China, Landscape Photographs (1st timer, please help!)

[choyhlk]

First Picture

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
I am new to photography. This is my second attempt with DSLR Camera. I wish to receive feedback with regards to the fundamental techniques, composure, and every aspect that has rooms for improvement.

For your information, this picture is an entirely raw image, no editing was done.

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
I wish to portray the Chen Jia Geng's Memorial Hall as a magnificent landmark attracting significant number of visitors.

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
I was blessed with a very strong and helpful ambiance light, should be taken at 11am.

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
I thought I really like this picture. With the helpful ambiance light, the camera captured exactly what I see then.

Thank you for taking a read!

 

[coolthought]

The ambient light condition is really good. Building nicely exposed, sky is not blown and a nice blue sky and white cloud and the red tile roof.

I will nit pick if you don't mind.
1. Pillars are tilting right and left. This is due to you being close to the building with the camera pointing up. The easiest way if you have money is to get a tilt shift lens.

2. Cutoff. Abrupt cutoff of the building on the left and the stairs on the right. try standing further to capture the shot??

 

[night86mare]

what is the reason for presenting this building from a side-on perspective?

do you think this would be better presented from a frontal perspective, since i see no compelling reason to present it this way?

 

[sinned79]

what is the reason for presenting this building from a side-on perspective?

do you think this would be better presented from a frontal perspective, since i see no compelling reason to present it this way?

my only guess is, TS's lens is not wide enough to show the whole building if shoot head on hence he do a side view shoot. I think he is trying to squeeze as much as possible into the photo.

 

[choyhlk]

The ambient light condition is really good. Building nicely exposed, sky is not blown and a nice blue sky and white cloud and the red tile roof.

I will nit pick if you don't mind.
1. Pillars are tilting right and left. This is due to you being close to the building with the camera pointing up. The easiest way if you have money is to get a tilt shift lens.

2. Cutoff. Abrupt cutoff of the building on the left and the stairs on the right. try standing further to capture the shot??

Thanks for being the first to reply to me! May I ask what do you mean by pillars tilting right and left? I did not wish to cut off the building abruptly, but then that was the maximum I could go to squeexe the entire building into the picture. If I remember correctly, there is another building or object on the right which I was hesitant to include into the picture. What would you advise me to do if such situation arises again, when there is not enough space to squeeze the subject into the entire picture?

what is the reason for presenting this building from a side-on perspective?

do you think this would be better presented from a frontal perspective, since i see no compelling reason to present it this way?

I wanted to show the contrast in size between the tourists and the huge building. If I were to shoot from a frontal perspective, the tourists in my opinion will be blended or camo into the picture undesirely. I have another picture from the frontal perspective without any tourists interference.

my only guess is, TS's lens is not wide enough to show the whole building if shoot head on hence he do a side view shoot. I think he is trying to squeeze as much as possible into the photo.

Yeah you are right! Haha

 

[coolthought]

Thanks for being the first to reply to me! May I ask what do you mean by pillars tilting right and left? I did not wish to cut off the building abruptly, but then that was the maximum I could go to squeexe the entire building into the picture. If I remember correctly, there is another building or object on the right which I was hesitant to include into the picture. What would you advise me to do if such situation arises again, when there is not enough space to squeeze the subject into the entire picture?

left pillars are leaning towards right and right pillars are leaning slightly left.
can' squeeze the whole building into the frame?
This means either you have stand further back or get a lens with a larger field of view (shorter focal length), or stitch multiple frames or just forget about having the whole building in view and focus on crop shot.

 

[choyhlk]

left pillars are leaning towards right and right pillars are leaning slightly left.
can' squeeze the whole building into the frame?
This means either you have stand further back or get a lens with a larger field of view (shorter focal length), or stitch multiple frames or just forget about having the whole building in view and focus on crop shot.

So other than using a tilt shift lens like what you have suggested, is there any manual adjustment which I could have made to help the distortion?

 

[night86mare]

I wanted to show the contrast in size between the tourists and the huge building. If I were to shoot from a frontal perspective, the tourists in my opinion will be blended or camo into the picture undesirely. I have another picture from the frontal perspective without any tourists interference.



Yeah you are right! Haha

if that is the case, then you would have to make it clearer, by choosing a moment where a particular tourist stands out more.

and when deciding on which perspective flatters the subject better, it is a pick and choose sort of thing - while sense of scale can work at times, i'm not sure if it will be brought through here at all.

btw, if you have the patience to wait for a frontal shot where there is a tourist standing right smack in the middle, with no other tourists - and it can be done if you have all day and really want to bring across that point, it will bring across that point very clearly.

 

[sinned79]

btw, if you have the patience to wait for a frontal shot where there is a tourist standing right smack in the middle, with no other tourists - and it can be done if you have all day and really want to bring across that point, it will bring across that point very clearly.

haha this reminds me of what i did back during my HK trip... i was standing right in front of the Big Buddha steps waiting for the right moment... for 1 hour plus... guess what? people mistook me as the photographer working for them and ask me to shoot for them and even offered to pay me! :bsmilie: so funny, of cos i did not charge them... offered to shoot for them and email them the photo... in the end i did not get my shot i want cos the crowds never seems to stop :cry:

 

[choyhlk]

if that is the case, then you would have to make it clearer, by choosing a moment where a particular tourist stands out more.

and when deciding on which perspective flatters the subject better, it is a pick and choose sort of thing - while sense of scale can work at times, i'm not sure if it will be brought through here at all.

btw, if you have the patience to wait for a frontal shot where there is a tourist standing right smack in the middle, with no other tourists - and it can be done if you have all day and really want to bring across that point, it will bring across that point very clearly.

Noted! Thanks for your advise. I will need to bring my point across more clearly next time round.

 

[coolthought]

So other than using a tilt shift lens like what you have suggested, is there any manual adjustment which I could have made to help the distortion?

what you can do is;
1. get a ladder, cherry picker, scissors lift, etc and get to a higher vantage point so that your camera will be facing horizontal and level when taking the photo.
2. get a tripod like this
3. Stretch the tilt in pillar vertically straight using a photo editing software like photoshop.

Normally, I will go with 3.