Gardens By The Bay


joneeee

New Member
Feb 5, 2011
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1. in what area is critique to be sought?

Composition, Colors and Technique.

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
A nice landscape shot of the Gardens, that shows the main attractions, i.e. the supertrees and superdomes. I was trying to achieve a slightly "mysterious" effect by playing with the white balance/

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Taken on a bright, sunny Sat at about 4pm.
Taken in raw with a Nikon D7000, 18-105mm kit lens @ 18mm, f/9.0, ISO 500, 1/400. Handheld.
Edited in Lightroom, color temp 500, contrast +49, vibrance + 25, vignetting -39

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Well.. it's my first critique post. I think it's a pretty sharp shot, and I am pretty much happy with the composition. But then again, that's just me..


DSC_5776.jpg
 

1. in what area is critique to be sought?

Composition, Colors and Technique.

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
A nice landscape shot of the Gardens, that shows the main attractions, i.e. the supertrees and superdomes. I was trying to achieve a slightly "mysterious" effect by playing with the white balance/

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Taken on a bright, sunny Sat at about 4pm.
Taken in raw with a Nikon D7000, 18-105mm kit lens @ 18mm, f/9.0, ISO 500, 1/400. Handheld.
Edited in Lightroom, color temp 500, contrast +49, vibrance + 25, vignetting -39

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Well.. it's my first critique post. I think it's a pretty sharp shot, and I am pretty much happy with the composition. But then again, that's just me..


DSC_5776.jpg

great photo! did captured the main attractions! maybe u can try another shot without making the "mysterious" effect?
 

I shall not comment on the mysterious effect cos it's really subjective ;)

I think it is quite nicely taken, not tilted and putting the horizon around 1/3 and showing more of the foreground

However feel something is not there to grab attention... maybe including too much in the frame so there is no obvious point of focus. The bridge on the bottom left leads into the (real) trees, not into the supertrees which I guess is the more important point of focus

Maybe can try taking a bit more to the left, using the bridge as a leading line to the supertrees. And probably can take a little later when the sky may be more interesting and there's some lights in the supertrees

Thanks for sharing! And you got the first mover advantage by posting here first :)
 

was thinking again about the 'mysterious effect'... you may want to elaborate why you wanted the 'mysterious' effect / the way you processed your photo. Maybe I'm slow but I don't feel anything mysterious about the supertrees =p
 

If you want a mysterious effect, I propose to you what I pre-visualized:

Take the shot in morning when there's low mist hanging amongst the trees. Preferably when the sun is at a low angle just above tree canopy level. The combination of backlighting and mist should give you the feel. There should be few people on the walkway. A large crowd just connotes this place is visited by many and detracts from the mystery. Ideally, the waterway should be also visible to suggest isolation of the opposite bank from the shooter's pov.

Now this is all theoretical. I don't know if there's any mist in the morning or whether the sun is in the right spot, but that's what I would want to achieve. The more the above-mentioned elements come together, the stronger you get your mystery shot.
:)
 

I like it too..

reminds me of Jurassic Park..
:D
 

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
DSC_5776.jpg

Just my thoughts, Hope it helps you.

I don't see it as a interesting way, It totally lacks composition. It lacks details on extreme right/bottom due to the vignetting. People/Bridge are distracting this picture. Shouldn't have changed WB. Apply Sunny 16 rule during bright sunny days & use CPL/ND/GND filters.
 

It seems like a norm picture...lacking of composition..And yes, the people and the far left building are too distracting..imoho.
 

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IMHO composition is unbalanced. The conservatory is too close to the picture border - should have moved yourself a little to the left.
The trees at the bottom are too distracting.
 

Im not an expert but i do feel that the trees at the bottom are quire distracting as well..
 

Thanks for all the comments! Been a bit busy with work, and didn't check back until today.

Yea, I took a 2nd look at the composition after a couple of you mentioned the Dome on the left. Agree that the conservatory should be a bit more to the right of the picture. The people are distracting, but well.. opening day, so I guess cannot help it.

mmm, i'm not sure what I should do about the trees in the forefront of the picture. If I point my camera up, so that the trees are not in the picture, I'll get quite a lot of sky, i.e. the Supertrees and Dome will be relegated to the bottom 1/3 of the picture, and it'll be empty sky for the top 2/3. The only way I can think of, to solve that problem, is to take the shot from the top of MBS skypark, which is like... $20 entrance fee =/

Will go back in a month or so when it's less crowded and try to take a better one :D
 

Hi Joneeee,

You can crop away the trees that are in front so that they will not be so distracting. I think that is what most people are doing. There is no way you can avoid the trees from the viewing area. :)


Thanks for all the comments! Been a bit busy with work, and didn't check back until today.

Yea, I took a 2nd look at the composition after a couple of you mentioned the Dome on the left. Agree that the conservatory should be a bit more to the right of the picture. The people are distracting, but well.. opening day, so I guess cannot help it.

mmm, i'm not sure what I should do about the trees in the forefront of the picture. If I point my camera up, so that the trees are not in the picture, I'll get quite a lot of sky, i.e. the Supertrees and Dome will be relegated to the bottom 1/3 of the picture, and it'll be empty sky for the top 2/3. The only way I can think of, to solve that problem, is to take the shot from the top of MBS skypark, which is like... $20 entrance fee =/

Will go back in a month or so when it's less crowded and try to take a better one :D
 

I think you should go at the right time to do a re-shoot if you are really want it. The main distraction in the frame is the people with different colors and tones from the rest of the photo. You can always shoot at wider angles and crop for composition but of course, you will also loose pixels. Some times there is not really a choice but to crop away those distracting elements. The good thing is that you are happy what you have shot which means you have put in some effort in the shot too. There can be many versions of this frame and depending how creative you can be using different software and processing. You said creating a mysterious feel to this shot but is not enough to feel or visualize it. It will be good to leave it in auto WB and find a good way to change it to different feel during processing. There are so many details in it and can be such a mysterious feel if process it correctly, the viewer will also need to feel it almost immediately.
 

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A quick example how it can be mysterious. The thought is Avatar the movie. This is not a HDR process. There are details in the shot that can be used to create and have quite a decent composition.

DDsw3.jpg


let me know to remove it.

Now back to my school work......
 

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A quick example how it can be mysterious. The thought is Avatar the movie. This is not a HDR process. There are details in the shot that can be used to create and have quite a decent composition.

:think: tighter crop to isolate the subject... adding a heavy vignette... applying a sepia/yellowish tone....
dunno if other higher level editing done...

nice!
 

:think: tighter crop to isolate the subject... adding a heavy vignette... applying a sepia/yellowish tone....
dunno if other higher level editing done...

nice!

Is just an example taken from TS shot and crop away some of it will help in composition too. Is a different process and I have my own work flow which can be done quite fast and is because I use this work flow in my own poster design. And that is my secret.....
There are tools like vignetting and many different types of tools in software and in each tools, there is a purpose of every tools.If you use it correctly, it can be quite nice and amazing. I am a learner in this photography and is just sharing what i can.

Good night.
 

A quick example how it can be mysterious. The thought is Avatar the movie. This is not a HDR process. There are details in the shot that can be used to create and have quite a decent composition.

DDsw3.jpg


let me know to remove it.

Now back to my school work......

woahhh niceee. I like your version better than mine! Thanks! I'll go and play around with the tools and experiment more!