In the large city where I live the ravines offer a (slightly bruised) natural getaway. Here a boy climbs below the concrete (see him?) to find the wilderness.
Thank you for looking, all feedback welcomed.
18mm f6.4 1/60sec ISO 200 handheld
Charles,
A great example of finding and exploring nature among with our human connection. Great job framing the scene with the arch of the bridge. Personally, the painted number on the bridge is a little distracting - relative to a “nature” landscape perspective; but from a journalistic and you goals, it of course is important.
The boy to me is probably too small in the frame to have any impact and wouldn’t notice unless he was pointed out.
Overall, the colors and exposure look good and this image fits your genre quite well.
Lon
Nice color and comp. I think I would burn or clone white area below boy, clone out bright log ? right of center, clone out rocks intruding from LRC, and also clone out the boy. He’s too small to notice until pointed out. JMHO
I thought that this image looked soft, and then I noticed your technicals, f6.4, ISO 200, handheld. This scene looks like it is in overcast or shaded light. Handholding forced you into using an aperture that did not provide enough depth of field. A tripod is a pain to use sometimes, but it is worth it if you want sharper images. You achieved a good exposure here, but need to be at a higher aperture, either via bumping ISO up and/or using as tripod.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. I guess the boy is too small, but I’ll leave him in as a little surprise to the viewer. The cloning ideas are interesting - new concept to me and I will look at that. And I had never thought the softness was because of focal length and hand held - I thought it was the crop sensor! Thanks again
The softness is not due to focal length (18mm), rather it is due to using a low aperture f6.4, it needs to be at f11 or f16 to get more depth of field. Handheld doesn’t help either, tripod would be preferred, and allow you to shoot at low higher aperture & lower ISO.
Thanks - I had meant to write fstop not focal length. I had thought at f6.4 if I was far enough back from the focus point I would easily get to infinity on DoF. But a tripod would have helped and I need to better understand optimal DoF. I was also concerned about the wind but even at 1/60 it’s too slow to really freeze leaf shaking. I try to shoot between gusts.
Arches are always beautiful, whether natural or man made. One of Ancient Rome’s best contributions. To me the graffiti on the bridge looks really sharp but the bg starts to fade. If that’s the case then it is a DOF issue as suggested and not camera shake. You would think that at 18mm everything beyond say 5 feet would be in focus, though.
Part of the softness issue here is perhaps due to wind and leaf movement in addition to possible DOF / camera shakes issues. In a scene like this in overcast light and some wind, I would start at settings of f11, and an ISO of 400, and shoot from a tripod. Using f11 would certainly give you enough DOF, and ISO 400 probably would be enough to freeze wind motion. Using a tripod not only avoids camera shake, but also allows you to avoid having to use too high an ISO to prevent wind motion.
