dove stones

[dan hampson]

im new to photography, photoshop and this site, this is my first attempt at some landscape photography.



Nikon D3000
Nikon 18-55mm (kit lense)
Exposure 0.60 sec
Aperture f/32
Focal Length 36 mm
ISO 100

[TimK0728]

Love the concept. The colors are wonderful. BUT (and you knew that was coming, didn't you? LOL), I don't like the frame. The inclusion of the bit of sky and the more distant hill at top right keeps pulling my eyes away from the central point of the shot and taking me out of the photo. A tighter crop, even at the expense of losing some depth, would work better, I think.

[KongeTorsk]

At this point, I will acknowledge I'm always yelling, "Photoshop it! Photoshop it!.." however, I think that depth is still crucial to creating a nice picture.
Here comes the horrible chant-I would maybe put in another sky back there? It seems like it'd be pretty easy to select and do since the whole sky is pretty much white. The color temperature of the photo suggest that it was an overcast sky? That would be good, because I don't think that a grey overcast sky shopped in would detract away too much from the original subject and intent. Even if it wasn't an overcast sky, play around with different skies (if you're comfortable with it), and see how you like them. I think it would add a lot more to the photo than cropping what might be an already small-ish photo.

Also-did you do noise reduction? The background and where the land meets sky feels a little bit painted, (which I know can be from noise reduction). Maybe show us how it looks minus that?

Just some things to think about since I enjoy the concept and colors of this picture.

[dan hampson]

thanks for your comments. the sky was very overcast and it was very hazy. its just like that here at the moment (hazy days and cold clear nights). I did apply a little bit of noise reduction. I'll try putting another sky in.
Like i said im new to all this ive only had my camera a couple of weeks and am just getting to grips with the settings and photoshop.

[Krusty79]

You're off to a good start. I am unclear about the subject of your shot, though. Is the subject the creek or the contrasting colors of the rocks and vegetation? What did you want to convey to the viewer?

I wouldn't recommend using an aperture much smaller than around f/11 or f/13, or you may start getting diffraction, which degrades sharpness.

[dan hampson]

I wanted the veiwer to feel the freshness of the autumn morning the shot was taken the dying vegitation in contrast to the evergreen moss on the rocks.
The reason i shot @ f/32 is purely because i wanted the water to have movement (im waiting for a set of ND filters to be delivered later this week), i took the shot at a couple of other apertures but couldn't get a long enough shutter time to create the milkyness in the water.
I think that i'll go back when my ND filters arrive and reshoot.

[Krusty79]

You could also use a polarizer to cut down the light by a stop or two. It might also give you more vivid colors, depending on your angle relative to the sun. If you go back, I would suggest shooting in the golden hours to reduce the dynamic range and decrease the chance of getting a blown out sky.