Beginner Landscape Shots, Opinions?
- Thread starter Danny0602
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- Toni
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Hi Daniel, that's some nice scenery you found. Hopefully I can help a little.
1) I like the way the lines created by the wall and valey zigzag across the image and the soft mistiness in the valley bottom is nice and natural. The sky, and possibly the whole image depending on how it was processed, looks a bit over-exposed with blown out highlight areas that have lost detail and a lack of density in shadows. In the days of film, to balance and image like this we would put a graduated filter in front of the lens to darken the sky relative to the land. Now instead we can use a graduated filter in Lightroom or similar editing program, and reduce just the highlights a little, rather than all tones. I might also consider trying another graduated filter over the bottom of the image, but using contrast instead to deepen shadows a bit.
2) The sky is much better in this - the sun will usually be blown when looking at it directly unless there's a lot of murk in the air - but the rest of the sky has retained its colour and the clouds look more solid. Composition-wise I'd have tried to get down a bit lower so the tree stuck up and separated from the background a bit more, and I might also have moved a little further left to sepapate the sun & tree a bit more, and then tried to include the end of the cloud on te LHS so that there was a line of cloud that ran from top right through the sun to point to the tree. As the image is, I'd probably crop some off the top until it 'looked right'.
3) Pleasant pastoral scene but because of composition it lacks a subject for the eye to rest upon. If you'd allowed more space at the bottom then the pile of rocks would be the subject, or if you crop the bottom ones out then the sheep become the subject, and if you crop the tree and rock on the LH edge then the image becomes stronger still. I'd probably process the image to warm the scene a little more to match the evening light of the other 2.
In general guidance when composing images, I think someone mentioned the 'rule of thirds' which sn't a rule, but can be helpful. Think of how the eye enters an image when you see it for the first time, think of things that can help lead it through the picture and the things that provide a focal point. sometimes people will deliberately create an image with 2 (or much) subjects to create a tension, but this doesn't always work so well in pastoral landscapes.
Hope that's useful.
1) I like the way the lines created by the wall and valey zigzag across the image and the soft mistiness in the valley bottom is nice and natural. The sky, and possibly the whole image depending on how it was processed, looks a bit over-exposed with blown out highlight areas that have lost detail and a lack of density in shadows. In the days of film, to balance and image like this we would put a graduated filter in front of the lens to darken the sky relative to the land. Now instead we can use a graduated filter in Lightroom or similar editing program, and reduce just the highlights a little, rather than all tones. I might also consider trying another graduated filter over the bottom of the image, but using contrast instead to deepen shadows a bit.
2) The sky is much better in this - the sun will usually be blown when looking at it directly unless there's a lot of murk in the air - but the rest of the sky has retained its colour and the clouds look more solid. Composition-wise I'd have tried to get down a bit lower so the tree stuck up and separated from the background a bit more, and I might also have moved a little further left to sepapate the sun & tree a bit more, and then tried to include the end of the cloud on te LHS so that there was a line of cloud that ran from top right through the sun to point to the tree. As the image is, I'd probably crop some off the top until it 'looked right'.
3) Pleasant pastoral scene but because of composition it lacks a subject for the eye to rest upon. If you'd allowed more space at the bottom then the pile of rocks would be the subject, or if you crop the bottom ones out then the sheep become the subject, and if you crop the tree and rock on the LH edge then the image becomes stronger still. I'd probably process the image to warm the scene a little more to match the evening light of the other 2.
In general guidance when composing images, I think someone mentioned the 'rule of thirds' which sn't a rule, but can be helpful. Think of how the eye enters an image when you see it for the first time, think of things that can help lead it through the picture and the things that provide a focal point. sometimes people will deliberately create an image with 2 (or much) subjects to create a tension, but this doesn't always work so well in pastoral landscapes.
Hope that's useful.
Thanks for your advise.Hi Daniel, that's some nice scenery you found. Hopefully I can help a little.
1) I like the way the lines created by the wall and valey zigzag across the image and the soft mistiness in the valley bottom is nice and natural. The sky, and possibly the whole image depending on how it was processed, looks a bit over-exposed with blown out highlight areas that have lost detail and a lack of density in shadows. In the days of film, to balance and image like this we would put a graduated filter in front of the lens to darken the sky relative to the land. Now instead we can use a graduated filter in Lightroom or similar editing program, and reduce just the highlights a little, rather than all tones. I might also consider trying another graduated filter over the bottom of the image, but using contrast instead to deepen shadows a bit.
