Palm Trees at Sunrise

[andrewhaimerl]

I don't know if it's just me but there is something unsettling about the composition of this image I took and I can't figure out what it is. I'm hoping some of you experts out there can provide some guidance or corrections I could make.

[SwissJon]

Please provide EXIF data if you would like constructive review.

[Corey Thompson]

The bushes in the foreground are out of focus and don't do anything for the photo. You captured the light trails from the cars passing by quite nicely, but it's hidden behind the branches in the foreground and therefore the light trails do little to add to the interesting factor. It looks like this was shot around the right time during the golden hour but perhaps waiting until there are clouds in the sky might also add to the photo.

[milosh]

To add to what Corey already said, the trees are not in focus either. It seems like your lens wasn't really focused on any of these elements. Having the light trails would be a nice thing, only if there weren't obscured by those bushes in the foreground.

[andrewhaimerl]

How can you tell that the palm trees are out of focus? When it pull the image up in ViewNX it shows the focal points being right where I wanted them to be, atop the two middle trees.

Here is the data on the picture.

VR 18-55mm F3.5-5.6G
30mm - ISO 250
1/2s - F/4.5
0EV - Auto, 0,0

Also I tried to make it look a little better by taking out the partial tree on the left

It still has some work to be done but here's the almost finished product.

Between issues of focus and me removing one of the trees I think I might just be better off applying a light blur to the entire image for a dreamy effect, in order to salvage it. What do you think?

[Sterling]

How can you tell that the palm trees are out of focus?

They just look a little fuzzy. At 1/2 sec. exposure it would be pretty easy for a slight breeze to make them look a bit blurry.

[Krusty79]

Why did you shoot this at f/4.5? Your depth of field is going to be shallow at that aperture. I agree the palm trees don't look quite in focus. I would recommend a smaller aperture, like around f/8 or f/11 for sharper images and more DOF. You might start manually focusing so you can control what is in focus.

[Corey Thompson]

yea 4.5 doesn't provide a very deep dof. Not sure if we're allowed to post external links, but here's a good site that explains depth of field and hyperfocal distance.

Hyperfocal Distance