Help Me Improve-First post for critique

[jml79]

I am trying to expand my photography. I have mostly shot animals and people (portrait like) and I want to develop the tools and experience with landscape and eventually street photography. I choose this picture because it had very difficult lighting and dynamic range. I want to know what you think and how I can improve the composition and the PP. Thanks.

Sony A100
Minolta 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5
Shutter 1/640
Aperture f/7.1
ISO 100
Focal Length 70mm
Mode AE Priority

[zona5101]

tough lighting indeed. a good candidate for hdr processing. There is a lack of detail in the shadows. There isn't a central point of interest, and nothing that leads your eye through the frame. So besides the very difficult lighting there are some compositional elements that are missing. Some ideas to try...use that fence line to lead the eye into the frame, change the perspective/crop so there is less sky, choose a time of day where the shadows aren't so deep in the tree line/bushes so you can capture some of those nice fall colors hidden in there...

[edbayani]

looks alright except it is too dark in the lower half of the frame. i feel it is a little bit tilting to the left. i like the exposure of the sky and the silhouetted trees on the right.
the details can be salvaged by pp though by duplicating the image in another layer and adjust the middle slider of 'levels' to show details. then with layer mask and a soft brush, brush away the sky portion to reveal the original sky. straighten it a bit. this will produce some empty areas. you can crop or extend the image to the missing areas.

[theosus]

Good luck - partially sunlit scenes/rays coming through clouds are some of my favorites, but VERY tough to get out of the camera what your eye sees.
Since you didnt do the HDR thing on the spot - I agree with edbayani - two layers with some erasing should fix the major issues.
A good start.

[Krusty79]

I think it looks a lot better after ed's processing, but I agree with zona that the image lacks a real subject. I started this thread because of these types of images:

Is a compelling subject required?

Another thread on this topic:

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