Windy day at countryside...

[aleksi]

Oke, I am a very new here and I am making first steps in a bit more serious photography, although I always was found of making photos of things that captured my eyes with my old point&shot camera.
I tried to freeze one windy moment on the field, during cloudy and stormy afternoon. My idea was to draw attention of the viewer to that herb and the moment when it is defying the wind. The power of wind against the thin and tender herb.
Did I manage, I hope to hear/read the opinions. Is the composition oke, did I used 'wrong' camera settings or? I used Aperture priority mode, still not skilful in 'fast' choosing the shutter speed.
Please dont hesitate to be strict, my intention and plan is to become better

Oh yess, I used this:

Camera Nikon D5100 with standard lenses kit 18-55mm
aperture f/3.8
exposure 1/400s
ISO 100
focal length 20mm

[praline3001]

I am no expert! I am learning how to take photographs and fail way more then succeed.
With that I won't critique your photo but rather offer suggestions that might improve on it.
I really like the concept and the composition is nice. I think the herb should be brought out more so it pops.

The grassy part of the photo is really dark. It is hard to tell the difference from the background grass and your herb. Its hard to tell what the subject is at the bottom of the photo. I would try lightening it up and using a contrast a bit to see if you can make your herb stand out from the rest of the grass.

I would also try and use a blue or gray filter on the sky. Maybe a bit of blue and a contrast to make the clouds pop?

I would also try and get the horizontal line strait.

It is a nice photo but there is always room to play and fiddle with a photo to make it better.

[Krusty79]

Welcome to DPS. I'm glad you said what you were going for in your shot. Unfortunately, I cannot tell from your shot that it was windy. Usually, we can tell if it's windy because the branches are bending in the wind, but you were trying to show the plant stationary in the wind. So, I don't know how you are going to show how windy it is if your plant is not bending in the wind.

I also agree that your subject needs to stand out more. It is partially lost in the background. Your camera probably took an average reading for the entire scene and underexposed the ground because of the relatively bright sky. You can try some dodging and burning to fix that, but it's better if you bracket your shot or shoot RAW so you have the option of creating an exposure blend or HDR. I also agree your horizon should be level.

Did you choose f/3.8 because you wanted to blur the background? If not, most lenses are sharpest around f/8 and you'll get more DOF that way.

[aleksi]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try to play a bit with the photo in PS to improve it as possible Aah the horizontal line isnt strait, yess, it would be better to be. I should have also try to catch a bit bigger part of the plant I think.
Thank you!

[aleksi]

Originally Posted by Krusty79

Welcome to DPS. I'm glad you said what you were going for in your shot. Unfortunately, I cannot tell from your shot that it was windy. Usually, we can tell if it's windy because the branches are bending in the wind, but you were trying to show the plant stationary in the wind. So, I don't know how you are going to show how windy it is if your plant is not bending in the wind.

I also agree that your subject needs to stand out more. It is partially lost in the background. Your camera probably took an average reading for the entire scene and underexposed the ground because of the relatively bright sky. You can try some dodging and burning to fix that, but it's better if you bracket your shot or shoot RAW so you have the option of creating an exposure blend or HDR. I also agree your horizon should be level.

Did you choose f/3.8 because you wanted to blur the background? If not, most lenses are sharpest around f/8 and you'll get more DOF that way.

Ehm, I also see now that it isnt really obvious that the plant was bending... well it did, but I should have caught a bigger part of it to show that.
About the f/3.8, yess I wanted to have blurish background, somehow in that moment that was part of mind picture, to make it more misterious or similar. I did the raw, but I didnt do any processing with the photo. But I will try to adjust exposure now and see what I will get. Thanks!