An old belfry

[cristen]

Camera Canon EOS 500D
Exposure 0.1 sec (1/10)
Aperture f/22.0
Focal Length 55 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire


This is the belfry of an old church. Please comment on the composition , settings, and focus. (I have focus issues....). I cropped this picture to remove a clump of cloud on the right. Are the leaves on the upper left distracting? I also used soft overlay to make the colors of the belfry pop out (just learned it lately from Benchdog, thanks, man). What would you have done otherwise to make this a better picture? Thanks.

[lerabu]

Hi!

I think this belfry makes a fantastic subject!

The following comments are subjective and take them with a grain of salt because I'm not one of the resident pros on the forums

I think the leaves are distracting and actually cropping the leaves out and leaving clouds in would be better for the picture as the leaves are unnatural here and don't "frame" the shot but kind of just seem to hang in the void whereas clouds are natural for a sky.

Could you have shot this at 18mm? Judging from the EXIF data you were using the 18-55mm kit lens? Architecture is great shot with wide angle, so you can make composition leading the eye from the bottom to the top of the structure. The belfry's textures looks magnificient!

In terms of focus it seems the camera focused on the leaves and not on the belfry, maybe switching to manual focus would help.

I think you don't need to shoot at f/22, stepping up to f/12-16 would also yield a sharp picture if you focus at hyperfocal distance and would give you a faster shutter speed, which is good for handheld shooting.

I hope this little feedback helped!

[graciousness]

It is a great subject and I think it would have been an interesting one to study, doing the shots at different angles, etc, at different settings. Perhaps you would have been able to answer your own questions if you have done study shots (if you haven't already).

I think in the landscape orientation, you lost a little bit too much of the subject. If you had taken this in a portrait-orientation mode, you would have had quite a bit more subject to feature, adding more subject matter and textures to your image. There is so much history on the subject that yes, highlighting its textures and details would have added more interest. If done well, it would have also added perhaps a little bit of curiosity and mystery.

It was such a bright, sunny day when you took this - why not try it again during the 'golden hours'?

I love the greens growing on the stones - how cool would it be to do a much closer shot of those as it adds such a great colour contrast against the drab, grey stones?

Great opportunity to whip out your 70-300mm telephoto lens for this on close up shots I know it's a slow lens, but with patience and the help of your tripod, you can probably get terrific shots!

Cheers,

Grace

[cristen]

Thank you for you comments, lerabu. Yes, I used my kit lens, 18-55mm. I do have a wide-angle but unfortunately, I didn't bring it with me. I used manual mode, though, and I pre-focused on the belfry itself before framing the shot. I tried cropping the leaves away and including the clouds I earlier removed. I just don't know if I am permitted to post another picture here.

As for the aperture, I am still experimenting on this rather confusing aspect (hyperfocal, and everything else..LOL)

Will keep in mind all your suggestions.

[cristen]

Originally Posted by graciousness

It is a great subject and I think it would have been an interesting one to study, doing the shots at different angles, etc, at different settings. Perhaps you would have been able to answer your own questions if you have done study shots (if you haven't already).

I think in the landscape orientation, you lost a little bit too much of the subject. If you had taken this in a portrait-orientation mode, you would have had quite a bit more subject to feature, adding more subject matter and textures to your image. There is so much history on the subject that yes, highlighting its textures and details would have added more interest. If done well, it would have also added perhaps a little bit of curiosity and mystery.

It was such a bright, sunny day when you took this - why not try it again during the 'golden hours'?

I love the greens growing on the stones - how cool would it be to do a much closer shot of those as it adds such a great colour contrast against the drab, grey stones?

Great opportunity to whip out your 70-300mm telephoto lens for this on close up shots I know it's a slow lens, but with patience and the help of your tripod, you can probably get terrific shots!

Cheers,

Grace

Hi, there, Grace. I couldn't agree more with you. This belfry is really old, and so with the church. But I am just sad that they are starting to remodel the church and it seemed to have lost it's charm, textures, details and all. I love the old stones as well and I wouldn't mind taking lots of shots of this structure before the renovation takes it all away. I will certainly try to go back during one golden hour, at sunrise, as the church is facing east-- making sure I have my entire gear with me.

Thank you, Grace, for your wise input.

[dlambert]

Looks like a fun subject to shoot. I feel like I want to see more of the tower -- this crop seems pretty abbreviated. It also looks like this might be a great opportunity to do a little HDR work, if you'd ever given that any thought -- there's a ton of texture in the tower that would be great to see in a little more relief.

Good job - can't wait to see v.2.

[cristen]

Originally Posted by dlambert

Looks like a fun subject to shoot. I feel like I want to see more of the tower -- this crop seems pretty abbreviated. It also looks like this might be a great opportunity to do a little HDR work, if you'd ever given that any thought -- there's a ton of texture in the tower that would be great to see in a little more relief.

Good job - can't wait to see v.2.

Thanks so much. You're going to make me wake up so early, dlambert.

HDR? whew! and I have not even advanced in PS. But I will give it a thought.

[benchdog]

Originally Posted by lerabu

In terms of focus it seems the camera focused on the leaves and not on the belfry, maybe switching to manual focus would help.

I think you don't need to shoot at f/22, stepping up to f/12-16 would also yield a sharp picture if you focus at hyperfocal distance and would give you a faster shutter speed, which is good for handheld shooting.

Hi cristen

Really nice image here.

I agree with lerabu about the focus and the use of such a small aperature. I rarely if ever shoot with an aperature smaller than f/16. You may want to shoot the same image at different combinations of ISO, aperature, and shutter speeds then compare and find the setting that fit your style. I learned a lot this way.

I like how you have placed your subject on the right third line in the image and not centered. I would also remove the leaves in the upper left corner by cloning or another means other than cropping the image.

Nice work

[cristen]

Thanks so much, Benchdog... I really have a lot more to learn. Time permitting, I will have to go back to that belfry. Happy Easter, everyone.