Local landscapes

Emja

Emja

Messages
3,250
Name
Emma
Edit My Images
Yes
I've only had my dslr for a few months, so I've been on a steep learning curve with a long way to go! These are a few of my favourite shots taken locally around West Sussex- I would really appreciate some feedback on ways I could have improved them, or maybe ones people prefer and why? All taken on my Nikon D3200. I'm new here...so hope I haven't posted too many!

Frosty Sunrise by Em Jay, on Flickr

  • 35mm f/1.8
  • ƒ/22.0
  • 35.6 mm
  • 1/40
  • 400
Boy and sunset by Em Jay, on Flickr

  • 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
  • ƒ/22.0
  • 30.0 mm
  • 1/320
  • 1600
ferringsunrise by Em Jay, on Flickr

  • 35mm f/1.8
  • ƒ/6.3
  • 35.6 mm
  • 1/250
  • 400
birds by Em Jay, on Flickr

  • 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
  • ƒ/18.0
  • 55.0 mm
  • 1/200
  • 800
viewcrop by Em Jay, on Flickr

  • 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
  • ƒ/14.0
  • 18.3 mm
  • 1/200
  • 200
 
If you get some real glass (and I'm not knocking the kit lens) you will get and take even more stunning shots, keep it up Emma your doing fine as you are.
No 1 is a stunner but the rest are great too. (y)
 
Keep it up you are doing fine. The first three are superb, the last two a little less so but for someone starting with a DSLR they are all to be proud of.
 
Graham said:
If you get some real glass (and I'm not knocking the kit lens) you will get and take even more stunning shots, keep it up Emma your doing fine as you are.
No 1 is a stunner but the rest are great too. (y)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the positive feedback Graham - a couple were taken with my nikkor 35mm, and I've just been given a Tamron 70 - 300mm - I'm still getting used to this, but have been able to take some fairly nice wildlife shots. I hope they were decent choices - it's a bit stressful choosing new lenses with the cost!
 
Emja said:
Thanks for the positive feedback Graham - a couple were taken with my nikkor 35mm, and I've just been given a Tamron 70 - 300mm - I'm still getting used to this, but have been able to take some fairly nice wildlife shots. I hope they were decent choices - it's a bit stressful choosing new lenses with the cost!
Click to expand...
I got the same camera and kit lens, kit lens ain't bad tbh plus I got a 24 and 50 mm manual lens for every day shooting and a 100mm for macro.
Do you shoot manual or auto? Manual is another step to learn if not.
 
1. steller and interesting use of DoF to let the background blur out.
2. I like two, I suspect if you blow it up big the diffraction from shooting at F22 will make itself seen
3. You don't need F22 here, as above if you shot from F8-F16 you'd have a full depth but sharper. There is too much dead space atop, the sky hasn't got enough clouds to make it interesting enough, I might have angled the camera a bit further down
4. Too featureless and lacking a real focus point.
5. Its ok, light a bit flat and the whole scene is a bit, well boring. But thats the subject matter rather than a lack of ability.

Clearly you can use a camera, now you need to use it in the right place at the right time.
 
Graham said:
I got the same camera and kit lens, kit lens ain't bad tbh plus I got a 24 and 50 mm manual lens for every day shooting and a 100mm for macro.
Do you shoot manual or auto? Manual is another step to learn if not.
Click to expand...

I made myself learn to shoot manual after the first couple of weeks, or there seemed little point in having a decent camera!
 
ST4 said:
1. steller and interesting use of DoF to let the background blur out.
2. I like two, I suspect if you blow it up big the diffraction from shooting at F22 will make itself seen
3. You don't need F22 here, as above if you shot from F8-F16 you'd have a full depth but sharper. There is too much dead space atop, the sky hasn't got enough clouds to make it interesting enough, I might have angled the camera a bit further down
4. Too featureless and lacking a real focus point.
5. Its ok, light a bit flat and the whole scene is a bit, well boring. But thats the subject matter rather than a lack of ability.

Clearly you can use a camera, now you need to use it in the right place at the right time.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for taking the time for such detailed feedback, Steve.

Tbh I think the DoF in the first shot was more luck than judgement at the time...but thanks! The other tips are really useful.

