A Winter Walk in the Woods

[kseyler]

Hello everyone. Although I've been reading the Digital Photography School blog for a while, I just decided to join the forum (it seems like an excellent photography community). I figured I'd start out with a critique post...

The other day I went out for a hike with my family in the woods in upstate NY with my new camera. Here's one I took near the end of the day. I really like the shadows but I'm not sure about the sun (especially the sun's rays and glare spots throughout the image - btw I used a lens hood). The sun glare on the people seem distracting and not right. What would you do in this situation to negate that effect? Any other criticisms/ideas/suggestions for more pp?

Post processing: did a bit of HDR to make to the trees stand out more
Camera: Pentax K200D
Shutter Speeds: 1/500 , 1/125 , 1/30
Aperature: f/19.0
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 18mm




Feel free to ask more questions. Thanks in advance for your comments.

[anthonybeard]

actually, i like the rays. i think it adds a lot to the picture. the glare is what bothers me... i think a polarizing filter could squash them.

[kseyler]

Hey, thanks for the quick reply. I actually agree about the rays. I think my main problem is with the glare. Perhaps I'll get a polarizing filter someday.

[mseigafuse]

Originally Posted by kseyler

Hey, thanks for the quick reply. I actually agree about the rays. I think my main problem is with the glare. Perhaps I'll get a polarizing filter someday.

When you said glare, did you mean the lens flare? If so ... then did you have a filter one (UV filter perhaps)? I've seen this a bit ... try taking the filter off when shooting into the sun.

I like the shot even with the lens flare. I like the shadows, the contrast ... it just works very nice.

[kseyler]

err..yeah I guess I did mean flare instead of glare. And yeah I did have a UV filter on. Thanks for the tip... I'll give a try next time. It's nice to know someone likes it with the lens flare. Thanks a ton for the reply!

[Palladius]

I wouldn't do anything to this except maybe rotate it clockwise a bit to straighten the figures. I love the flare and glare, I think it gives it a kinda surreal feel, strangely beautiful and a tiny, tiny bit unsettling too. Kind of a cross between Narnia and 2001: A Space Odyssey, if you can imagine such a thing!

This is one of those pictures where I think "Damn, I wish I'd taken that" and, if I had, it would even now be hanging on my wall.

Then again, looking at your photostream there's quite a few I'd categorise as such, so you've probably got higher standards than me!

[kseyler]

haha...thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

[mountaingoatee]

Nice pic. I try to get solar points in all my pics.