Intense

The image catalog landed here. The color is intense. Spring! Tulips! Ok! Of course I never take just a single image. Any of them are worthy to pause and admire. I shot that?

Composition? None. Just shoot. Focus. Sure. Color? Great. The bright sun makes the color pop! It’s a photo that makes you stop and admire it. I shot that? Yeah, and I’m proud of it.

Low and Wide Angle

2371 01 MysticGetting low will give you another perspective that is often different. It makes the image stand out among all the others you may have. This means getting the camera to a low angle closer to the ground. The foreground will take a greater dominance. So this won’t work on everything. But wildflowers and rocks near the shore come to mind in images that I have seen. The effect makes the scene have more of a sense of depth. The flip side is that the background ship here is much less important.

Horizontal or Vertical

2370 34 MysticI tend to favor horizontal shots lately. It’s because the format of the computer screen lends itself to horizontal images. Vertical is important to remember. And now we have the convenience of panorama and square cropping. Keep them in mind to enhance your image. And remember to crop. Here you have two choices. I lean toward the horizontal. It’s your call.

2370 33 Mystic

Details

2371 08 MysticSometimes it’s not necessary to see the whole object. In this case the ship is a common shot. But focusing in on a detail of the structure would bring the viewers attention in a way that is unique. It can be the difference that makes the shot stand out. With digital it’s ok to get a wide view and close up. But I find that the zoomed in shots tend to hold more interest.

Wide Angle

2371 16 Mysticit’s an interesting shot. There are foreground elements and there’s the tall ship in the background. What’s disconcerting is the wide angle distortion. It looks like the tall ship is falling out of the picture toward the back. Somehow in a vertical picture the distortion seems more noticeable. But the shot does stop you for a second look. Here’s an instance where cropping can’t really save you. I like the colors, probably helped by a polarizing filter. I am still a sucker for that brilliant blue cloudless sky. Hey! I tried to get all the elements into the image. Not bad, but it could’ve been better.

Roller Coaster

No technical info.

Jennifer sent this. She did not take the photo. It raises a copyright thought. But since it is a universal disaster picture of the recent hurricane and there are probably a thousand generic images, copyright is not an issue. It might be so if it were a unique image that was instantly recognizable. Meanwhile it’s a roller coaster that is no more.

Lynx

 

Technical: Canon DSLR

I’m guessing lynx. Jennifer did not provide details and she stripped the metadata. It’s a very nice image for a relative beginner. Good cropping and detail. The detail in the eyes is especially good with the catch light on the corneas. People tend to get the whole head or the whole animal. The eyes are the focus. And Jen has done this well.

Sky

 

‘Halloween Walk Night Just started to edit…liked the sky!’

Technical: Nikon D90, 1/30 sec, f4.2, focal length 36

Susan, you have mixed light at twilight. It’s a difficult time of day. You have incandescent light and you have sunlight. The sky is too bright so it overpowers the image. It is blown out. To lower the exposure for the sky you would lose the foreground into deep shadow. It’s beyond the capability of the image sensor. Here’s where you might shoot raw or you do a bracketed series of exposures and use HDR. I know that this is too technical. But there’s no practical way to make this image work in one shot. Aim to the left and let the bright sky go. Or move to the right and get a silhouette.

Fence

 

Technical: Nikon D90, 1/30 sec, f3.5, focal length 18

‘I like the fence framing but I did not focus well and it is blurred a bit!’

This is a shot that makes you pause for a sec. The round fence fools you for a second into believing that this is a fisheye lens effect. The door is nicely framed. It’s a technically okay shot. Susan, there needs to be a stronger image subject. The door… the statue? The fence is a nice touch to use as a frame for your image. You need a main subject. Once again the small f-stop does not give you enough depth of field to focus the fence and the door together. Here it’s not necessary to have the fence in focus.

Gate

‘Blurred edges because of electrical boxes but wanted to keep door ajar in photo’

Technical: Nikon D90, 1/30 sec, f4.2, focal length 18

The electrical box is not a bother Susan. It’s at the edge and not really in view. The upper corner is blurred. It is an example of shallow depth of field. The f-stop is 4.2 and not enough to keep focus on the whole gate. You can use this to your advantage. Here it’s a little distracting. The bricks are interesting. The wreathes are interesting. There’s not too much to tie this image together. I’d have focused on the details of the wreathes. Needs…work.