The scene in 5 was quite beautiful in real life, but the time of day was not ideal - the sun was too high but I had to grab the shot while I was there.
Finding the right place and the right time is certainly what I'm finding trickiest, especially when time to get out and about is snatched between work and mum duties!
 
  • Like
Reactions: ST4
#1 is top drawer stuff, really excellent- like a Constable painting and similarly saleable I'd have thought. #2 is very very good also- lovely evocative image.
 
You've done really well Emma, especially in such a short time. Steve has give good crit, so I won't repeat it, but number 5 *looks* like it might benefit from careful processing to accentuate the lighting. Is this straight from camera (raw or jpg?) or did you process it, and if so, using what software?
 
Thank you for your encoragement! I shoot raw & jpeg. I think I changed the colour to 'landscape' in the Nikon software that came with the camera, as it seemed to make the most of the variety of new spring greens that had originally caught my eye. This is the jpeg image after adjustment and cropping.
Apart from this software I only have a free post processing program Gimp2 - but I'm pretty clueless as to how to use it tbh. I can just about remove dust spots if needed.
 
I really like number 1 and wish I'd taken it myself. The others show great promise too! Keep up the good work.

And I would also agree with others not to be too reliant on f22 if you can at all help it.
 
Fantastic start Emma indeed enjoyed this set, agree with what's been said when it comes to f22, one good thing about photography there is plenty to learn and read so have a loos at hyper focal distance when you get 5, works well when you get it right.
Kevin
 
Really like no1 Emma and have others have said its a very nice shot but a couple of questions for you

Why did you choose to shoot at F22 as you appear to of focussed on the nearest reeds and had a very short hyper focal length i.e. what was the intention in the shot.... front to back sharpness or slight softness/blurring/bokeh in the background?

Where you using a tripod and if so why did you shoot at ISO 400 which seems to of led to some noise in the shot?

Opening the aperture to f16 or f11 will let you use a higher shutter speed without needing to bump up ISO to help avoid over exposure and blown highlights

Fantastic early stuff though, well done
 
Last edited:
Big Nick said:
Really like no1 Emma and have others have said its a very nice shot but a couple of questions for you

Why did you choose to shoot at F22 as you appear to of focussed on the nearest reeds and had a very short hyper focal length i.e. what was the intention in the shot.... front to back sharpness or slight softness/blurring/bokeh in the background?

Where you using a tripod and if so why did you shoot at ISO 400 which seems to of led to some noise in the shot?

Opening the aperture to f16 or f11 will let you use a higher shutter speed without needing to bump up ISO to help avoid over exposure and blown highlights

Fantastic early stuff though, well done
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for your reply Nick.

The back story behind the photo was I decided to snatch time on my way to work, thinking to take some sunrise shots over fields, as it was a beautiful morning. I headed off down an unknown road, couldn't find anywhere to stop but eventually went down a farm track. Panicking I was going to be late for work, I stumbled on this lovely scene and took a few shots in auto mode (I'd only been playing with manual for a couple of weeks or so).

I didn't quite like the darkness of them as I remember, so fiddled with the manual controls briefly (I honestly didn't have a clue!) until the image seemed to have a pastel, soft tone that I thought suited the scene. I think I chose f22 because I had some vague idea the higher the f-stop the better for landscapes - I didn't even think about the intention of the shot - I probably thought shooting at f22 would ensure it was all in focus! I didn't have a tripod with me, and I'm sure I didn't hold the camera still because it was absolutely freezing and I was in work clothes...I remember horribly numb fingers! I was there for maybe 10-15 mins.

I doubt I changed the ISO - maybe I'd been playing with indoor shots the night before. It was a shot of much more luck than judgement, and I remember being relieved that I'd done a little justice to what was a very magical sunrise. I can see that the highlights are overblown now, but I wasn't shooting in raw then, so don't have much to play with. I think I do still like the pastel quality anyway!

My mission for this week (a holiday from work) - learn about hyperfocal distance and research some decent tripods!
 
