London Cityscape

[darkh]

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FX8
F-Stop: 5.6
ISO: 80
Exposure: 1/1300
No Flash

Can you please comment on composition and light.

[NeoPhotography]

Nice! i think it would be better if more sun rays is captured.
btw , Great shot!

[Aleix]

First of all, being a landscape shot I'd have used a smaller aperture, like f/8 or smaller. You could definetly have reduced the shutter speed in favour of a smaller aperture, so more parts of the image are in focus. The ISO is just ok, the lower the better.

Regarding light, I find the buildings underexposed. You could have taken a slightly brighter shot, and then tweak exposure in PP, though if you tried lightening the buildings in this shot it is possible that quality of it is reduced. However I assume you wanted the silhouette of the buildings, so their facade details aren't that important and you needn't make them brighter.

Composition: crop unnecessary parts. The most upper part of the sky and the lower part of the river lack interest: they're relatively dull and definetly not essential (ask yourself: does removing those sections make the picture less interesting?). Cropping those parts allows you to easily compose the picture with the rule of thirds.



But not only that. Composed this way, the picture also adheres quite well to the golden ratio:



I believe in this case, the golden ratio shows the likely path the eyes of the viewer will follow when observing the picture. Since we often look at the brightest parts of a picture at first - which in this case also are in an intersection of the rule of thirds, gaining strength -, and then it is likely we look in this case to the right at first, because it is more contrasty; to then end looking at the bridge (and barge), which is less contrasty, more distant, smaller but still plays a role and adds extra interest to the picture...

Greetings

[darkh]

Thanks for the tips. Very helpful.

What do you use to overlay the thirds grid and golden ratio?

[Aleix]

Originally Posted by darkh

Thanks for the tips. Very helpful.

What do you use to overlay the thirds grid and golden ratio?

You can find my answer here:
http://digital-photography-school.co...#vmessage15689

If you happen to use Lightroom, then this will also be of your interest:
Lightroom: 6 overlays to aid composition

Regards

[mwanafunzi]

The gimps crop tool has those features as well.