The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I’m shooting with a 18-150 kit lens that came with my R7 and the low light quality loses a lot of sharpness. I still like this scene. I was here for a few days, doing a course during the day so the best light offered was right before sunset. I toned down the rays the best I could without losing colour.
Specific Feedback
I feel like the quality should be better but my request for feedback is on composition. I had options on where I placed the river in the frame and felt it looked nice taking up that bottom 3rd but is it distracting- disappearing to the left then coming back in?
Technical Details
1/100, f7.1, ISO 125 auto
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Nicely done. I would not worry about the river exiting left and then re entering left. For me, the greater issue is the very bright patch in the top LH corner and the amount of bright river at the bottom right. Perhaps consider a 16 by 9 crop to make the photo more expansive, with the bottom edge just below the final right turn in the river.
I like the composition, my eye was drawn from the river plain into the magnificent mountains. Similar to the prior comment, perhas a bit of a crop, i.e. shortening the foreground is in order.
Also, I think I see that the river flows into the scene, which would make sense the the river runs contrary to a normal horizon line. If the river runs out of the scene, it would make it appear that the horizon line is off-kilter.
Hi @gregriverman , Such a marvelous scene you have shared with us. I agree that there is a bit of a blown out spot in the sky that could use some recovery. But I think a more effective way to approach your river concerns might be a multi-shot pano to capture more of your river’s curves and the mountains behind rather than less. I definitely want to see more of this beauty…
Gregory, this is a very inviting scene as presented. Having the river exit and reenter is not a problem, since the strong angle across the frame is pulled left by the distand peak and the break in the clouds. Yes, it would be “nice” to not have the blown area in the sky, but you’ve handled it well. In my experience, scenes with bright sky like this can often be “saved” by shooting at -1 EV(and sometimes -2 EV) to hold the sky while brightening the land in post processing. That depends much more on the sensor than on the lens. While your “kit” lens won’t give as much resolution as a “prime” lens, you’re unlikely to notice the difference unless you’re making a large print.
A beautiful scene with a lot of potential. I don’t mind the river exiting and reentering. @Mark_Seaver offers good advice for a next occasion, if you meet similar challenging conditions. You can make multiple exposures as well and combine them in post-processing.
I like @Rob_Sykes suggestion to consider a 16:9 crop. The image feels off-level to me, I rotated it about 1.5 degrees, made the pano crop and removed some of the blueish shade on the mountains. To brighten the dark fir trees a bit I changed the tone curve, not much.
Don’t know if this is too far from you intentions.
@guy I would definitely like to start practicing multi sots. The mountains on either side of the scene were very close and blocky so I actually cut them out. @Mark_Seaver that is great advice for shooting into the sun like that. I had left my polarizer on- just for the extra stop of shade but -1EV would have helped. @Han_Schutten I really like the adjustments. I’m inspired by the 16x9. I will be using this scale more often!
@gregriverman you might want to investigate graduated neutral density filters. They help get tricky exposures correct in camera. A soft edge grad might have helped you in this situation,