Kevin O'Brian said:
Fantastic start Emma indeed enjoyed this set, agree with what's been said when it comes to f22, one good thing about photography there is plenty to learn and read so have a loos at hyper focal distance when you get 5, works well when you get it right.
Kevin
Click to expand...
Thank you - I'm on the job...just wish I'd been better at maths ;)
 
Number 1 is really nice, smashing mood and tones. 2 and 3 are ok as well but 4 and 5 don't really do anything for me.

As has been said a few times already, f22 is a very high f stop to be shooting at, on a crop body you should easily get away with f8-f11 for most landscape shots and it should also land within your lenses sweet spots.

Overall good start though, keep it up.
 
milster said:
Number 1 is really nice, smashing mood and tones. 2 and 3 are ok as well but 4 and 5 don't really do anything for me.

As has been said a few times already, f22 is a very high f stop to be shooting at, on a crop body you should easily get away with f8-f11 for most landscape shots and it should also land within your lenses sweet spots.

Overall good start though, keep it up.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gary.
 
Your doing a great job Emma, keep going this way! All the above comments are great and will help you along.... your tripod should help you keep your ISO lower which will help you too. Excellent that you forced yourself to learn to shoot manual(y).
Its a hell of a learning curve isn't it! You soon learn that focal points, composition and light rule! The biggest struggle is finding (or getting them) all together!
Here is my 2d for what its worth......

No1 ... I love this shot, and I'd be more than happy with it, I'm sure the above comments from everyone would have raised this shot even higher. Nice composition. Love the reflections in the river. These are some nit picking OCD thoughts... If it were possible to edge the tree on the right over to the right a tad to hit the 1/3 (assuming you wouldn't be in the river:eek:). Watch the top of those frozen reeds just cropped off (id just clone a bit of the top to make it look shorter.
When you get further down the line you'll be putting ND Grads on the front of the lens that will boost that dawn light up a bit for you:eek:. At least you didn't fall in the river. Next tip is to log that location in your note pad or map. then you can whip back there when the conditions are right again. After reading the back story you did a good job! Now think, going back armed with what you know now you will make that really sing!! Winter's a great time to shoot(y)

No2 ... Good composition here Emma, Just needs a tweak of the horizon to get it level. Love the great weather front coming in from the right. Great balance between light and dark across the shot. Nice silhouette and makes a great focal point(y) Nice exposure .... Looks like you have a bit of a dust bunny top of the shot above the boy. Love the footsteps in the sand and the splashes in the water, nice reflections in the water from the setting sun.

No3.... Although great colour in the sky I think you have a little to much sky as someone said above... Although still a nice shot... Like the little pool of golden light halfway down the beach and the little highlights hitting the splash of the waves, nice movement in the water too... What might have improved it? Lowered the view of the camera for less sky (you could crop some of this off now to see what we mean). On this photo Hyperfocal distance would have improved your shot bringing the pebbles on the beach into sharp focus. (y)

No4.... Its your composition that's gone here, you need an anchor, something for the eye to lock onto! Where's that little boy gone?;) Either that or you needed to zoom right in on those birds to make them a lot larger in the frame. Its getting close to a 50.50 shot too and they normally don't work so well unless its a stunning symmetrical reflection...... Otherwise it could fall into the ABS bracket:eek: (Another "B" Sunset:D).

No5.... Well its a nice peaceful vale in spring, but you just need that focal point back! Where's that lad??? We need him on that farm track on the left flying a Kite!!! I think your be surprised how many shots are set up. Even a couple of hikers walking down the track or Hubby and your Son would do it;). Have you noticed the difference the difference between this shot and the others with this shot at f14 and ISO 200!

Your doing a great job Emma(y) Every day is a school day in Photography:eek: Cambridge in colour is a great site in case you haven't stumbled across it! Hyperfocal Distance and Diffraction have some great explanations as well as many other. If your that way inclined you can download an App for your phone that calculates your hyper focal distances... If you want to go mental and you have an Iphone or Ipad then there's an all in one App called photo pills that does everything apart form take the photo:rolleyes:.

