First Time Critique

[ryankarr]

Hello DPS!

I'm a self-taught photographer, that is a music/economics student at college. So, without any further ado, the picture!



EXIF Data
F5.6
1/80th of a Second
18-55mm Nikon Kit lens at 55mm
ISO 100
Nikon d5000 body.
Shot raw not cropped (shout out to froknowsphoto.com !)
Processed in lightroom 3. Saturation/vibrance raised, exposure corrected, some work with levels, lots of sharpening/contrast.

My college put up this bird-house thing (it was the cupacola of the law school). Anyway, I was taking some shots, using the rule of thirds. However, I couldn't get close enough (people would have started staring), and I don't have a telephoto lens, so I couldn't compose it much tighter. I tried to use rule of thirds to set the structure off to the right third. Alot of the shots looked kinda meh, then I was able to frame the building with some trees. I tried to expose properly, but couldn't get the building and the background proper. I didn't want to go HDR, so how could I have donet his better? I tried to wait for the sun to come out (clouds were moving by and fluctuating), so I would get some form in there as well, and I think I managed to do this.

So, that was my thought process. Any critique is greatly appreciated, especially advice on lighting and composition. Anything else that comes to mind would be great too!

[Krusty79]

Ryan,

I looked at a histogram of your image and there are a fair amount of dark, underexposed areas as well as a small part that is overexposed (the bird-house thing). You are facing a common problem in landscapes, where the dynamic range is greater than the camera sensor can capture. You said you waited for the sun to come out, but that actually increased the dynamic range of the image. You would have a better chance of getting a correct exposure if you took the shot when it was cloudy or if you can take it closer to dawn/dusk.

Too bad you were not able to get closer to the building. I would have recommended trying to take a shot from closer to ground level near the rocks in the foreground. The building is interesting, but is a little lost in all of the vegetation.

Greg