New to Photography, C&C?

klub242 · Dec 1, 2008

I took these while on a hike up Sugarloaf mountain, about 15 minutes from my house. While there may not be all that great of beaches on the island I live in, there's some awesome forests! I could really use some advice on taking better pictures, using a Canon Rebel XT. P.S. I do have larger versions of all the pictures available if that helps any.

ANDS! · Dec 1, 2008

Theres something I like in each of those. My one niggler would be cropping out the blown-sky in the second one so were just looking at the town, village, whatever below and the red-orange sky above, and maybe cropping the tree line in the first one.

Dig the fourth shot, it feels - wet - and kinda creepy if you ask me. Reminds me of the beginning to the Outer Limits.

The last bit I would crop from the bottom, to get rid of the foreground brush as much as possible, so we're just looking at a sliver of lake. Again - WET! I'm guessing after the serial killer murders his victim in photograph Number #4 - he dumps their bodies in #5.

In summation - good shiz.

Big Mike · Dec 1, 2008

Welcome to the forum.

Landscape photography (well a lot of photography really) is very subjective. You might like something that I don't and I might light something that you think is crap. And neither of us would be right or wrong. So my advice is to shoot what you think looks good.

There are elements that you can consider...like foreground, midground & background. You can also think of how the viewer's eye will see the image and how it will move through it. For example, in your first shot, the trail leads the viewer's eye into the shot, that's great. But where does it go from there? The trail just disappears from view and we are sort of lost in the image, without anything specific to look at.

The 4th shot (my favorite one, very nice), has some great lines in it. These lines lead the viewer's eye into (and out of) the shot. They lead the eye in and around the image...even in a continuous loop. This is often a good thing, the more the eye can easily move around the image, the longer we tend to look. Besides the big log in the front, there really isn't a strong focal point to look at...but because of the lines, it's still a really good shot.

Of course, light is the most important aspect of photography. So shooting your scene when the light is 'right' is a big part of successful landscape photography. Part of this is watching the range of light and dark tones. For example, your 2nd shot, has bright areas and dark areas. The dark areas are just about lost into shadow because the range is too great for one single shot.

I think you are off to a good start...I look forward to seeing more.

klub242 · Dec 1, 2008

Wow thanks for some of the awesome tips! Aren't there some sort of lense filters that help out some with landscapes like that 2nd one by darkening the sky up some or something like that?

ANDS! · Dec 1, 2008

klub242 said:
Wow thanks for some of the awesome tips! Aren't there some sort of lense filters that help out some with landscapes like that 2nd one by darkening the sky up some or something like that?

ND filter. In your case though - you can easily (if you have a tripod), take multiple exposures:

1st Exposure for the Sky
2nd Exposure for the trees and what not.
3rd exposure for a base (basically what you have now)

And combine the three in Photoshop. Not an HDR monstrosity, but photo merge to get a proper exposure across the entire image.

Or just go with the Neutral Density filter

Ron Evers · Dec 1, 2008

I think #1 could do with more sky & less foreground. The rest are pleasing pics.

rwilson · Dec 1, 2008

I don't know the first thing about photography but those are some amazing pictures.

CraniumDesigns · Dec 1, 2008

#4 is awesome. im a total newb, but i love that shot.

itsajeepthing · Dec 1, 2008

i really like #4. nicely done! :thumbup:

klub242 · Dec 2, 2008

Ok, being the total newb that I am, could someone give me a link to one of those filters for my camera (canon eos digital rebel xt), or tell me how to figure out which one to buy?