Alice Springs Old Telegraph Station

[action1194]

I took this on a recent holiday in Central Australia at the Old Telegraph Station in Alice Springs.

This is straight out of the camera. I was wondering if the composition works, if i have used the right settings and what i could have done or could do to make this better.
This is my first post and i am looking forward to any feedback to improve my photograpy. Thanks

Camera Canon EOS 450D
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/20.0
Focal Length 18 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired

[4ndrew]

I like this; nice shot.

I also think that you could make it a little more interesting by having a shallower depth of field. Open up your aperture a bit; I don't see a reason to have F20 here unless you are truly going for everything to be in focus.




andrew

[Sterling]

The composition looks fine to me. If I was going to nitpick I'd suggest a slightly higher viewpoint so the base of the building is not blocked by the fence rail. This would also put the top of the roof a little lower relative to the trees in the background.

The issue I really see is that it seems too dark. I bet opened up to f/16 or so would've brightened things up nicely.

[alwyncooper]

Composition looks good. "Gate open" might have been better as it obscures the lead-in perspective you would get from the fence directing the eye to the building.
Colour is very nice - polarizer sky?

Rather than f20 etc, check out the hyperfocal distace of your particular lens settings Here.

This means you can (with 18mm focal length) focus at about 5.5 ft and get acceptable sharpness from inside of 3ft all the way to the horizon and beyond, with f11. Which means you can go down to ISO100 to get pretty much no noise at all with that lovely CMOS sensor.
If you are using the 18-55mmIS kit lens, as I do, from the point of view of clarity, you may find that the image is slightly blurry at anything much over f14 - mine is.
So hyperfocal info may well help.

But make sure you practice before shooting anything important :-)

[action1194]

Thanks for all your feedback. If I knew then what I know now I would never have used f20! I have learnt a lot in the last couple of months mainly from practise and following this forum.
I do really like this photo, but there was something that was bugging me and I think like Sterling said a higher viewpoint would have been the go. I must admit I hadn't noticed that the base of the building is blocked by the fence rail….now I cant stop looking at it!
Alwyncooper, I think you’re right the gate could have been open more. And yes I m pretty sure I had polarizer on...
Thank you so much for the link for the hyperfocal distance I will definitely study up and practise.
I really appreciate you all taking the time to comment. Thanks.