improvement ,yes or no?

[Poider]

G'day took this on a recent holiday and am just wondering what can i do to improve it?



The only time I use photoshop is for Cropping and Straightening, as a lot of my photos are crooked.
Peter


Camera
Nikon D3100
Exposure
0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture
f/8.0
Focal Length
36 mm
ISO Speed
100
Exposure Bias
0 EV
Flash
Auto, Did not fire
X-Resolution
300 dpi
Y-Resolution
300 dpi
Orientation
Horizontal (normal)

[BigFuzzy]

It's an interesting scene and I can see why one would want to photograph it.
There's nothing really wrong with this photo...however, to me, there's nothing terribly exciting about it either and here's why I feel this way:

1. Timing of shot. It's shot pretty much in the middle of the day (or at least when the sun is very high in the sky). This causes the not so nice strong differences between the sky and ground brightness. Plus the overhead sun tends to flatten images and wash out the colors.

2. Composition. Though it has a nice leading line created by the river, it has a very standard (ie boring to me) "I'm standing here taking this photo at eye level" feel. Plus it's very centered, ie horizon is pretty much smack in the middle. This is what hurts the image most to me as it doesn't allow it to be much different than anyone else who'd take this photo from the same position. Think about getting lower, higher. Add some foreground interest if possible.. anything to make is something more/different than your standard "I was here" snapshot.

Again, despite that above which might sound harsh, it's not a bad photo, it's just not terribly exciting/different. I hope this motivates you to go out and really try to get something different.. think less "for the record" and more "for hanging on the wall"
Good luck!

[shruggy63]

I'm a beginner too & so many of the above critiques apply to my pics it's untrue...
But one of the things that I think has helped my photos is learning about histograms. Also I've found a PS plug-in called ColorEfexPro that's fun to noodle around in with pictures that don't quite 'pop'. Have fun mate!