Critique this landscape?

[chipudnik]

Hi everybody! I took this picture a while back, and being new to photography (just bought first dslr last month) I decided to try out some landscapes... So what do you think? what am i doing wrong? Any advice is much appreciated, so thanks in advance!

Camera	Canon EOS REBEL T3
Exposure	0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture	f/4.0
Focal Length	18 mm
ISO Speed	100

[EOBeav]

You might want to check out the forum rules about image width and posting your EXIF data, which you can easily copy and paste from your Flickr page. After that, we'll be able to help you.

[Nicole]

I fixed your photo to fit within the forum rules and pasted in your EXIF to give you an idea of what we ask you to add to your post.

In terms of the photo, you're not off to a bad start, but there are some things that you could do to make it a stronger image. First, you've cut the image in half with the lake / pond. Typically, centering an image doesn't work too well. So I would recommend putting the less interesting part of your image into 1/3 of the image. So, for example, I would cut out the beach and move the line if the water and trees down to the bottom 1/3, leaving the trees and sky in the top 2/3.

That brings me to my second comment, which is that I don't think that the beach adds much interest. I actually prefer it with the beach cropped out. That said, I think you did a good job with including the rock in the water because that helps anchor the image then if you crop out the water.

Third, I would probably do a bit of post-processing on the shot in order to bring down the exposure in the sky. You can actually recover quite a bit of detail in it, which makes the sky even more interesting. Then add a bit of saturation, contrast, sharpening, and you're on your way.

If this is a place that is nearby, I'd say it's worth going back at sunrise or sunset to get some of the gorgeously warm colours that you get that time of day.

Welcome to the forums!

[bekhiann]

I would so not cut out the beach!! It does need cropped but play with a vertical crop. A tad off the left and a bunch off the right. The first thing that drew me into this photo is the nearly circular pattern of cumulus cloud around the rock, kind of an optical illusion due to the reflection. I think its awesome. But it could be just me, I'm a meteorologist by trade so it interests my inner weather nerd. If you could bring out a but more detail from the sky that would be sweet too.

[Doug Sundseth]

From the image you've posted here, I'm not sure what you intended your subject to be. If you're shooting the rock with an interesting background, I'd recommend stepping forward and cropping much more tightly on the rock. If you're shooting the reflected sky and trees, I'd recommend stepping forward to lose the beach, picking either the water or the sky to focus on (running the horizon line somewhere other than the center of the photo) and post processing to increase contrast and brighten up the shadows (as Nicole said). If you're shooting the beach, move it closer to the center of the frame, picking the most interesting part you can find, and using the reflections as an interesting background.

Mostly, though, I think you need to make a decision about what it is you're trying to show before you push the shutter release.

FWIW, this is a problem that we all have from time to time. It's easy to get caught up in the moment of experiencing a beautiful scene and to forget that the viewer only sees through the tiny window that we present. I regularly see scenes that attract me, but that I can't find the right window for; don't be discouraged.