Stella Maris Church

[Tigro]

Browsing through my holidays photos I came across this one and saw potential in it so I Ligthroom'd it (saturation correction, sharpening mainly) and have to say I like it now. Should I like it? What do you think? Also, I know that the clouds are overexposured but correcting this made me feel like this photo would be way less magical then.



Sony Alpha A330, 18 focal length (18-55 lens), f/10, iso 100, 1/160s shutter speed.

[tomdinning]

Its just a holiday photo, Tigro. Keep it that way. No amount of processing will make it anything but. And that's OK. We need a record of what we do. That's one function of photography.
If you want it to be more than a snapshot you will need to consider what it is you want the photo to say. Is it architectural? If so, learn about that sort of photography and use the techniques. Is it an artistic interpretation, or an aethetic interpretation? Find out what you need to do. Is it an ethical interpretation? Make your statement.
Compositional elements still apply to all types of photographs. But how you use them will determine your effectiveness in telling your story.
There is really no point in going into detail here otherwise I'd be here for a week. You do the hard yards and learn the trade. Then your snapshots will become good photographs.
A good photograph is a result of skill, hard work and enthusiasm. No amount of software will turn an ordinary (yet important for you) snapshot into a good photograph.

[DrZaius]

That was a very thoughtful reply, even a little inspirational. I'm gonna get up in the morning & take some pictures

[Tigro]

Thank you very much tomdinning I know that it isn't too extraordinary but I thought of posting it since I think it's a little more that a "normal" holiday snap. I am an amateur so it's very likely I'm wrong I decided to postprocess it because I saw a little potential in it - namely: I liked tha photo as of general and the positions and shapes of the clouds seemed really interesting to me. It looked like the yin and yang shape creating above the church which is also quite controversial in many societies: some believe it's completely yang (church as the place of meeting God) while for others it's yin (money over God and such things). Also the worm's-eye view shows that we aren't the ones who should judge this or maybe judge anything.

That's just my interpretation Thank you for your opinion, I really appreciate it and hopefully I'll be able to make better and better photos

[tomdinning]

You've told a very nice story here about how this scene affected you.
When you write something like that it says to me that you have some skills in the english language that allow you to do that and you use the tools of grammatical composition to put it all together so we understand. Well done.
Now, if you are going to do the same thing with a photograph you need to use the tools of photographic composition to say the same thing as an image. You have to learn to 'talk' with pictures.
If I read your words I understand. If I look at your photo, I don't. You might but I don't. So you need to tell the photo story in a different way, otherwise its just a picture of a church with some trees and clouds.
What are the tools? Light, placement, perspective, tone and contrast, focal length, depth of field, shutter speed are all tools that can help. Find out how to use them. They will become your language.

[Tigro]

Really great explanation. Nobody has ever told this to me this way. Thank you very much, I'll try my best to find common language with my photographs