Red Barn (or, what's behind door # 2?)

[lootcorp]

Hi all -

Just starting to get serious about photography. Took this shot at a location near my home. Overcast but bright day. Taken with a Canon 40D - 1/125s, f/25, 48mm focal length, ISO 640, 0 exposure bias.

Want to know what you think of the shot in general. I want to learn how to transform some of my "snapshot" pictures into great photos. Not sure what I could do to get the color to pop more - is that usually a result of the pure image or is it usually post processing work?

Nothing was done in post except to crop.

Any advice on composition, exposure, and what to do in post is welcome. I am really trying to get better, so don't hold back!

Thanks!

[dcclark]

First, welcome! And -- this is a great subject for a shot. Nice colors, lots of textures (I'm a grunge texture junkie), all around a fun subject.

That said, on to your questions. To get colors that really pop, you need a subject with popping colors. The colors here are weathered and grungy. That's not bad, but you're not going to get "WOW" colors with that sort of material. You don't NEED those really crazy colors for this kind of subject, however, Sometimes subtle is good too. Also, keep in mind that it's often contrasting colors which really pop. You've mainly got red here -- maybe a touch of blue sky would make the red pop out a bit more.

Question: why are you using f/25? That's why your ISO ended up so high (640 is pretty far up there). This isn't a very "deep" scene -- you don't need that much depth of field. I might have used f/8 at most. Luckily, you seem to have been in bright light, so it didn't push your shutter speed so far down that you only got blur from the camera shake.

As far as composition: your composition here is not terribly interesting. Is the subject the barn? The colors and textures? The number? You may want to consider what exactly caught your eye, and recompose to focus on that.

If I were there, I might (I emphasize -- might) have thought like this:

- "Wow, great colors and textures. I should try to capture those."
- "How can I do that though? There's not a lot to catch and hold the eye here."
- "Maybe try a close-up on the hinges -- that will get color, texture, and give a good shape to hold the eye."
- "Oooh, there's a number up there. Definitely get that up close with the colors and textures."
- "Maybe I could make the whole thing work together if I stepped back, faced it straight on (to emphasize the symmetry) and really tried to make it look geometric."

That's just something to think about. Glad you're here at DPS -- please keep posting!

[lootcorp]

hey dcclark, thanks for the feedback! I also like the grungy weathered look, and luckily I've got plenty of that around my area!

About the camera settings - chalk it up to newbness. I am shooting full manual, and trying to not only learn the ins and outs of the camera, but also how the three elements of exposure work together. Some shots I intentionally manipulate one setting out of wack and see how using the others to balance the exposure effect the photo - this wasn't one of those times. I think I just had the aperture and ISO set for another shot I had just taken and instead of thinking through the shot, lighting, DOF, etc..., I just jacked the shutter speed up to compensate. I am slowly "getting it" though, and it's much more gratifying than using any of the "assisted" program modes.

Thanks for posting your sample line of thinking with the composition - that is something I need to work on. Right now it is - "hey, that looks cool, let's shoot it". I do typically shoot a few different angles with different exposures. I think in this shot the original thing that grabbed my eye was the weathered looking red doors - then I saw the number at the top and wanted that in the shot. It never occured to me to get nice and close with the hinges or the number.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, it definitely gives me more to think about next time I'm out with the camera!

[tvoelcker]

I see some potential within the frame.
The vertical lines of the boards are a nice compositional element and the pealing paint with the exposed wood can create a neat texture. Move in close, isolate a portion of the scene and convert to b&w .
Good luck and happy shooting.