Mountains and Lake - Composition

[avac]

I am an absolute newbie in the world of photography and this is my first submission to the critique session. I've been reading this forum for a while and it is great to see such a nice community and how much knowledge is shared here.

I took this picture a few months back during an afternoon and I wanted the mountains on the back to be my main subject. Is the composition okay? Is it possible to improve it somehow? I know that the leaves on the upper right part might be a distraction and I thought about cropping it ...



Here goes more info:

Pentax X90
1/500 sec
ISO 125
f/3.5

Thanks a lot!

[crockny]

Welcome to DPS! I agree about the leaves -- crop or clone them out. If you have photoshop or equivalent you could improve your subject -- since the mountains have no detail perhaps making them silhouettes would work better - right now the front mountains are grayish. If it were mine, I would lighten the buildings and darken the mountains, right now the city and the mountains kind of blend in together ...

[crockny]

Also I see your fstop was 3.5 -- landscapes are usually shot in the 8-11 range which gives better DOF and is the sweet spot of most lenses. Did you use a tripod?

[avac]

Thanks a lot for your comments, crockny! I don't have Photoshop, but I might try using Gimp to make the changes you suggested. I didn't use a tripod but I think I should try one next time I take a picture (I was actually out for a walk with my baby daughter and holding a camera steady for a fraction of a second after holding a 6kg baby for 20 minutes is not an easy task ).

And thanks about the hint regarding the f-stop. I am reading a few books about photography but I think those nice tips will usually come up after showing the work to more experienced people who are able to do some constructive criticism.

As soon as I do the changes you suggest, I will update the picture.

[Doug Sundseth]

I'd crop out much of the sky, since it's not that interesting (this will also solve the issue of the leaves). Then raise the exposure to get detail in the city and mountains and reduce the luminance of the blues to improve the color of the sky.

[vainqueur]

The idea is there but personally, I would prefer having just the mountain and the buildings, less sky and a bit more water to emphasize the reflection.

[Barry Jackson]

It looks like a good location for a golden hour or blue hour picture.

It would be nice to see the city lights reflected in the water along with the silhouettes of the mountains. Keep some sky above them though.

As it is I agree the buildings get lost and I think the haze on the mountains is distracting.

Good call on the leaves. They don't add anything. A whole branch or a band of vegetation might have worked as a framing element but not just a few leaves.

[baajero]

Would a filter work here to improve the exposure of the mountains without having a blown sky? I'm not sure... Would be grateful if someone can comment

[Doug Sundseth]

A graduated neutral density filter might help, but the problem is that the shapes of the mountains don't work very well with the straight edge of an ND Grad. You'll lose light on everything that projects above the filter line, which means you'll either not get much effect on the sky or you'll darken the tops of the mountains.

[avac]

Thank you all for your comments, they were really enlightening. I tried a few of the suggestions using Lightroom. Basically, I used a graduated filter to reduce the exposure of the sky, cropped a good part of the sky, and raised the exposure of the water a bit. Reduced the blue luminance and it looks like a better photo, but I think the best thing to do is definitely take another shot following the suggestions given here.

Once again, thank you all for the suggestions!