A Wintery Dam

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Andy The Gardene

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Andrew
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Evening all,

This was the first proper time out with the D5000 which I treated myself to as a christmas present so any feedback i'll appreciate.
With a fresh light sprinkling of snow this morning I headed to Carr Mill Dam to see what I could get and after doing the 'delete .... delete .... delete ... keep .... delete' routine these are a few of the best.

1.
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2.
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3.
dsc0077elr.jpg


4.
dsc0086e.jpg


Thanks,

Andy
 
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OK, I'm only on my iPhone, so comments will be limited, but I'll give initial thoughts:

Nice set in general.

Favourite is the duck - think I just like the "balance" of the picture, and the panoramic style.

Least favourite is the apple - I'm afraid the subject just doesn't work for me.

All shots seem to lack a little zip (this may just be iPhone...) - try bumping up the contrast or playing with the levels to boost the colours.

I'll try and look later if my good lady lets me on the PC tonight... ;)
 
Well, I'm on. I don't really have much to say on top of what I said. Only thing I'll tag on is that the colours are no better here on this monitor.

Do you post-process? If you don't why not? ;)

If you do, try pushing it - silly as it sounds - over-sharpen, over contrast, over-brighten, over-do!

On screen it will more than likely look better - don't try and be subtle about it...
 
The first two are okay but they don't really grab me I'm afraid. Maybe on the first one if you had shot from a lower viewpoint and the wooden jetty (?) used more to draw the eye into the scene? Not sure.

As the previous poster said, maybe a bit of pp would also help?

Really like the duck photo though!
 
Snap_Happy said:
Well, I'm on. I don't really have much to say on top of what I said. Only thing I'll tag on is that the colours are no better here on this monitor.

Do you post-process? If you don't why not? ;)

If you do, try pushing it - silly as it sounds - over-sharpen, over contrast, over-brighten, over-do!

On screen it will more than likely look better - don't try and be subtle about it...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback :)

These are straight from the camera (other than cropping and a touch of sharpening on the duck).

I do use Photoshop but im still learning and just wanted abit of feedback on the general photo taking skills with my new camera at the moment, but i'll take the advice on board and see what i can come up with.

kuohu said:
The first two are okay but they don't really grab me I'm afraid. Maybe on the first one if you had shot from a lower viewpoint and the wooden jetty (?) used more to draw the eye into the scene? Not sure.

As the previous poster said, maybe a bit of pp would also help?

Really like the duck photo though!
Click to expand...

'Okay' will do for now as im still learning ;). I did have the same thought about getting down onto the jetty, but it was unbeleivably slippy and my poor balance got the better of me. Next time I go i'll try and get down there.

My favourite is the duck too, im really pleased with how that one turned out. Again, thanks for the comments.
 
hi my fellow wiganer.i think you have done ok to be honest

1. the stack in the middle distracts from the jetty and the landscape like people have said try getting lower maybe bring the stack to the lower third of the frame so not to split the composition

3. great shot of the duck

4. i like the creative use of dof in this and i like it.just my opinion.just shows your thinking out of the box and trying new things.

were these taken in wigan?

wez
 
1 + 2 - do nothing for me.

3 - everyone likes a duck!

4- like it, something different and shows you thought about the composition, positioning yourself etc.
 
I particularly like the shot of the apple which to me shows a picture that you saw and planned before you shot it.
Its an odd one and one that invites comment or criticism whereas the others are just pictures.
A little less foreground would have made it even better in my opinion.
talbot
 
wiganwez said:
hi my fellow wiganer.i think you have done ok to be honest

1. the stack in the middle distracts from the jetty and the landscape like people have said try getting lower maybe bring the stack to the lower third of the frame so not to split the composition

3. great shot of the duck

4. i like the creative use of dof in this and i like it.just my opinion.just shows your thinking out of the box and trying new things.

were these taken in wigan?

wez
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments. With the apple I was mainly testing out the depth of field as its not something i've ever done before properly. They were taken at Carr Mill Dam, just outside Billinge on the East Lancs.

ivandobski said:
1 + 2 - do nothing for me.

3 - everyone likes a duck!

4- like it, something different and shows you thought about the composition, positioning yourself etc.
Click to expand...

I guess i've got work to do on my landscapes then :). Thanks for the comments about #4 as its nice to know that my efforts can be seen in the results.

talbot said:
I particularly like the shot of the apple which to me shows a picture that you saw and planned before you shot it.
Its an odd one and one that invites comment or criticism whereas the others are just pictures.
A little less foreground would have made it even better in my opinion.
talbot
Click to expand...

Again, thanks for the comments :)

Andy
 
There is a small beaver dam with a waterfall just to the bottom of this photo. I also like the reflection of trees in the pool water. See in in person was much better, but came close Dang.
 
I absolutely love the picture of the duck and the picture of the apple i think was well thought out and well shot.
 
For me no. 4 is the best - good colours and the apple is nice and sharp. IMO the composition would be even better if you crop the top to get rid of the upper OOF line (?branch), thus focusing attention on the apple.

The peculiar lump in the reservoir spoils the first ones, particularly no.2. Can you find a better angle?

The duck is well composed but suffers like the first two from being soft, probably camera shake, and underexposed. Remember you need to use about +1EV if you are shooting in the snow with matrix metering (a bit more if using centre-weighted or spot). Even if the scene really was as grey as that I think the snow needs lightening - at the moment it just looks muddy. If you use something like PSE you could use 'levels' to improve this

Don't be afraid to raise your ISO a lot if necessary to get faster shutter speeds - IMO noise is preferable to camera shake, and in any case modern cameras are pretty good at handling high ISO these days.

Also remember that resizing for the web softens any image - a bit of Unsharp Mask is needed.

HTH and enjoy your new camera!
 
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