DSLR Photography Forum

Hi all, I've just signed up to the site. It's great to find an aussie based forum, and hope I can contribute in some small way.

Here's a recent shot I'd like to get some opinions on. Subject is Shulz Canal, north side of the Brissy river.

Ok if I had to pick faults (and they would be small) it would be the bridge on the left and the sun on the right, the sun seems to have washed the shot out or perhaps its your editing but the only tru black point I can find is on the edge of the frame!

Beautiful reflections and sky but it looks too civilised for my liking. Where was it taken (roughly)

Hey did you know they named a camera bag brand after you? You must be famous.

Welcome to the madhouse!

I think it's a nice pic as is - a bit surreal perhaps because of the processing. (Making an assumption... ) But very pleasant nonetheless.

I'd suggest flipping it horizontally so that the sunlight enters on the left and the eye travels up the canal to the right. Just a new bias I have for left-right flow in an image.

I think it's a great shot. Welcome to the forum.

Hi

Welcome

uuhmmm....

have you done some fixing in photoshop? asking because what of the sun is way too much. not sure of your exposure or film but looks like you have over done the saturation. Overall very nice, i can fel the warm of the sun.

take care

Christian

Welcome, new fellow!

Hi Lowepro,

Welcome!

Your photo is very nice.
A wonderful scene, beautiful light and colours, wonderful trees framing the canal and emphasising its shape, and I especially love the silky water and its reflection.

It certainly doesn't need any fixing up (ie there is nothing WRONG with it), but there are certinaly a number of ways the same scene and image could be approached.
I agree with StudioJ in that I think the sun is perhaps a bit blown out and distracting. I understand it would be almost impossible to not blow-out the sun yet still have enough light to keep the foreground visible, but in this shot I don't think the sun itself plays a major role (but the light it throws out certainly does).
The triangular shape of the canal with its heavy base demands attention, and my eye naturally wants to travel from the bottom of the triangle up the its apex following the canal, and the wonderful reflections you have near where the canal meets the horizon is a great place to lead the eye to and it works really well... but the sun is over there on the right of the image screaming for attention and fighting against the canal, preventing it from "working" properly.

I say get rid of the sun altogether. It's nice, but the river is way nicer and should be the primary focus of this shot IMHO. In fact, seeing as the sky is reflected in the river anyway, I would even suggest getting rid of a fair bit of the sky. Fortunetely I think the most interesting part of the sky is close to the canal, so by cropping out bits of sky you are still keeping the best bits and leaving the impression that the rest of the sky is as spectacular as those parts you are keeping.
I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of butchering your image in photoshop to give you an idea of how I might tackle that photo if it were mine.
Nothing major, just a different crop, a bit less exposure, and a touch of vignetting to give the sky more of a feel that it is "closing in" (and I also cloned out the bridge, which was distracting me a little bit too).



Now I have a bit of a love for dramatic skies and tend to prefer a more underexposed look than most people here I think... so my changes might not be to your (or anyone else's) taste... but I'm just saying what I would do if I had taken the shot myself. And as for the crop, well its a shame to lose some nice parts of the photo (especially those other bits of sky), but it is the canal that is the centre of attention in this shot, and as far as I'm concerned everything else is just incidental and there to support that element.

This is a critique so I'm trying to be critical, but as I said, the image is still great as it is without any changes.

Cheers
Adrian

I should of mentioned I'm fairly new to photography (had my D70 for a few months now) and really appreciate you guys/gals taking the time to give feedback.

Kombisaurus Wrote:Now I have a bit of a love for dramatic skies and tend to prefer a more underexposed look than most people here I think... so my changes might not be to your (or anyone else's) taste...

yeah way to dark for my liking, but to each his own.

Kombisaurus Wrote:And as for the crop, well its a shame to lose some nice parts of the photo (especially those other bits of sky), but it is the canal that is the centre of attention in this shot

I like the crop, it makes a dramatic change. It certainly looks better without the sun.

StudioJ Wrote:Beautiful reflections and sky but it looks too civilised for my liking. Where was it taken (roughly)

Lol very civilised area. The bridge to the left is the track for the Airtrain, the track on the right is a very popular bicycle track. Directly behind me is a very major freeway linking north/south. I wanted to correctly represent the area so ultimately that's why I didn't clone out the path & the Airtrain track. Thanks for pointing out the black problem, I can fix that up with levels right?

Thanks all for your welcome comments

Hey Lowepro, welcome to Shuttertalk! Hope you make yourself feel at home here.

Just echoing what people have said - it's a very beautiful shot. I love the reflection especially - the waters are so calm and pristine!

Good stuff... keep them coming!

Nice shot, great color in the sky.

Welcome to shuttertalk.

Love the reflection, looks great.

Oh yeah and welcome to ................ where are we again????? :o

Brissy, gotta be happy with that, lived in Brissy before I moved down here.