Railroad

[chococookiesftw]

What do you guys think? To me, there seems to be a slight artificial look to it, best represented by the sandy concrete railings...
If you advise me on how to make this image look more natural, that would be much appreciated :]



Shot w/
Nikon d3100
Nikkor 35mm f1.8 DX
RAW Format
f/2.2 Aperture
1/50sec. Exposure
ISO - 400
No exposure compensation nor flash.

Edited in Adobe Photoshop CS5.1

[mathgeek]

I love railroad tracks, but two suggestions:
1. Hold the camera higher so the tracks are a little more prominent
2. Wait for a day when the clouds are a bit more interesting.

[Krusty79]

I'm curious why you used ISO 400 and f/2.2. Only a small part of your image is in focus. Didn't you have your tripod? You could have used ISO 100 and f/11 for better image quality and DOF.

I'm wondering if the dreary sky is making the tracks look unnatural to you by comparison. It doesn't strike me as unnatural.

[Elmo]

The key is what YOU want to say in the image.

My first suggestion is to get the horizon out of the middle. It location where it is seems to divide the interest between two less than dramatic sections with no real point of interest.

Like wise I might try using a CPL to add some drama to the sky (Burning in in Post Processing will help this also).

I would look at focus issues. you have focused about mid-distance down the track leaving both foreground and back ground out of focus. As someone said you might have gone to f:11 and kept most things in focus. I think I might have chosen the closest tie as my point of focus and shot wide open to drop the background into total obscurity. This then might say something like "tracks into the unknown".

It is all in what YOU want to say, not what we want you to say. Express yourself.

[chococookiesftw]

Hmmm, yeah that makes sense. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my tripod as I spotted this railroad while walking around on the trails.

Also, what exactly is CPL? :O

Thanks, all! :]

[Elmo]

OOPS. I did it, I used an Buzz term, my bad.

CPL ->. Circular Polarizer

[sk66]

When you have parallel lines merging in the distance like this you often want the horizon line more towards the top of the image to emphasize the distance/fading feel.

[forknuts]

it does look a little artificial, perhaps because of the narrow depth of field. rather than try to make it look less artificial, i'd be interested to see what this looks like with a tilt-shift effect applied in pp.