Cape Cod Beach

[Reed]

We were on the beach at Cape Cod National Seashore on a real cloudy day. I saw this tree? just sticking up out of the sand. No crop, just a little PP to bring out the sky some and brighten the foreground. What do you think?

# Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 1/2500 second ===> 0.0004 second
# Lens F-Number / F-Stop = 56/10 ===> ƒ/5.6
# Exposure Program = aperture priority (3)
# ISO Speed Ratings = 200

[alwyncooper]

Hi Reed
I think the positioning of the stick, relative to the background people may have worked better.
As it is, the stick is perhaps a little too far to the left of the frame.

The grass works well to connect the stick to the people, but the people need to be in the frame too.
Typically, positioning objects in the frame about a third of the way in, or a third of the way up, works well.
But sometimes it's hard to remember to do this "in the heat of the moment".
Keep shooting!

My sticks:

[Reed]

Thanks for your reply.

When I took the photo I was concentrating on the stick, the sky and the rays coming down. The people didn't really come into play until I saw it on the computer.

[Christian Michael]

Hey Reed,

I actually like it. One thing you did do which most miss is to get the shot straight! Or at least you leveled it out in post. To make this pop I would (personally) make a few changes, and please see this as “constructive” criticism.

1 clone the blue object out on the right lower corner, or slightly tighten the crop.

2 if you are not happy with the people and didn’t notice till after you got home, clone them out too.

3 A big one for me. Next time wipe your lens on the camera…..awfull lot of dust specks in the sky from the lens so again…some cloning here.

Finally 4 play with the curves a little in your editing suite or even attempt the HDR process. Your sky looks like it could be stunning if it had more contrast and this would then give you a great range of colour, or give you the chance to change it to a great high contrast B & W

.

Hope all this helps. And keep pressing the shutter button!
Welcome to DPS

[Reed]

Thanks Christian. Yep, I actually took a level shot.

1 - I can do that

2 - I do like the people. As alwyncooper said, I like the way the grass line leads to them.

3 - Well, those little dust specks are actually birds. The darn things just would not stay where I told them to.

4 - I'm trying. I've only been into this about 2 months and still trying learn the PP process.