This is one of the only times I ever dared to pull out any photographic device while kayaking. I have a bad history with tech and rivers–that is I’ve lost more than one phone to the depths in the attempt, but I was out for relaxation more than exercise at the time–and the evening light was just too good to pass up.
The photo is of one of the banks of the Charles River, somewhere between Newton MA, and Waltham MA, shot from my kayak where I was paddling along the opposite bank.
Specific Feedback Requested
My favorite thing about this photo is the reflection of those trees as an almost abstract mirror image on the water. The effect is one I enjoy. As mentioned, I found the light to be particularly appealing at the time. I also like how the blue of the sky and reflected sky go from light to dark diagonally across…
…That all said, scrutinizing it, I can see there’s a twig in the river sort of marring things on the right hand side near the bottom. Should this photo have been cut down to really accentuate the treeline? Or, is the centered effect of trees and reflection better for the blue space on either side? Would it have been better closer up/zoomed in?
I also wonder how much of my finding the scale/scope (am I using the right words here?) off is due to what I was taking this with, detailed below.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
This was taken with my OnePlus 8Pro smart phone, “photo” setting at a 1.0x exactly ratio. There has been no editing and no effects applied.
Hi Ariella. I can see why you liked the light as it shows off the greens and blues rather nicely in the scene. The reflection is a nice touch and I like the little bit of ripples along the edge of the reflection. I have a couple of minor suggestions and I hope you don’t mind, but here is a rework with what I am thinking.
First I would crop some of the sky as it is devoid of any clouds and I would clone out some of the debris in the water. My other suggestion; and just my personal taste; would be to add just a little warmth to the scene to bring out the light a little better along the shoreline. Very nicely done!
The small ripples in the water do create some very interesting abstract reflections of the trees. I can see why you were attracted to this scene. I like the crop proposed by @Ed_Lowe, it not only takes the waterline off center for a more dynamic look, But I also think his crop makes the reflections more prominent. And what Ed did with WB is subtle, but works nicely for me.
When you have strong horizontal lines in an image like this, it often makes sense to use a more panoramic aspect ratio (which Mr. Lowe has also done in his rework).
I was also going to say that I liked that you did not over-polarize this scene and get uneven blues in the sky, but then I noticed this was shot with a phone
Nice riverbank! I’m a kayaker also and prefer rivers to lakes. It’s the lure and pull of what might be around the next bend. Luckily I have been good with tech and have my camera with me all the time.
I think the clean up and re-crop Ed #1 did enhances the strengths of the photo which are the lines, the reflection and the natural aspect ratio of trees to sky and water. Since it’s done with a phone and I think your regular camera is a point-and-shoot, almost all of your adjustments will come with post-processing. So it’s all the more important to master composition and even more, exposure, in the field as you take the picture. I think this is a good example of that even though it was probably totally automatic. As you progress with your camera and photography in general, you can find many resources here and on the web to help you with both aspects.
Thank you, @Ed_Lowe! My eye found your re-work even more appealing, and that you took the time to explain what you did, and then demonstrated it that way, really helped me to understand what you meant and, of course, why.
I’m relatively new to photography, and really appreciate detailed feedback of this kind. You had me looking up things like “cloning out” debris (or any other unwanted objects) which was totally new to me. What software did you use to the make the changes? What would you recommend?
Also @Ed_Lowe , can I ask why you cut the sky side more than the water? What made you think of adding warmth specifically? Mind, I’m in full agreement with both you and @Ed_McGuirk that the end result of the re-work is so much better.
@Ed_McGuirk you had me looking up what “over-polarizing” meant. I confess that was a little harder to wrap my head around than the notion of adding “warmth” which I also looked up. I often find that the shots I take because they catch my eye come out darker or “colder” than I ended when I look at the result later. Can you point me to good articles that might help me get a better handle on “polarizing”? Also, any specific types of filters you would recommend for landscapes?
I can’t but agree with your opening words, but I must ask what kind of camera do you take boating, and–for that matter–what kind of boat? In a super “tippy” sea-kayak (which I generally favor) there’s not a lot of leeway for moving one’s body for capturing photos.
