Tree on a hill

[kitty_ari]

So I am new, to pretty much everything. The site and photography in general so I thought as my first brave and noble act I'd post the first picture I took with my camera.

The camera is a Canon Xsi. The settings I used I have no idea. I played till something good came out just after Christmas. As I said, I am still very new at this.. 4 weeks new.

I know the rules say to ask for specific critique, but honestly, i dont know what to ask. Any help I gain will be a boon to me. Now that I have rambled for long enough. The image.

[GloryLens]

Originally Posted by kitty_ari

So I am new, to pretty much everything. The site and photography in general so I thought as my first brave and noble act I'd post the first picture I took with my camera.

The camera is a Canon Xsi. The settings I used I have no idea. I played till something good came out just after Christmas. As I said, I am still very new at this.. 4 weeks new.

I know the rules say to ask for specific critique, but honestly, i dont know what to ask. Any help I gain will be a boon to me. Now that I have rambled for long enough. The image.

Hi--not that I'm even a semi-pro, but I would have liked to have seen the horizon to be much lower, to view more of the tree/sky view. LOVE the shot though.....making it more offset gives it more abstract interest.

[kitty_ari]

Originally Posted by GloryLens

Hi--not that I'm even a semi-pro, but I would have liked to have seen the horizon to be much lower, to view more of the tree/sky view. LOVE the shot though.....making it more offset gives it more abstract interest.

Thank you. I wish I had done that myself sometimes. Cropping doesnt help this time though as it makes it unbalanced (or at least it does to my eyes).

[barabe]

Hello and welcome to DPS,

I think you will find a lot of what you are looking for in this forum.

For your picture, I find the sky is very nicely exposed and the silhouette of the three really stands out. On the other hand, there is too much negative space at the bottom. I believe that cropping the bottom so the horison would be at the 1/3 bottom line would make a stronger picture (try scrolling the image down to the bottom of the screen or place a piece of paper to see the result). In general it is a bad idea to split an image in the middle or so except for some few exceptions like relfections.

[kitty_ari]

Originally Posted by barabe

Hello and welcome to DPS,

I think you will find a lot of what you are looking for in this forum.

For your picture, I find the sky is very nicely exposed and the silhouette of the three really stands out. On the other hand, there is too much negative space at the bottom. I believe that cropping the bottom so the horison would be at the 1/3 bottom line would make a stronger picture (try scrolling the image down to the bottom of the screen or place a piece of paper to see the result). In general it is a bad idea to split an image in the middle or so except for some few exceptions like relfections.

Thank you for the welcome.

I did a very quick and dirty crop with the photo and its here;

Cropped Tree

To me it looks to square but I think in future when I take the picture I will remember the thirds advice (it seems a friend was telling me about that all last night too).

[barabe]

Originally Posted by kitty_ari

Thank you for the welcome.

I did a very quick and dirty crop with the photo and its here;

Cropped Tree

To me it looks to square but I think in future when I take the picture I will remember the thirds advice (it seems a friend was telling me about that all last night too).

It is just a rule and in photography, rulse are made to be broken but one has to know when and how to break the rules.

[LenDog]

I agree with Barabe on the rules - made to be broken.
Your cropped photo is an improvement, though maybe a side crop would've made it less "square". As it stands it's a very good silhouette photo, I don't think you'll get more out of it than that. Also, including your basic EXIF data in the post would help us see more of what you're working on.

For next time maybe up the exposure and consider a GND in PP for the sky.

And... last but not least...welcome to DPS!