Landscape Photography Woes

Well, I've taken the advice here to heart and went back to the scene of the crime tonight after work and got to the park around 7:30 PM. half hour before sundown.

I set up and waited for the light, got closer down to the water and tried the shot again!

I think it looks better now?

Opinions please!

This is much better, IMHO. The light is better, as a result the colors that are there are richer, the shadows are more distictive and complimentary.

It's kind of a hard scene to do as there's such a wide difference between the lights and darks, but it is better.

photoguy6405 wrote in post #5438041
This is much better, IMHO. The light is better, as a result the colors that are there are richer, the shadows are more distictive and complimentary.

It's kind of a hard scene to do as there's such a wide difference between the lights and darks, but it is better.

Thanks for the feedback!

I was really happy with the results of this and wanted to thank all of you for helping me get my brains together a bit better to approach this.

I also tried doing this shot @ f/1.8 on my 24L as the previous one, I stopped the lens down to f/8 and over sharped it too much. The smoothing effect of the wider aperture, I think also helped to hide some of the blemishes in this shot.

Cheers!

Check out Freeman Pattersons book "Photography and the Art of Seeing".

You know the "rules" of composition, which can get you on the right track, but once you get the camera up to your eye you are just arranging lines, shapes, colors, forms, and textures. With your eye to the viewfinder make you eye go out of focus, and just arrange the elements of design; pay attention to the visual weight of things and how they change as you move things around the frame. Try getting down low to change the perspective. Include something in the foreground, decide how much of the frame you want the foreground to occupy and then experiment with different focal lenths which will make the foreground occupy more or less of the frame. Once you know how to manipulate things in the frame it's just a matter of using the rules of composition to get your composition started and then trusting your gut on what really does look good. Relax, take your time, and allow you vision to evolve as you shoot.

Better, but where's the "the early spring bloom of the smaller trees and wild flowers." that you saw. You have them incorporated in your memory, but not in your shots as nebula_42 suggested in his links # 2 & 3.

You could shoot RAW & stack a couple different exposures, but we used to make our own by stacking 2 or 3 for 8X10 car shoots, & disposable gels are pretty cheap.
Sun 85 & Neutral Density Filters
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PhotosGuy wrote in post #5439811
Better, but where's the "the early spring bloom of the smaller trees and wild flowers." that you saw. You have them incorporated in your memory, but not in your shots as nebula_42 suggested in his links # 2 & 3. You could shoot RAW & stack a couple different exposures, but we used to make our own by stacking 2 or 3 for 8X10 car shoots, & disposable gels are pretty cheap.
Sun 85 & Neutral Density Filters
.

I think there is some visual evidence that they were there, though smaller items like individual flowers might be tough to see at this perspective. There was even a larger male duck in the second shot if you look close enough!

As for the gel and graduated filters, I've yet to give them a try and from what I've read of the graduated types, they seem to force you to keep your horizon lines in step with the filter's boundaries and shots like the ones I'm after might not be fully compatible with that? I did use my polarizer filter for this last shot but did not have my tripod with me to do a proper bracketed shot and subsequent HDR attempt.

Cheers!

Gells. Scissors. Stop down & use your DOF Preview & move them where you need them.

I know that I'm going to regret asking this, but...

What the difference in using the gel filters as opposed to the ones in Photoshop?

PhotosGuy wrote in post #5446460
Gells. Scissors. Stop down & use your DOF Preview & move them where you need them.

In the mud, by the river?

I know there's an old axiom about one suffering for one's art but this just seems masochistic?

Then again, many photographers put themselves in harm's way to get the shot so who am I to question this.

Thank you for the tip.

Cheers!

You can do some good things with RAW conversions & Layer Masks, but gels are cheap, versatile, (also a PITA) , & a useful tool worth learning to use.
Could you get along without them? Probably. Depends on how much of a gear whore you are.