2) The sky is much better in this - the sun will usually be blown when looking at it directly unless there's a lot of murk in the air - but the rest of the sky has retained its colour and the clouds look more solid. Composition-wise I'd have tried to get down a bit lower so the tree stuck up and separated from the background a bit more, and I might also have moved a little further left to sepapate the sun & tree a bit more, and then tried to include the end of the cloud on te LHS so that there was a line of cloud that ran from top right through the sun to point to the tree. As the image is, I'd probably crop some off the top until it 'looked right'.
3) Pleasant pastoral scene but because of composition it lacks a subject for the eye to rest upon. If you'd allowed more space at the bottom then the pile of rocks would be the subject, or if you crop the bottom ones out then the sheep become the subject, and if you crop the tree and rock on the LH edge then the image becomes stronger still. I'd probably process the image to warm the scene a little more to match the evening light of the other 2.
In general guidance when composing images, I think someone mentioned the 'rule of thirds' which sn't a rule, but can be helpful. Think of how the eye enters an image when you see it for the first time, think of things that can help lead it through the picture and the things that provide a focal point. sometimes people will deliberately create an image with 2 (or much) subjects to create a tension, but this doesn't always work so well in pastoral landscapes.
Hope that's useful.
1. I thought it was a little overexposed looking at the sky, I took several at different exposure settings so may have a play with one of those.
2. I will have a go at cropping the top a little more.
3. I was attempting to make the rocks the subject but, didn’t want to include them in the image more as I thought it would intrude too much.
Again thanks for help.
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- Bazza
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ok my useless bit of info. or me doing landscapes.
I,if possible, like to have a finish target on the right of the picture. Picture 2 has a tree which would make a good eye stop if more on the right edge of the frame.
Compare that with picture 3 . when the eye naturally scans from left to right there is nothing there and one is left with no end to finish up with
as you allow editing this is what i would have taken
The tree stops the eye from wanting to look further to the right. But what is my opinion worth anyway????
I,if possible, like to have a finish target on the right of the picture. Picture 2 has a tree which would make a good eye stop if more on the right edge of the frame.
Compare that with picture 3 . when the eye naturally scans from left to right there is nothing there and one is left with no end to finish up with
as you allow editing this is what i would have taken
The tree stops the eye from wanting to look further to the right. But what is my opinion worth anyway????
ok my useless bit of info. or me doing landscapes.
I,if possible, like to have a finish target on the right of the picture. Picture 2 has a tree which would make a good eye stop if more on the right edge of the frame.
Compare that with picture 3 . when the eye naturally scans from left to right there is nothing there and one is left with no end to finish up with
as you allow editing this is what i would have taken
The tree stops the eye from wanting to look further to the right. But what is my opinion worth anyway????
Thanks, that does look much better. It makes that the tree is a place to finish as such, then you aren’t looking for something else.
That looks better. I am using lightroom on my iPad to do a bit but, I don’t think it’s as capable as the pc version. The problem is, I don’t think my current laptop is powerful enough to run the pc version of lightroom.
Caerus
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What you can do with a scene like the one with the sun is use a grad filter.
There is a very bright spot in the image and you might like the image the way it is
but its also worth having a grad filter when doing landscape to do a shot
with that also. Sometimes it greatly improves the image and detail in the brighter half
There is a very bright spot in the image and you might like the image the way it is
but its also worth having a grad filter when doing landscape to do a shot
with that also. Sometimes it greatly improves the image and detail in the brighter half
I have been looking at them, but I am unsure what I am looking for to be honest. Will any do that will fit my lens? I have a 18-55mm kit lens at the minute.
For me
The first has a nice idea but I think that the sky is blown out. I think that the foreground is perhaps a bit too messy for me as well.
The second for me is the best of the three, though i also think that the crops in the edits above are an improvement moving the tree closer to the bottom and losing a bit of the right hand side. Again the sky is blown but to me it is more acceptable as i would not expect to see detail in the sun and the blown parts are a lot smaller.
The third lacks a main subject and for me is the least successful as the light is not helping it out.
If you don't have grads, but do have lightroom you could always use merge to HDR which would sort out the blown sky issue.
The first has a nice idea but I think that the sky is blown out. I think that the foreground is perhaps a bit too messy for me as well.
The second for me is the best of the three, though i also think that the crops in the edits above are an improvement moving the tree closer to the bottom and losing a bit of the right hand side. Again the sky is blown but to me it is more acceptable as i would not expect to see detail in the sun and the blown parts are a lot smaller.
The third lacks a main subject and for me is the least successful as the light is not helping it out.
If you don't have grads, but do have lightroom you could always use merge to HDR which would sort out the blown sky issue.
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Thanks for your opinion, appreciate it.