I hope you enjoy yourself... this is a great site and you get good feedback ..... Sometimes:rolleyes:
Look forward to seeing some more shots soon:)
 
Emja said:
Thank you for your encoragement! I shoot raw & jpeg. I think I changed the colour to 'landscape' in the Nikon software that came with the camera, as it seemed to make the most of the variety of new spring greens that had originally caught my eye. This is the jpeg image after adjustment and cropping.
Apart from this software I only have a free post processing program Gimp2 - but I'm pretty clueless as to how to use it tbh. I can just about remove dust spots if needed.
Click to expand...

The Nikon software will help (and I'm not familiar, so can't give tips) and GIMP has a near-vertical learning curve, while not really being appropriate for routine image processing/digital darkroom work. If you can find the money then Lightroom is a good investment for cataloging and developing your images. You could also look out for DX Optics pro 8 - sometimes available free of charge (current version is 10.0) which is very good, but slow.
 
69Bonni said:
Your doing a great job Emma, keep going this way! All the above comments are great and will help you along.... your tripod should help you keep your ISO lower which will help you too. Excellent that you forced yourself to learn to shoot manual(y).
Its a hell of a learning curve isn't it! You soon learn that focal points, composition and light rule! The biggest struggle is finding (or getting them) all together!
Here is my 2d for what its worth......
Click to expand...



Thank you so much Steve for taking the time to give such detailed feedback and critique. The reeds in the first shot really annoyed me, too - I just never thought of cloning the top. I had to crop the original a tiny bit to straighten it and that just cut into the longest reed. I had a play last night and it looks so much better. You were right about falling into the river - there was no crossing point and I was mm. from the edge...a friend suggested waders, but I'm not sure I'd be that hardcore in January :eek: I was slightly (!) trespassing to get the shot at all...but I'll risk it again when the sun is right :)

I'd never noticed the spot above my son's head - thanks for seeing it. When you look closer there are several all along the coastline across the water - some sort of buildings or structures? They could easily be cloned out (see...I can do that now!)

I can see I'll be trying to use William more to add to my shots...although he doesn't stay still long and gets a bit fed up with with me & my camera sometimes. Quote of last night as I nipped out last night for half an hour while he was watching TV with his dad and big sister "When did mum escape to take all those photos? Again?!" Ah well...us mums have to escape sometimes and I'm sure he gets to more nice spots than we might do otherwise. I do like the sunset silhouettes we've done...so next stop the toy shop for a kite!

I've been working on the hyperfocal distance this week with some lanscape shots - I've not been brilliantly happy with the composition of them - but I think they're beginning to look sharper. I need to practise estimating distance, but I did install the app :) Maybe I'll post one or two for more practised eyes than mine to check :eek:

I'll check out the site you suggested, too and keep practising with my (too cheap until I can afford better!) ND grad.

Thanks again![/QUOTE]
 
Last edited:
ancient_mariner said:
The Nikon software will help (and I'm not familiar, so can't give tips) and GIMP has a near-vertical learning curve, while not really being appropriate for routine image processing/digital darkroom work. If you can find the money then Lightroom is a good investment for cataloging and developing your images. You could also look out for DX Optics pro 8 - sometimes available free of charge (current version is 10.0) which is very good, but slow.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice on PP Toni - I'll definitely look into the DX optics until I might be able to stretch to Lightroom.
 
Emja said:
Thank you so much Steve for taking the time to give such detailed feedback and critique. The reeds in the first shot really annoyed me, too - I just never thought of cloning the top. I had to crop the original a tiny bit to straighten it and that just cut into the longest reed. I had a play last night and it looks so much better. You were right about falling into the river - there was no crossing point and I was mm. from the edge...a friend suggested waders, but I'm not sure I'd be that hardcore in January :eek: I was slightly (!) trespassing to get the shot at all...but I'll risk it again when the sun is right :)

I'd never noticed the spot above my son's head - thanks for seeing it. When you look closer there are several all along the coastline across the water - some sort of buildings or structures? They could easily be cloned out (see...I can do that now!)

I can see I'll be trying to use William more to add to my shots...although he doesn't stay still long and gets a bit fed up with with me & my camera sometimes. Quote of last night as I nipped out last night for half an hour while he was watching TV with his dad and big sister "When did mum escape to take all those photos? Again?!" Ah well...us mums have to escape sometimes and I'm sure he gets to more nice spots than we might do otherwise. I do like the sunset silhouettes we've done...so next stop the toy shop for a kite!

