New Zealand Landscape

[raddox]

I took this near Queenstown a couple weeks ago. What do you think about the composition and depth of field? How could I improve it? Thanks for your comments.



Exif data
Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM
Exposure 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture f/4.5
Focal Length 45 mm
ISO Speed 100

[Bruce A]

This a little like it's HDR processed. If so it's very subtle. I really like this photo and I think the DOF and composition is fine. I'm just wondering if the backgound could be ever so slightly saturated to bring out a little more colour. I also like how you have the stream leading to the distant mountains. Good work!

[milosh]

This is a very nice photo indeed!

I like your composition, but I think it could be improved if there was a more prominent foreground object, like an old log or something like that.

Regarding the dof, there are some rocks in the foreground which are out of focus, but that is not too distracting. How did you choose where to focus btw? Did you perhaps focus on hyperfocal distance?

Although it has enough details, I believe you could have squeezed out more sharpness from that lens if you stopped it down, to maybe f11 or f16..

Exposure is good overall, except for the upper left clouds which seem to be blow out. Did you shoot this in raw? If you did, you surely can lower the exposure of the clouds in post-processing.

Next, regarding processing.. Your photo would benefit from some midtone contrast (you see that white/blueish overlay that looks like haze, over the forest on both sides and over the rocks?). Also, you could sharpen it, it would be much better sharpened if viewed in large resolution.

Do you mind if I process it just a little to show you?

[Krusty79]

That's a beautiful scene. I like the composition. I think it could be improved if you had a focal point like a person or animal in it, but it's still very good.

I also thought the colors seemed a bit flat and was curious what milosh could do with it. If you had a circular polarizer, that might have improved the colors, depending on the angle relative to the sun.

In a scene like this, I would want a lot of DOF, yet you shot this at f/4.5, so I would suggest a smaller aperture.

[raddox]

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions.

milosh: You're absolutely right about stopping down to get better sharpness and DOF. I had plenty of light. I did shoot this in raw and jpg. I'm trying to learn post processing using PS5 but have a lot to learn. Please work on it if you would. I loaded the original jpg on Flickr but I couldn't figure out how to load the raw image. I'll put a link to the jpg below.

Krusty: I have a good quality polarizer but am not sure if I used it here. As above, if I were to do this again, I agree that greater depth of field would be good. It'll be a good learning experience for me to see what milosh can do.

[milosh]

I actually already played a bit with it (when I wrote my previous post), but I didn't want to post it 'till you approve it.

Krusty made it sound like I'm some sort of a post-processing expert..

Here's a jpeg version of my edit, and I'm gonna upload the actual PS file later and post the link here, so you can see and toggle all the adjustments I did. I could be done better, but hey, it's free.

I did not sharpen it!

Btw, your photo was in AdobeRGB colour space (not the original one, but the one you first uploaded to Flickr), which can cause its colours to be displayed differently on web, you should convert it to sRGB c. space before uploading it.

Edit: here is the psd file: http://netload.in/dateiHnr52qQZUW.htm

[raddox]

milosh..........thanks. Your version looks much better! I downloaded the psd file and reviewed it. I definitely need to work on my post processing skills.

[SwissJon]

Hi Bill..

I certainly like Milosh's version, it's a beautiful scene you have there..

When shooting in mountains, I think you need to consider atmospheric haze.. it's what has made the mountains in the background look rather wahed out and desaturated. If you have PS, you could apply a layer mask and add a saturation layer, and paint in just that are.. It may well help to bring the picture together.

But there's nothing quite like getting it as close to perfect in the box, and Krusty's suggestion of using a circular poloriser would help there.. Not only would it help you to put some overall saturation in the picture, it'll also help cut through that haze and bring the background into the picture.

Milosh also mentioned your aperture settings, and he's absolutely right, to get front to back focus, you need to use the hyperfocal distance..

Here's a quick lesson on what this is all about.. Google will help you a little more too with hyperfocal distance calculators (I've one on my iPhone called "Simple DOF" that does all the hard work for me):

Hyperfocal Distance – Photographer’s Friend


The overall composition is great, it's just the fine adjustments you need to sort out.

[raddox]

SwissJon,
Thanks for the tips. I understand DOF and what controls it, but I never considered hyperfocal distance. The article you referenced is a good start with lots of tables/calculators on the internet. I appreciate the willingness of everyone here to educate those of us that are less experienced.