I have a run-of-the mill recreation kayak - a Wilderness Systems Pungo 120 which is a 12-footer, plastic and quite wide, so not as tippy as a sea kayak. Currently I’m shooting with a Panasonic Lumix G9 which is a mirrorless camera that takes interchangeable lenses.
This is it with a lens I rented to go on vacation.
Hi Ariella, I can’t help but join this. Given the fact that you’re using a phone or as @Kris_Smith mentioned a point and shoot can present limitations or it can be an advantage in learning to see things differently. I don’t have a fancy camera myself, the reality for me is I can’t take epic landscape shots that would end up being blown up large on a wall, I can’t take night shots, I can’t take, animals that are too far away. But I think it’s taken me a little time to learn what I can do and try to get good with that! That way, when I can get an awesome camera and go to some awesome place I’ll be more ready for it! With all that being said, I just wanted to show you an idea for your really beautiful scene…if you don’t like stuff like this, I understand, but just wanted to show you a potential scene from your scene that I saw because of @Ed_McGuirk comment about the abstract nature of the reflection…
@Kris_Smith Got it, though for me…I need my sea-kayaks, drives me nuts to paddle in anything else. Maybe I should stick to taking pictures when I’m standing on a bank or a ferry boat, or motor boat, when I can set up better.
Thank you for sharing what camera you use! My cell phone is by nature, point and shoot of course. My Olympus T6…I’m not sure. I don’t think you can swap lenses on it…but the digital tech on the thing is so advanced–beyond me, it feels like…I don’t yet know what I can do with it in terms of digital compensation for the elements in a more traditional camera. It’s also still so new, I’ve barely scratched the surface of what I can do with it. Alas, only the photo I put up in the showcase area a few days ago was shot with the Olympus. Can one move posts? I really do think I posted that to the wrong forum now.
@Vanessa_Hill , I’m actually glad you zeroed in on what I had for the image you’ve posted.
My first introduction to the concept of abstract photography has been this week looking at the weekly challenge entries. As the week has progressed, I have thought about the reflection in this photo in terms of the abstract value a lot–but kept thinking the colors weren’t varied enough…the area is too small…
…Then you show me this! I really do like it, I just never would have thought of it. What made you think of it? What software do you, @Vanessa_Hill , use for processing?
Cloning is removal of small objects, I use both Adobe Lightroom, and Photoshop, each of which has cloning tools (also very useful to remove dust spots in skies). Search for Photoshop Content Aware Fill to really blow your mind. Basic cloning tools explained here
The Adobe products are very widely used, with lots of learning resources on the internet, as well as many folks here at NPN use them, and will often suggest LR/PS based tweaks in giving critique.
Polarizing filters are pieces of glass that screw on the front of your lens. They act like sunglasses, darkening skies and removing glare from wet surfaces like plants. In the context of your image, it’s common to see over-polarized skies in shots taken with very wide-angle lenses, because part of the sky will be more polarized than another. Polarizers have their strongest effect at 90 degrees from the sun. Here is a shot illustrating that issue, notice how dark the sky is on the left vs. the right. On the left it was getting more polarization effect than on the right (image at focal length of 18mm). The way to avoid this is to not fully polarize the shot to balance the sky better. You polarize by rotating the filter, to avoid the problem you would not fully rotate it. In your shot of the Charles, it was clearly a wide angle lens, but you had even blue tonality across the sky (because you had no polarizing filter on).
For filters I would get a polarizer (they are very useful if used properly), and maybe a Neutral Density filter to lengthen exposures for creative effect. This assumes you have a camera with interchangeable lenses that accept screw on filters.
Hi Ariella, I’m glad you like it, all I did was zero in on an area that looked interesting, cropped it and then rotated so the trees were right side up and even I thought some of the black splotches in the left part of the water/sky kind of looked like flying birds, for a complete landscape shot! Like. @Ed_McGuirk suggested you might want to look into Lightroom as that would be what most people use and could give you advice on. But what I did to your photo was very basic and something that probably your phone could do.
