Snowy Pines What would make it a better shot?

[thefoodexpert]

New to DPS Posting any and all critiques are welcome. Thanks!
Rebel xti
f20
1/25
iso 100
55mm
55-250mm is
shutter priority

[dcclark]

Hello and welcome!

Do you have any specific questions beyond "all critique is welcome"? Asking specific questions is a very useful skill to work on -- it helps us, and it also helps you figure out what you really care about.

That said, my first impression is: this is very striking! The strong lines of the fence and the high contrast of the trees really catch my eye. So, after that initial impression, everything else is details.

I suppose that I could ask you to get rid of the peak of the house (just behind the middle trees) -- moving down slightly would probably have hidden that. But that's a detail. Also, some parts are overexposed -- but since you seem to be going for a high-contrast B&W, that's fine in my opinion. It focuses my eye on the shapes, not the details.

Now, on to the technical details. Your exposure settings are definitely confusing for me. Can you explain why you chose to use shutter priority, and set such a slow shutter speed (1/25 sec.)? The scene was so bright that your camera had to stop down all the way to f/20 just to accommodate this slow shutter speed. You were definitely asking for motion blur with a speed like that (but apparently you managed to avoid it somehow). A good general rule of thumb is, if you're shooting at 55mm, you want a shutter speed of 1/55 sec. or faster. Probably an aperture around f/10 would have been great for this scene.

Overall, well done. If you have specific questions, please ask!

[EasternSierra]

Your highlights are blown, unfortunately. The snow in the fenceline and trees has no detail, and it *should* have at least a small amount of texture. It's slightly overexopsed.

You also don't have any really deep, rich shadows. This is related to the overexposure. If you shot RAW color and converted, you *might* be able to stop down the exposure far enough, but I don't think so.

[thefoodexpert]

You answered most questions I had. I've been working on portraits lately and just wanted to capture some of the snow we've gotten. The main thing I remembered about landscapes is small aperture for a greater dof. I'm not quite sure why I had it on shutter priority, I was surprised when I looked at the exif info. Thanks!