An Obsidian Path

[stimbijik]

:sweat: Personally i think this had been shot by many, but for me its still worth while to put up here for criticism to learn to be better. I have read few outdoor landscape mags, invest in some books and googling the world especially "time catcher".... I know i can enhance it better looking using CS2 but i just cant understand the software.........anyway the picture above in my opinion still lacks many things for instance:-

1) my horizon still slanted a bit...i have this problem always i just can't see the slantedness during the take...

2) the dark areas on the rocks at left and right is due to my filter wrongly placed too far in and not at the horizon. sometimes i rush myself during a take as my brain tells me that,"QUICK!!! the sunset will not wait for U. take many many!!!" :sweatsm:

The rocks are not an Obsidian really but some stones at punggol....if you have any more hard comments please do tell me...

 

[zac08]

To be honest, it looks a little like very slight barrel distortion rather than the slanting... And if you want to be very exact, go get a miny leveling guide which is meant to be placed on the hotshoe.

Nice colours but it may have been better if you saturated it a bit more to make the red stand out stronger... A slower shutter speed would also have helped make the sea even more creamier...

 

[stimbijik]

To be honest, it looks a little like very slight barrel distortion rather than the slanting... And if you want to be very exact, go get a miny leveling guide which is meant to be placed on the hotshoe.

Nice colours but it may have been better if you saturated it a bit more to make the red stand out stronger... A slower shutter speed would also have helped make the sea even more creamier...

how to know or see where the barrel distortion is? yes i take using my tamron 11-18 may be at 13mm~15mm so that i wont get vignetting from my filter holder...yes agree on the saturation part...i think this is at f16 at 20sec, not slow enough ah?? whoa i am a not so patient at times and even 20~30 sec i feel that i do not know what to do at the time of exposure :dunno: ...leveling guide or the focusing screen is better?? because I look at my tripod bubble guide center but after that.......sigh

 

[night86mare]

how to know or see where the barrel distortion is? yes i take using my tamron 11-18 may be at 13mm~15mm so that i wont get vignetting from my filter holder...yes agree on the saturation part...i think this is at f16 at 20sec, not slow enough ah?? whoa i am a not so patient at times and even 20~30 sec i feel that i do not know what to do at the time of exposure :dunno: ...

Blow the picture up, I still have problems sometimes too but I find that it helps.

But you are really improving very fast! I love this picture and the last one I commented on in your APAD thread, don't really understand about the filter and horizon line though, the side rocks are at the side, nothing to do with the horizon line? :dunno:

Can always correct horizon using PS? I want a wider lens, soon, gah. =(

 

[zac08]

how to know or see where the barrel distortion is? yes i take using my tamron 11-18 may be at 13mm~15mm so that i wont get vignetting from my filter holder...yes agree on the saturation part...i think this is at f16 at 20sec, not slow enough ah?? whoa i am a not so patient at times and even 20~30 sec i feel that i do not know what to do at the time of exposure :dunno: ...leveling guide or the focusing screen is better?? because I look at my tripod bubble guide center but after that.......sigh

Simplest way to see distortion is to draw a line at the horizion... You can then see if there is any pincushion or barrelling...

I believe there is a way to counter this in CS2.

 

[The_Cheat]

:sweat: Personally i think this had been shot by many, but for me its still worth while to put up here for criticism to learn to be better. I have read few outdoor landscape mags, invest in some books and googling the world especially "time catcher".... I know i can enhance it better looking using CS2 but i just cant understand the software.........anyway the picture above in my opinion still lacks many things for instance:-

1) my horizon still slanted a bit...i have this problem always i just can't see the slantedness during the take...

2) the dark areas on the rocks at left and right is due to my filter wrongly placed too far in and not at the horizon. sometimes i rush myself during a take as my brain tells me that,"QUICK!!! the sunset will not wait for U. take many many!!!" :sweatsm:

The rocks are not an Obsidian really but some stones at punggol....if you have any more hard comments please do tell me...

That's a nice write-up you did to accompany your decently taken picture. It's always encouraging when people are able to spot mistakes in their own shots, instead of waiting for people to point them out. And yes, your horizon is a little bit slanted, but that's really no big deal. Even the most experienced photographers have problem with horizontal planes now and then. Nothing some DI won't easily remedy.

I found it interesting that you attempted to connect the scene with a path of obsidian going towards the background, where the sun sets beautifully at the horizon. However, if this is indeed a path, then you should really drop off the idea of making this a standard landscape shot, crop off the sides and make it into a portrait form. This will no doubt make the path tighter and more obvious to a casual viewer. More importantly, this will also force the casual viewer to follow from the foreground to the background, as if moving down from an actual path, and finally being bathed underneath the setting sun.

As it is, your composition really muted the existence or the meaning of the path. To me, the shot as is seems no more than just another outdoor landscape shot that is barely decent due to the technicalities you'd mentioned yourself.

 

[stimbijik]

I found it interesting that you attempted to connect the scene with a path of obsidian going towards the background, where the sun sets beautifully at the horizon. However, if this is indeed a path, then you should really drop off the idea of making this a standard landscape shot, crop off the sides and make it into a portrait form. This will no doubt make the path tighter and more obvious to a casual viewer. More importantly, this will also force the casual viewer to follow from the foreground to the background, as if moving down from an actual path, and finally being bathed underneath the setting sun.

gee many thanks for the lengthy write up, really appreciate you looking at the picture and commented. Actually i just can't quite relate to a Landscape picture having a potrait frame...:think: ...but since you said about the title that I've included, it made me want to venture out and see how true your theory really is and i crop its sides and bump up its saturation levels as advised by zac08.

I think that now, i realised that it actually tells how the obsidian are formed as in the red larvae (sunset) -> water that cooled the larvae and finally the stones formation. So what do you think?? is it better than the first one??:think:

 

[Reliance]

That's better.

 

[aloskimo]

imho, the first one in landscape looks better..
the potrait format has lose too much details...
contrary the potrait format doesn't make one feel about the path anymore..
to each his own..

 

[Jeff]

composition wise I think it's OK. Subject wise, u need to find something striking to anchor ur image. It serves to guide the viewer from one point in the frame to the next.

Based on ur first landscape composition, light has become ur subject. If u observe carefully, the light leads ur eyes from LL to TR. Of course it helps if the landscape is more dramatic but one cant help with that.

Probably next time u may wish to consider getting someone or urself in the frame.

one other, photography is not about technical stuff. It's about creating and projecting ur personal vision. A technically competent image is only halfway there. The other half is in ur soul.

 

[The_Cheat]

It's important to know what you are taking in the first place. That's why lots of photographers preach about pre-visualisation. This is my crude attempt to change it to a portrait format. It's more of a square though.

And yes, like what aloskimo have mentioned, it is to each his own. This rendition may or may not work to your vision.

 

[stimbijik]

It's important to know what you are taking in the first place. That's why lots of photographers preach about pre-visualisation. This is my crude attempt to change it to a portrait format. It's more of a square though.

And yes, like what aloskimo have mentioned, it is to each his own. This rendition may or may not work to your vision.

ergkkk...i thought the critique has ended....anyway thanks The_Cheat, Jeff, Aloskimo & Reliance for the comments....I have thoroughly looked into the 3 types of crop and i think the first original and the one that The_Cheat cropped is better looking...the foreground, water and sky details are all balance....:think: