Where am i going...

[sgiedne]

i had sneaked into a catlle farm in the afternoon. There were no people around. I never saw even a single person there. it was a huge place.i had come for about 4 miles down the road and hadnt seen anything but cows, bulls and horses. All of a sudden this guy comes pedalling in a cycle, apparently from nowhere. Got me scared at first because i was not actually supposed to be there. But he just went past me barely recognising my existence. It was then that my camera started snapping.

shutter speed : 1/320
aperture : f/4.5
ISO : 80
focal length : 18mm

[sk66]

you sure you wanted this in critique?
Seems much more like a sys post....

[JFSanders]

Too much sky, not enough bicycle. Increase your focal length and compose so that he is riding from the bottom left corner to the top right corner. Make sure to leave some space, not much but some so that the subject isn't stuck tightly into the corner. Research flow through the scene and the rule of thirds as well as the golden section in greek architecture. The picture looks to be washed out, so stopping down would probably help as well. Jim

[sgiedne]

@sk66 : i am pretty sure i wanted it here. Just because i tell how and where i took the shot doesnt mean i dont want it to be improved in any way.thanks.

@jim : i got what you are trying to say.Thanks, really....you seriously have been helping me out. And forgive my ignorance, but stopping down means decreasing aperture, right?

[sgiedne]

@jim : hey....i got to know about rule of the thirds as well as the golden section, but im unable to find anything on "flow through the scene". Could you elaborate a little more?

[Krusty79]

Most images have a "flow," or the way your eye is guided through the image. In your shot, the road gives the flow. I agree there is too much sky and the sky that is visible is blown out. It's tough to get the bright sky and darker ground all exposed correctly if you shoot in the bright sunlight. You could try a graduated neutral density filter, HDR or exposure blending to overcome those issues. An easier option is to shoot in the golden hours when you don't have such a great range of light to dark in your image.

Stopping down does mean decreasing your aperture. A smaller aperture will give you greater depth of field and most lenses are sharpest somewhere around f/8.

BTW - didn't it smell bad around there?

[sgiedne]

Thanks krusty. ill sure try shooting during the golden hours as much as possible. And are you trying to say i should have shot with a greater depth of field or a shallower one?

[sgiedne]

And about the smell, i almost died of asphyxiation whenever i went even remotely near a cattle shed. It was awful. Maybe thats why there were no people there.

[Krusty79]

Usually in a landscape shot, you want some depth of field. Especially in a shot like yours when there is a road to give depth to the image. Shooting at f/8 will give you more DOF and most lenses are sharpest around there. If you want more DOF, move it to f/11 or f/13. I wouldn't go too much smaller than that or else you may notice diffraction in your shots.

There is a cattle lot on Highway 5 down towards Los Angeles and it stinks even when you get within a mile of that place. I don't see how anyone can work there!

[JFSanders]

Krusty is correct. You want DOF in a story shot like the man on the bicycle. Aperture is analgous to a hole. Just like your pupil in the eye. The brighter the light the smaller the hole is a fuzzy way of looking at it. In a camera lens the size of the hole determines not only how much light comes through in a certain amount of time, it also determines how much of the scene is in focus. If you were to look down on yourself as you are holding the camera your DOF would look like a cone with the sharp end starting at the camera. All lenses have a angle of view and the in focus part of this angle of view is referred to as DOF. With a small aperture (high number) the in focus part is a much larger portion of this cone. When making an image such as yours a large DOF helps tell the story better by giving the viewer more detailed information.

As Krusty said, Flow is the steps your eye takes as it views the photograph. An unnatural flow or a disjointed one is jarring to the eye/brain as it doesn't fit into the way our brain normally sees. It isn't necessarily wrong if you intend to produce such a flow. But it is a artistic decision made at the time you seek to reproduce what you see and what you wish to communicate to the viewer. And in the end a photographer creates photographs to be viewed and to communicate something to the viewer.

Funny thing about working or living on a farm or ranch. After a couple of days you don't notice the smell or don't perceive it as a bad smell. Although it does take a good bit of time to get over the smell of hogs or chickens. Jim