I've been working on the hyperfocal distance this week with some lanscape shots - I've not been brilliantly happy with the composition of them - but I think they're beginning to look sharper. I need to practise estimating distance, but I did install the app :) Maybe I'll post one or two for more practised eyes than mine to check :eek:

I'll check out the site you suggested, too and keep practising with my (too cheap until I can afford better!) ND grad.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]
Thing is your doing very well Emma, I think I learn something every time I go out. Its a struggle with time constraints I know and always awkward as everything competes for your time. I found I had to learn and to stop making mistakes as it wasted that valuable time and film then (still making mistakes and paying for it with my time just not as often;)). Your loosing the top off your reeds was a classic, times I have taken a not so level shot and thought oh well I can straighten it in PP only to find in doing so it lopps something off I wanted in the shot :(. As time goes by you will come on in leaps and bounds and you'll find things just click:rolleyes:, excuse the pun.

At the end of the day were all here for a common end to improve our photography! Another tip is to critique other peoples photos, if not actually posting it here but dissecting their shots, I found it actually helped me critique my own! There's a section on this site devoted to it, take a look sometime! As you go down the road you'll find your technique improves and eventually equipment (I'm always saving my pennies for something:D)

Hyperfocal distance works well just a matter of getting the hang of it, you can always do some tests in the garden to help you see how it works. Pop up some sticks in the garden or somewhere, stick on a card with text on or use something like cornflake packets (basically something you can see if the text is in focus) then you can play moving the posts back and forth and seeing how the focus works. Obviously there will only be one point where the txt (or box) is razor sharp, but the other boxes should remain "acceptably sharp":D. Judging distance is fun! There are gadgets for this obviously, It can be a pain particularly if your lens does not have the DOF markings :(, but also when you see this "focus a third of the way into the shot" business basically this is working on the Hyperfocal distance theory with the rule of thumb thrown in!

No problem Emma, if you what to throw some shots my way for my thoughts before you throw them into the lions den:eek: on here thats fine!
Just put them on a PM to me on TP.... To be honest your doing very well(y) Just look at the comments above:)

All the best and keep on clicking
 
Thing is your doing very well Emma, I think I learn something every time I go out. Its a struggle with time constraints I know and always awkward as everything competes for your time. I found I had to learn and to stop making mistakes as it wasted that valuable time and film then (still making mistakes and paying for it with my time just not as often;)). Your loosing the top off your reeds was a classic, times I have taken a not so level shot and thought oh well I can straighten it in PP only to find in doing so it lopps something off I wanted in the shot :(. As time goes by you will come on in leaps and bounds and you'll find things just click:rolleyes:, excuse the pun.

At the end of the day were all here for a common end to improve our photography! Another tip is to critique other peoples photos, if not actually posting it here but dissecting their shots, I found it actually helped me critique my own! There's a section on this site devoted to it, take a look sometime! As you go down the road you'll find your technique improves and eventually equipment (I'm always saving my pennies for something:D)

Hyperfocal distance works well just a matter of getting the hang of it, you can always do some tests in the garden to help you see how it works. Pop up some sticks in the garden or somewhere, stick on a card with text on or use something like cornflake packets (basically something you can see if the text is in focus) then you can play moving the posts back and forth and seeing how the focus works. Obviously there will only be one point where the txt (or box) is razor sharp, but the other boxes should remain "acceptably sharp":D. Judging distance is fun! There are gadgets for this obviously, It can be a pain particularly if your lens does not have the DOF markings :(, but also when you see this "focus a third of the way into the shot" business basically this is working on the Hyperfocal distance theory with the rule of thumb thrown in!

No problem Emma, if you what to throw some shots my way for my thoughts before you throw them into the lions den:eek: on here thats fine!
Just put them on a PM to me on TP.... To be honest your doing very well(y) Just look at the comments above:)

All the best and keep on clicking[/QUOTE]


Thanks again - for the encouragement as well as the ways forward. I might take you up on your offer...although the lion's den is quite fun - always interesting to see what others think!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top