Stonehenge

[Ginger Pixie]

Hello everyone - Happy New Year to you all.

Here's a shot I took of Stonehenge on New Years day. Two firsts for me - first time I have gone with a jpeg, rather than a RAW file, and the first time I have used photoshop (I had some other software before that was similar, but nowhere near as complicated!) to play around with a photo.

I'd be grateful for your thoughts on ways to improve it, as my photoshop knowledge is very limited!

Cheers

Camera: Canon EOS 450D
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 400

[kirbinster]

Well I bet you wish you shot this raw, the stones are way too dark so it would be great if you have the lattitude in post to brighten them up. If you can it may be a great shot!

[Sterling]

I'm not quite sure why, but the lighting looks somewhat unnatural - the lighting of the grass, stones, and sky don't seem to match.

[sunvalley23]

The stones are a bit dark, as previously mentioned, but you can lighten them up a fair amount in Photoshop without making them unnatural (try a color selection to a mask, the clip to a hue/saturation layer and play with lightness).

The colors of the sky and grass are great, though a bit intense. My last suggestion would be to straighten out the image so the grass is horizontal across the page. You can do it with the crop tool in Photoshop, or my preferred way (and easier!) is in Camera Raw. You can open an image in Camera Raw even if it's a jpg. Open Bridge and navigate to the image, right click, and select "Open in Camera Raw." Then, use the nifty straightening tool in there.

[EOBeav]

Would love to visit Stonehenge some day and photograph it.

One thing I learned early on is that it is really difficult to produce good outdoor photography when direct sunlight is involved. Most of your subject--the stones--is in the shade, while the grass and the sky is fairly bright. This would be a better shot taken closer to sundown, with a tripod. And shoot in RAW!

[kgb224]

I must agree there is note even lighting overall as some parts of the sky has grey clouds and other parts white clouds. Enough said about the picture.
Keep on practicing and upload many more pictures.

[Ginger Pixie]

Thanks for your thoughts everyone, I will bear them in mind. Ah well, back to the drawing board! (make that photoshop...)

[Big Nick]

I agree with everyone else. The composition is done well, however the lighting is very odd. I would try to lighten the clouds in the upper left and the right half of Stonehenge to even it out.

[Wombat]

Maybe learning taking shots without Photoshop ?

[sk66]

Photoshop: Image>adjustments>shadow/highlights