First Post; C&C Please!

JBes97 · Mar 29, 2016

Hello everyone,
I am a new member, long time lurker. I decided today that I should finally make an account and officially enter the TPF forum. So, posted below are a few photos that I took this morning on an early morning shoot near Houghton, MI. The dredge in the pictures sank in the early 80's and has been out of commission since. I welcome your comments and would love to hear what I can do better. Thanks everyone!
PS: I really hope I uploaded the pictures right.. :confused-72:

1.

2.

3.

4.

Mike Lamb · Mar 29, 2016

1 and 2 are best. A different time of the day would make the rig look cooler.

dxqcanada · Mar 29, 2016

Ah, I can see your attraction to this subject.
Not bad.
Gotta watch out what you cut out from the shot ... #1 and #3, I keep looking up.
Keep an eye on the direction of light ... walk around and see what light is doing ... and you will probably find that a different time of day will work better.

Derrel · Mar 29, 2016

I would say that on this type of strong, angular, metal object, that correcting the lens's issues with chromatic aberration using software would help the shots have a more "real" look to the machinery. There's a good deal of uncorrected chromatic aberration that is making the edges of objects appear "fringed". Shots one and three show this CA the most. This is something that's often difficult for people to put their finger on. Lightroom can correct this pretty well.

GOOD idea to use the sunstar and the lens flares in shot #2. That lens seems to make a nice sunstar, so keep that as a tool in the toolkit for shots you do in the future.

Welcome to TPF! It's great to see new people here!

JBes97 · Mar 29, 2016

Thanks for the tips guys! I appreciate it very much. As far as shooting during a different time of day, I was hoping to get more of a "sunrise shot", but the colors weren't cooperating quite like I was hoping they would.

dxqcanada said:
Ah, I can see your attraction to this subject.
Not bad.
Gotta watch out what you cut out from the shot ... #1 and #3, I keep looking up.
Keep an eye on the direction of light ... walk around and see what light is doing ... and you will probably find that a different time of day will work better.

As far as cutting pieces off of the image, I was trying to use hard lines to draw the eye but perhaps I was too forceful with it.
Again, thank you for the suggestions!