Beach Picture

[photobum]

Hi Everyone,

I took this picture of the surfers and the beach. I am looking for opinions on your general impressions of the image, as well as what I could have done better to compose the shot, and what you think about the image quality and other technical aspects. I am just starting out and am looking for direction in which to improve my photography. Thank you.

Bill

Canon T1i
EF-S55-250 f/4-5.6 IS
Auto WB
ISO 100
65mm
f/14
1/640 sec

[Doug Sundseth]

You have some people walking in the middle ground of the photo and I think there's a fairly nice background in the surfer holding his board. But you don't really have a foreground at all and much of the photo is visually bland.

I'd recommend composing so that one of the people (or a small, coherent group) on the beach takes up much more of the frame. With the right composition, you could still include quite a bit of the water without losing interest. Also, the sky you were "blessed" with isn't especially interesting, so I'd compose with less of it in the frame. (Perhaps consider using a 2:1 or wider crop.)

I'd really like the photo to be brighter in the highlights and midtones, but I like the silhouettes for the subjects.

HTH

[Hill Country Hack]

I do agree with the bland sky and lack of foreground. I am having difficulty finding your subject of this image. I can see a tighter composition of the surfer.

Taking more of the sky out, the breaker line will move up in your frame. That would be a positive move. It seems the sun was in front and off to the right causing the sillouettes.

In general, the image lacks depth.

I ask myself "what do I want to accomplish with this?" prior to releasing the shutter. This is a good place to learn. Read the available resources on the basics and look at others' work. Keep at it and have fun with it.

[Corey Thompson]

When shooting with a wide angle lens, it helps to find a really interesting foreground to capture. Otherwise you just have a very broad/wide perspective of something, in this photo it's the beach, without any real indication of what your subject is or what the intent of the photo is. You have a lot of sky in this photo, and it happens to be very dull and depressing. There isn't much going on in the foreground except for a couple of people walking, but the photo doesn't appear to be focused on capturing what they're doing. You have something potentially interesting going on in the background but you can't see it too well.

What I would suggest is possibly shooting with a long telephoto lens and capturing the surfer way off in the distance holding his surf board with a wave crashing in the background. That would make for an interesting subject and you'd still have a beach shot. In my opinion, the beach is the background, it's the setting, it's not the subject. In your shot, you made it the subject. The setting is the beach, find the subject within the setting and capture it.

[photobum]

That's all great advice and it helps me understand things a little better. Thank you all for taking the time to reply to my post.