Critique needed please

hydro psyche · Mar 3, 2009

Here are a few photos from the Seattle, WA area last week. Some from Pike Place Market and some from a fishing trip...please let me know what you think.

bigtwinky · Mar 3, 2009

1- The white balance seems off…everything has a yellowish tint to it. The image is also soft / out of focus

2- I like the water in this one, but the horizon looks a bit off. Interesting composition

3- I like what you were trying here, but I don’t like the angle of the boat. Its not adding anything interesting in the foreground. Might be better if it was too the side or from the front.

tirediron · Mar 3, 2009

C&C per req:

1. A good idea, but not the best execution IMO. As metnioned, the image is soft, and has a distinct yellow cast to it. The exposure is fine, but the composition leaves me cold. I'd like to see a long line of these, or perhaps a closer perspective, but this view just doesn't work for me too many distractions, and even though the background is very softly focused, it draws my eye away from the subject.

2. A nice scene, but with some exposure issues. Your camera's meter was 'tricked' by the bright clouds resulting in dark, underexposed rocks in the breakwater. You could either use a graduated ND filter to even out the exposure (best method) or take multiple images and merge as an HDR. As well, don't forget to level your images in post.

3. Nice composition. The lines coming from the LR corner and hte angle of the boat drawing your eye to the centre of the image are excellent. In this case you've got a bright foreground and dark mountains, so an inverted graduated ND would have helped, as would a polarizing filter to reduce the reflection from the water and the upperworks of the boat.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

Samanax · Mar 3, 2009

#1 - Image is kinda soft and the colors lack punch. It appears the focus point is somewhere on the bunch of peppers to the left, not on the bunch on the right. Image is also kinda busy with no real focal point. May have a white balance issue and the exposure is a tiny bit underexposed.

#2 - Horizon is dipping to the left. This kind of shot is difficult to exposure for properly since you have lots of dark objects but a bright spot in the sky. Most of the picture is underexposed but the sky coming through the clouds is overexposed. I like how the long exposure made the water look soft and flowing.

#3 - This picture is exposed well with just a few blown out spots in the clouds and on the boat. Composition is pretty good. Good capture.

hydro psyche · Mar 3, 2009

**Let me first say I'm a total amateur at this and my terminology and thought process may be way off on certain things. Corrections are welcome.**

So let me explain what was done in each photo, and maybe you can offer pointers on what to do differently next time...

1. With regard to the yellow tint, this was caused by the lighting in the market stand...I thought it was fitting for the "feel" of the picture to be a little warmer considering the content of the photo.

2. The top right corner is definitely overexposed...I was in fact using a 2stop graduated ND filter WITH a polarizer. Were the 2 stops just not enough in this case, or is there something else I could've done to fix that without the use of an additional filter?

3. To me, this picture captures the scene exactly how my eye saw it with regard to the mountains being in the shadow of a cloud. Using the inverted grad ND filter would have altered it to something that it wasn't. As for the composition, I wanted to get the front of the boat with all the stickers, which would only mean something to a fellow flyfisherman. To the average person, I can see how it would look better if the boat was maybe at a different angle.