Calming river


crystal1993

New Member
Aug 16, 2010
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Japan, Tokyo
5039314439_cd00a87fc3_b.jpg




1. in what area is critique to be sought?
Composition and lighting.

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Capture the serene scenery.

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Taken at about 9pm and there was almost no light source.

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
I feel that i captured the boats well but yet there is something lacking...
 

the something lacking is ur main subject... what is the main actor? seems like a scene from a play with alot of actors on stage and i can't make out whos the main actor..

and the scene doesn't reflect the calming river.. more of the construction and building lights
 

@Gerald, dslr. And it's kind of on purpose. =/ So i shouldn't do that next time?

@enzeru, hmmm ok will take note of it. Thanks! ;)

@Mezzotint, That's the closest i can go as there is a gate blocking access to the pier. The WB was on purpose too. I did try taking other shots with other WB.

5040938228_b4fa025b7f_b.jpg


And thanks for the pointers! ;)

@sinned, LOL SHHH!:embrass:
 

Basically the composition itself is not very strong. It doesn't bring across the theme of 'calming river' nor 'serene scenery'.

Also, the bright floodlights at the background is a distraction
 

@sinned, i shot in raw. Converted to jpeg to upload. :)

@yc2005, thanks for your comment! Will take note of it. :)
 

hi guys,

this is actually a very good learning picture for me.
i have tried taking pictures like this(although there is a difference in composition) the end results invariably lands somewhere the same as the TS when it comes to SHARPNESS.
i have seen pictures posted by seniors like DD123, night86mare( and the lists goes on),
is it due to PP, or is there a real technique involved?
does taking it in RAW makes a picture clearer?
does focusing to infinity helps?
where do u focus?
i have read the newbies section and followed most instructions religiously.
sorry for the OT,
but i think a lot of amateurs would learn a lot from here.
i am already taking notes,
kudos to this CS.
regards
 

Last edited:
@akszaksz and sinned, yeah there are flares here and there and yeah i'm using a cheapo uv filter. =/

@thelight, hmm so what you mean is it's not sharp enough? =O
 

hi guys,

this is actually a very good learning picture for me.
i have tried taking pictures like this(although there is a difference in composition) the end results invariably lands somewhere the same as the TS when it comes to SHARPNESS.
i have seen pictures posted by seniors like DD123, night86mare( and the lists goes on),
is it due to PP, or is there a real technique involved?
does taking it in RAW makes a picture clearer?
does focusing to infinity helps?
where do u focus?
i have read the newbies section and followed most instructions religiously.
sorry for the OT,
but i think a lot of amateurs would learn a lot from here.
i am already taking notes,
kudos to this CS.
regards

thelight I will answer your questions first by giving you some links on good readings, which I think will benefit the TS also. After which I will give my views on TS's picture.

On achieving sharpness
http://www.dphotojournal.com/photography-tip-getting-maximum-sharpness/

The biggest part of sharpness is to get elements in your picture you want to be in focus to be in focus nicely and your setup must be very stable. That said, for some pics I do apply some sharpening (using unsharp mask) but do it very sparingly and always at the end after resizing. Different presentation mediums will require different ways to prepare that image. For print, my pictures are generally unsharpened at full resolution.

For focusing if we want everything in the frame to be in focus (for most landscape shots), we make use of hyperfocal distance. You can read up on how to use it here:
http://darthbertz.blogspot.com/2010/07/getting-everything-into-focus.html
 

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
Composition and lighting.

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Capture the serene scenery.

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Taken at about 9pm and there was almost no light source.

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
I feel that i captured the boats well but yet there is something lacking...

It is good that you feel that your picture is lacking. This is the first step to improving. The stuff I am going to say here is my opinion and how I would like the picture to look. But do know that it is quite subjective sometimes. A lot depends on what you are trying to achieve here.

Technical Execution

Horizon seems level and verticals seems straight. Which is good.

As for exposure I think it is ok, although some of the spot lights near the shoreline are blown. But to lower the exposure to get those in line, you would have totally underexposed your POI (point of interest) which is the jetty and the boats.

I do notice there are quite a few ghosting ( bright dots in the middle of the sky) due to the strong spot lights. If you shot this picture with your UV or protector filter on, you shouldn't. For night photography please remove all unnecessary filters. If no filters, then you have to start moving your camera angle around so that the ghosts lights will disappear. Third way is to clone them away in PP.

I though WB is fine contrary to the other CSer who mentioned a tungsten WB be used. Problem with using Tungsten WB is that the lighting here is complex. There are all sorts of ligths in this picture. If you do tungsten, you will make everything an eerie blue. Unless when trying to achieve a special look, this should be avoided.

Composition and Idea.

I am trying very hard to read what your idea is for this shot. Sure it is a simple shot of a jetty with boats. But nothing in this picture really suggest that it is 1) Calm nor is it 2) a river. There are just about a thousand lights in the horizon, all casting reflections on the water. And the choice of short shutter speed and the reflections showed all the details of the waves. Not calm.

Also the way you chose to compose the frame. You gave so much weight to the sky, which is very uninteresting. Causing the entire picture to be unbalanced. The end of the jetty is also too close to the edge of the frame. And angle of the jetty is not very desirable as it 'cut's the frame across. Some of us call that a "slashing diagonal".

How to improve this shot

Pretty much you have to reshoot this frame. Personally I would close down the aperture, go for hyerfocal distance focusing, use some NDs maybe and shoot it long exposure to smooth out the waters. I would also go for another angle of the jetty, try to get it extending into the frame. I would also shoot this picture during the blue hour during sunset.

hope this helps.
 

Thanks a lot daredevil!
Will go back down next week and try a different approach towards it. :)
 

@Gerald, dslr. And it's kind of on purpose. =/ So i shouldn't do that next time?

@enzeru, hmmm ok will take note of it. Thanks! ;)

@Mezzotint, That's the closest i can go as there is a gate blocking access to the pier. The WB was on purpose too. I did try taking other shots with other WB.

5040938228_b4fa025b7f_b.jpg


And thanks for the pointers! ;)

@sinned, LOL SHHH!:embrass:

not really...liking a photo is individual preference. But for myself, i will use a tripod, set my dslr on maybe 10-25 sec exposure to brighten the image. I purpose u didnt use a tripod for this? A tripod i will say is definitely a must for Night landscape shots. :)
 

@Gerald, i am using a tripod. =O

its not about the tripod.. i think read thru Daredevils' advice again.. and try to digest.. then go out and try again...

thats enough to last you for awhile le..~!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:
 

its not about the tripod.. i think read thru Daredevils' advice again.. and try to digest.. then go out and try again...

thats enough to last you for awhile le..~!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

He ask i got use tripod or not mah so i just reply have lo. @.@
 

its not about the tripod.. i think read thru Daredevils' advice again.. and try to digest.. then go out and try again...

thats enough to last you for awhile le..~!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

It is abt the tripod, but whilst using a tripod for night shots is a must, it doesnt not make u compose the photo better. Ultimately both are different things all together. I think daredevil had a good advice for u on that already.

He ask i got use tripod or not mah so i just reply have lo. @.@

haha..if you used a tripod then the more u shd make full use of it. Try taking similar shots with diff exposures and u can compare the results.