Morning sky in vivocity.

[viewwing]

Hi,

This shot was taken early in the morning at the "rooftop garden" in vivo. The sky looked perfect and all but it looks even more beautiful from the reflections in the water.

I would like to know how i can improve on 2 items. Composition and Exposure.

Composition of this picture. I tried to apply the 1/3 rule by cutting the sky and the reflecting at the top 1/3.

Also exposure was meter for the reflection which in the end when i scruitinised the picture the sky was overexposed... will it be better to underexpose the reflection and do some post editing instead?

Awaiting your frank criticism. :thumbsup: I hope i can take pictures with better compositions.

[/IMG]

 

[Kit]

The top 1/3 of the picture is just too cluttered with so many elements. Your composition becomes top heavy. You can try to underexpose a little to get some cloud details but that's not going to help much. This view simply isn't appropriate for this kind of shot.

 

[shgfun]

it's a bit dull in terms of color also, IMHO can't really see the beauty as you described just from looking at this picture.
If you want to get exposure right for the sky and the reflection, you could do HDR (software based) or hardware way by applying a GND filter.

 

[viewwing]

The top 1/3 of the picture is just too cluttered with so many elements. Your composition becomes top heavy. You can try to underexpose a little to get some cloud details but that's not going to help much. This view simply isn't appropriate for this kind of shot.

i have to agree with u that there's nothing much i can do with the clutter... as there's simply too many construction cranes in the background... in the end the building acted as a "block" for those ugly sights...

You mentioned Top heavy. Does it mean pictures should be "heavier" at the bottom? new term to me. interested

 

[viewwing]

it's a bit dull in terms of color also, IMHO can't really see the beauty as you described just from looking at this picture.
If you want to get exposure right for the sky and the reflection, you could do HDR (software based) or hardware way by applying a GND filter.

eeks... ok.. i'm doing injustice to my camera... prob this is really a bad view and the colours aren't exactly the bright ones...

For HDR are there any free types i can try? i'm still stuck in PS 7... as i don't have the budget to get the CS2,3 yet...

will ND filter help? or will cir pol be better for outdoor shoot? i'm looking at some cokin filters and wondering should i get them... will it really improve the outdoor shoot?

 

[shgfun]

eeks... ok.. i'm doing injustice to my camera... prob this is really a bad view and the colours aren't exactly the bright ones...

For HDR are there any free types i can try? i'm still stuck in PS 7... as i don't have the budget to get the CS2,3 yet...

will ND filter help? or will cir pol be better for outdoor shoot? i'm looking at some cokin filters and wondering should i get them... will it really improve the outdoor shoot?

not too familiar with HDR stuff, so don't know.
CPL is for cutting out some unpolarized light, like cutting down reflections, make sky bluer (if at some correct angle) etc. So GND filter should be the only hardware way to do proper exposure for both the sky and ground (since their exposure metering can differ by a few stops sometimes).
Another way other than HDR is to do some exposure bracketing, then combine them in photoshop doing some layer blending stuff, if you have good skills with photoshop.
Above statement may not be 100% correct, pros reading the thread please correct me if I'm wrong.