Cypress tress on the lake for C&C - Redux

[MonicaBH]

A few weeks ago, I posted some unedited pics of the trees at my parents' lake house (which, for some reason, are no longer showing up).

Not a lot can be done about them being overexposed, but I have mucked around some in LR4 (my only editing software) and come up with these. I recognize that the composition is less than ideal, and in a perfect world I'd have an ND filter to shoot directly into the sun as it were. In a perfect world, I could have slowed the SS down to 30s and gotten the exact misty effect from the water instead of what I created.

For what it's worth, though, I'd love your thoughts & critiques; they are more than welcome.


1.)
ISO 100 | 52mm | f/32 | 4s

2.)
ISO 100 | 28mm | f/32 | 3s

3.)
ISO 800 | 28mm | f/32 | 5s

 

[JoshuaSimPhotography]

I like how u used that glimmer and glow. But to me it looks a but overexposed, but i really like it, maybe take the editing down a notch

 

[Sidro62]

Number 1 is my pick!

Sid

 

[o hey tyler]

If you have the opportunity to shoot later or earlier in the day when there is less light, you can get away with a longer shutter speed. f/32 is a bit too extreme IMO, as it will produce a lot of image softness due to diffraction. Ideally, if you shot between f/8 and f/11 you'd have a sharper image throughout. The composition in the first one isn't bad, but I feel like it could have been shot a bit wider. Images 2 & 3 are a bit too tight for me in general. It looks like a nice spot to shoot though, so hopefully you can go back.

 

[MonicaBH]

I had the aperture super small so as not to totally blow out the background since I was shooting directly into the sun; would shooting at a larger aperture & changing the EC have helped the exposure? I'd like to get an ND filter but that's not in the cards right now.

I was shooting on the pier at my dad's house, so I'm fairly limited in where I can shoot from. I'll widen it up next time, play a little more with settings & composition. I'm going back at the end of the month so hopefully I can create something wonderful. lol

Thanks, y'all.