Architecture photography


ptrgan

New Member
Dec 11, 2012
6
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Singapore
1. in what area is critique to be sought?
Anything, Everything that can help me improve my composition and handling of HDR, as well as better Photoshop skills
2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Better composition, handling of HDR, and better adobe Photoshop skills.
3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Outside MBS, early evening, D5000 & 18-55mm 3.5g, 1/40 ISO LO1
4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Personally, I find my HDR shots too "dark". I've been trying to manipulate the camera angles and trying to take shots in brighter areas but try hard as I might, I don't know why but the processed HDR shots are still too dark for my liking. What I hope to achieve is to try to achieve similar lighting composition and conditions as some HDR shots taken by some bros here which are nicely balanced abet saturated in color and lighting without coming across too overdone like mine. Hope to have some tips and critiques on how to improve my shots. Thanks and greatly appreciated.

7020221173_a227a21c6b_b.jpg
 

welcome to Clubsnap, and welcome to Critique Corner. :)


a little overboard on the post processing...

perhaps you should work on the composition first, when the compositing is not there, the content is unclear, there is nothing much could help after the post.

tilted horizon, buildings chop into half, what is the yellow thingy in the foreground? these should take care first or considering is this images still usable before you spend any more effort on it.


hope this help.
 

What is the misaligned (i think) thing in the foreground?!?!
 

Firstly, white balance is totally off and composition is weird. The foreground got to go. HDR is over-processed and Chromatic aberration is not fix.

Also, ISO LO1 is not recommended, you are losing details in the highlight. Image is neither sharp. Are you shooting handheld?
 

welcome to Clubsnap, and welcome to Critique Corner. :)


a little overboard on the post processing...

perhaps you should work on the composition first, when the compositing is not there, the content is unclear, there is nothing much could help after the post.

tilted horizon, buildings chop into half, what is the yellow thingy in the foreground? these should take care first or considering is this images still usable before you spend any more effort on it.


hope this help.

Thanks for the welcome, and for the feedback. Yes, I acknowledge the overdone post processing and composition. I guess I need more practice on the composition part. As for the post processing, I'm not sure why but this isn't the only photo that looks overdone that I have. I read number of tutorials online always asking me to set to the widest aperture available (f3.5) and to set ISO to lowest but most of the photos I took using this setting always come out like this, even when I try to take it in brightly lit environment.... Do you mind if you could point to me what will be the optimal settings for taking HDR shots?

Thanks again!
 

What is the misaligned (i think) thing in the foreground?!?!

Hehe... that's nothing, just my bad composition. :( I was standing behind the rail outside MBS during the period when they were having boat race...
 

Firstly, white balance is totally off and composition is weird. The foreground got to go. HDR is over-processed and Chromatic aberration is not fix.

Also, ISO LO1 is not recommended, you are losing details in the highlight. Image is neither sharp. Are you shooting handheld?

No actually... was shooting with tripod. You mentioned ISO LO1 is not recommended.... what do you think will be the best ISO range in your opinion? Just to explain... reason I set ISO to LO1 was because I read most of the online HDR tutorial and they kept on asking me to set to lowest..... hence.... the LO1.
 

If you are shooting on a tripod then there's no need for f/3.5! You can go f/11 for sharpness. Keeping your ISO low is referring to the base ISO, which is 200 for Nikon, not LO1. This will give the best quality.
Enable mirror lockup and put a 2 or 5 second delay to minimize vibrations.
 

If you are shooting on a tripod then there's no need for f/3.5! You can go f/11 for sharpness. Keeping your ISO low is referring to the base ISO, which is 200 for Nikon, not LO1. This will give the best quality.
Enable mirror lockup and put a 2 or 5 second delay to minimize vibrations.

Thanks CamInit. Will most certainly try that out tomorrow! :)
 

at least you had nice light behind the buildings. could try straightening the verticals and converting to b&w to eliminate the CA.
e.g.
8267459790_fe89475918_o.jpg
 

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
Anything, Everything that can help me improve my composition and handling of HDR, as well as better Photoshop skills
2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Better composition, handling of HDR, and better adobe Photoshop skills.
3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Outside MBS, early evening, D5000 & 18-55mm 3.5g, 1/40 ISO LO1
4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Personally, I find my HDR shots too "dark". I've been trying to manipulate the camera angles and trying to take shots in brighter areas but try hard as I might, I don't know why but the processed HDR shots are still too dark for my liking. What I hope to achieve is to try to achieve similar lighting composition and conditions as some HDR shots taken by some bros here which are nicely balanced abet saturated in color and lighting without coming across too overdone like mine. Hope to have some tips and critiques on how to improve my shots. Thanks and greatly appreciated.

hmm you probably can play with curves or levels in Photoshop to brighten up the photo

however I think it's more important that the lighting in the photo is good in the first place so that you just have to enhance it in software, if not there will be much more work correcting and making it look natural (hmm but there are always people who prefer to spend time in front of the computer rather than waiting around for the condition of choice)

No actually... was shooting with tripod. You mentioned ISO LO1 is not recommended.... what do you think will be the best ISO range in your opinion? Just to explain... reason I set ISO to LO1 was because I read most of the online HDR tutorial and they kept on asking me to set to lowest..... hence.... the LO1.

You might want to take a look at the in-house newbies guide: http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/newbies-corner/309544-photography-notes-newbies.html

CamInit has pointed out some usual settings, and you should also understand the rationale behind the settings, so that if the situation needs you can change accordingly

Thanks for sharing and continue shooting! :)
 

at least you had nice light behind the buildings. could try straightening the verticals and converting to b&w to eliminate the CA.
e.g.
8267459790_fe89475918_o.jpg

wow! like this transformation to b/w, looks very majestic.
 

ptrgan said:
No actually... was shooting with tripod. You mentioned ISO LO1 is not recommended.... what do you think will be the best ISO range in your opinion? Just to explain... reason I set ISO to LO1 was because I read most of the online HDR tutorial and they kept on asking me to set to lowest..... hence.... the LO1.

LO1 is not your natively lowest ISO. LO1 is technically your lowest ISO minus a stop of dynamic range in the highlights and you do not want that.

Shooting wide open will never result you in a sharp image. You are using a tripod, shoot at least 2-3 f/stop down or more between f/8 to f/16 depending on the lighting condition.
 

Hi bro, sorry I haven't been checking in for a while. Thanks again to all for your constructive critiques. I'm gonna try to take the shot again using the tips given. :)