additional noise.

would that have made it better, probably not. but it might have brightened up the sky with a good exposure rather than trying to do it in post. It could increase your shutter speed. Or better yet, keep you from shooting at maximum aperture which is generally not the sharpest option for a lens. Stopping down would also give more DOF which is usually something landscapes want to have. Just something to keep in mind as you are practicing.

DigitalDon wrote in post #17407022
I know everyone thinks I'm a spammer or everything that they are trying to help me with goes in one ear and out the other,

nah.

lots of folks come in and ask questions then run off without so much as a thank you. It's nice to see someone honestly interested in learning, and willing to accept criticism without sulking and running off. Keep shooting, you'll get there.

Thanks Left Handed Brisket for the words of encouragement to keep trying and not give up. If it was a film camera I would have given up after I had wasted about 50 rolls of film, but, being digital I'm going to keep trying until I wear the thing out and it doesn't work anymore.
When I said in one ear and out the other, well being honest with myself that is what it amounts to, sunset/ night time photography is something I tried on the spur of the moment, when I got to where I was taking the pictures all of the Brian Peterson's Sky Brothers and all the information I have received here on the POTN wasn't there (writer's block was) I have to come up with a system to bypass the writers block, so I'm going to try the sticky note idea with my cell phone, get to the scene 30 minutes early and refresh my memory (what I have left of it) and give it another try.

Thanks again for the words of encouragement

Don