i need to improve with landscapes

[jprime84]

Mine are never as striking as some of the ones I see. This one has already undergone some PP.

[JMS1980]

Hello:-) I am pretty new to the whole photography thing, but I kinda wanted to throw my two cents in to help a little. From what I know about shooting landscape, the things that matter the most is the composition and the time of day. Since you can't control the sun and where it will light your subject you kinda have to scout out when the perfect time of the day is too actually go out there and get the subject in it all it's glory. Another is where all of your lines are in your picture. The bridge in your picture looks a little cock-eyed. I think if you would have straighten out the brige when framing and perhaps go out to shot when the sun is shining on it, or going down behind it ( I don't know where the light would hit ) this would make for an amazing shot of this bridge:-)

[dcclark]

I'd say that the subject -- the bridge -- just sort of wanders into and out of the frame. It's cut off on two sides, but it's still far enough away to not really catch my eye.

That's often the problem with landscapes -- we like wide angles, but the danger is to try to "pack it all in". If you do that, you just end up with lots and lots of random stuff in your photos, and the subjects are lost among all of it.

But, I can't give much better advice... I have to work on my landscapes too. :P My best ones are all up close and personal with the subject, not at wide angles. So, that may be the best advice I can give: try getting up close and personal, to see some details.

[KodiakStar]

One thing that helps is to plan ahead! Look around at images you like,
and if you have a location in mind, do a image search on google, yahoo, flickr, etc.

Look at the shots that really draw you in, and that you like.
What makes the shots so great.

Is it the bridge, is it the sky, the colors in the sky... clouds, no clouds?
What time of day was the photo taken... guess the settings...

Does the photo have an intrinsic emotional tie to you, or is it just a great
shot. Does it evoke memories, stories, or is it just a tourist snapshot?

After you have all that in mind, then plan out your shot, before you even
get there. I have some sunrise shots that I planned out even before I
got to my location, thought about what objects I wanted in the foreground
and what I wanted to see in the background.

From there I knew what to bring with me, where to park, what time to get
there, and what camera settings I wanted to try.

After that, it's just doing lots of practice, and finding what speaks to you
and makes you think "Wow, this is one of the favorite pictures I took!"

[JMS1980]

Actually I see where the light is hitting. If this was an afternoon shot, and the sun was setting, then it would be rising behind the bridge somewhere, so I would probably wake up to catch that sunrise. The sky would light up beautifully, and bring a tripod and straighten out the lines of the bridge. Also make sure you are watching the background behind your bridge....my eye keeps getting distracted with whatever is behind it to the left in your picture. Oh, and investing in some blue, red, and yellow filters wouldn't hurt. Those will make colors pop and it will be less work to do in PS:-)

[jprime84]

Part of the problem was that this was an unplanned shot while we were on a trip. I had never seen the bridge before. There is another pic or two in my photostream.

Also, this is not a wide angle shot, check the EXIF. It was somewhere closer to 100mm focal length (it was far away). I took a wider angled shot containing more of the bridge, but since it was far away it loses all the detail.

I think the biggest problem in this case, and perhaps many, is limited access to the subject - both physically and chronologically.

Unless you plan to shoot a certain landscape, you basically just have to work with what you have at the time.

[dcclark]

Good point about the focal length, but my point stands -- there is a lot of tiny stuff in the background, wide open spaces above and below, and a subject which seems to be cut off on the ends.

But as others have said, planning and timing is essential -- a convenient snapshot when you're passing by can be good, but not likely to be great.

[autofocus]

I played around with your image in Photoshop, basically bumped up the levels to give it a little more snap, and did a vertical (portrait mode) re-crop of the main tower composed with somewhat less water under it and kept most of the sky above in place. That composition worked a little better for me...you might want to give that a try

[wal]

one of the main reasons that got me interested in photography is landscapes, they never cease to amaze me. It just feels great, to be able to capture the moment and share it. Besides time and composition, i believe that the next important thing is the location of where we take the shot. where we stand at that particular time and moment. It makes all the difference. when others see it, they'll feel a sense of closeness to the photo. That's what i feel sometimes, when viewing these kinds of photos.

[Taallyn]

Try to determine what it is about the scene or subject that interests you. In this case was it the lines and symmetry of cables. The implied strength of support column. Once you have that then frame the image to accentuate it. In your instance, I think you might have been trying to emphasis the lines of the cables. If so, then I would have tried a vertical orientation with the tower a bit more centered.

Another thing is to minimize distracting elements. The blue crane structures detract from it the bridge here. A vertical orientation would have allowed you to place those outside of your frame.

Point of view is another important element. Can you get closer to or farther away from your subject to accentuate your subject? Granted it can be tough for something as large as a bridge. However, it is possible.

A foreground object can also serve to direct the viewer's eye into the scene, provide a sense of action to the scene, or provide a compliment/opposite to the background. A boat or ship traveling under the bridge, or between you and the bridge might have helped as well.

Finally, time of day can dramatically change the subject. This particular bridge is lit up at night quite beautifully. Photographing it at night allows a photographer to include it's reflection in the water to the composition which is particularly helpful at emphasizing symmetry.

I hope that helps. I was down in Charleston a couple of months ago with my son's Cub Scout group. We spent the night on the USS Yorktown and thus I got the opportunity to photograph the bridge from a couple of angles and times of day that aren't generally available.

To illustrate my points, here are a couple of my shots of the bridge which I hope will help you.



This image was taken from the observation deck of the South Carolina Aquarium. It appears to be a bit further away from your point of view unless you were using a long zoom lens? My interest here was in showing the grace of the bridge across the water. That meant for me shooting a wide angle shot of the entire bridge. I framed the shot with more sky for a couple of reasons. One was to minimize the foreground elements that would detract from the bridge, i.e. railings, people, etc. that didn't add anything to the composition. Another was to give an impression of the bridge holding itself high above the water. When I processed it, I increased the saturation of the midtones to bring out the blue in the sky and water in order to provide a bit of color symmetry if you will which I think accents the bridge's symmetry. Also, notice how my distance from the bridge and the wide angle has minimized the same crane structure that was in your shot even though the complete structure is visible and dead center in mine. The point of view and wide angle makes it look much smaller and less distinct, thus removing the distraction and rendering just part of the background.



This image was made from the pier leading to teh USS Yorktown at twilight. Both the bridge and the Yorktown are lit at night and I wanted a photograph of the two of them together. Of course I couldn't move either of them, so I had to walk around to find an angle that I liked. It is framed so that the Yorktown and the finger of land to the right lead the eyes toward the bridge. The reflections in the water are for the over sense of symmetry. It was shot with a tungsten white balance to bring out the blue in the sky while registering the lights closer to white. I do wish I had found a view point that included the full reflection of the second tower in the water. However, my son was with me at the time and I had to pay attention to him as well which is pretty typical of my photo-outings ... I rarely get time to myself to just wander and explore a scene.

Again, I hope these helped. Keep practicing. You have an infinite amount of film available to you with digital. Thus, there is no cost to make mistakes and the only way to learn is to make lots of mistakes.