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N1kon1k

No longer a newbie, moving up!
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camera away being repaired left me in front of my computer... trying to focus on post processing in the meantime and get to the next level... please critique and don't be shy

Looking to see what works and what doesn't...
What you all like and don't like...

Got my big boy pants on and a couple of tissues if needed
 
Too much sky for me, and I would have preferred a less wide-angle lens. The dominant structure in the picture is the tree and it should dominate more.
 
john.margetts said:
Too much sky for me, and I would have preferred a less wide-angle lens. The dominant structure in the picture is the tree and it should dominate more.

Yes, less wide-angle would have made the tree larger. Or, getting much,much closer to the tree--that would have helped immensely. The issue is that the tree is too far from the lens, so it makes the grass more prominent, and literally physically reduces the on-sensor size of distant objects. But as john.margetts syas, a less wide-angle look at this likely would hgave made a stronger image.

Conversely, had you decided to use the SAME lens length, I can envision a similar yet better shot, one made from a camera position much closer to the tree, and low on the hill, looking upwardly; that would have made the tree much bigger, but at the same time, would NOT have affected the amount of angle of the distant sky hardly at all.

I think John has a valid point: as-shown, there is a LOT of sky...and a small tree; had the tree been rendered 3 to 4 times larger, from a camera placement that had been,say 40 feet away, the tree would have been biogger, more important,more imposing, and it would have balanced out such a wide view of the sky.
 
I feel like the sky although subjective adds drama to the shot by its texture and pulls the eye in towards the tree... giving it a feeling

Although now that you mention Derrell a different angle would of still created the same feel... just not sure as to how the clouds would compliment the bush...

I was trying to make negative space work and give a sense of scale... I was actually trying to use the clouds as a stronger element to make the tree look lost in a bigger world... like a worm looking upwards and seeing "damn I thought that tree was bigger, but there is even bigger stuff out there"

I just wasn't sure as to how to communicate that message...

Any ideas as to how I could of approached it that way
 
Try cropping a little off the top, most of what's left of the tree, and about half the grass on the bottom; see what that gives you.
 
I like much better! Still dramatic, but not such an overpowering sky! Just curious -- does it work in B&W?
 
Horizon isn't level, comp is pretty boring, and I believe I see some haloing around the tree branches where you pushed the shadows too hard. Some harsh critique but that's what helped me grow, so I'll pass it on
 
Horizon isn't level, comp is pretty boring, and I believe I see some haloing around the tree branches where you pushed the shadows too hard. Some harsh critique but that's what helped me grow, so I'll pass it on
Not harsh at all... thank you Jsecordphoto I really appreciate all the help I can get... thanks for pointing that out... I didn't notice the halo until now ... agreed on the horizon as well...
 
You might also try desaturating the sky a little. I would still crop a little more on the left.

BTW, looking at the original photo, the horizon is not "level" because it dips, so don't see this as a problem.
 
N1kon1k said:
SNIP>>>>I was trying to make negative space work and give a sense of scale... I was actually trying to use the clouds as a stronger element to make the tree look lost in a bigger world... like a worm looking upwards and seeing "damn I thought that tree was bigger, but there is even bigger stuff out there"

I just wasn't sure as to how to communicate that message...

Any ideas as to how I could of approached it that way

I understand that desire! And it's a good idea, a good concept. How to approach such a thing? It's a fine line between using true perspective, which is based on camera-to-subject distance, and using apparent perspective distortion, which comes easily with extreme wide-angle lenses. There's a fine balancing act between getting the desired perspective, and utilizing wide-angle lenses and their ability to create apparent perspective distortion.

It would take me a chapter in a book to explain this. So let me give you this simplified piece of advice: perspective is controlled by how close or far the camera is from the subject. The easiest way to improve your photos is to decide on the desired perspective, and to then use different lens lengths, to see how they affect the in-camera image.

You shot this with a wide-angle lens from too far away. The tree--and everything else--looks small, and insignificant. You cannot crop this issue away, after the shot. The best idea would have been to have moved the camera closer, so we could SEE the tree, and I mean see it clearly, for what it has, the branches, the leaves, etc., and then so we could also see the sky. The issue is that you show everything SMALL, due to the extreme wide-angle lens length, and from too far away, thus compounding the smallness. We cannot appreciate the tree; we KNOW how big a tree is. But the photo showed the tree looking tiny, like a shrub, like a bush.

The idea of contrasting the vastness of the sky with the size of a tree fails when the tree is shot from 70 meters away and the tree is small; you needed to have gotten closer to the tree, to change the perspective of the tree, and from there, THEN used the wide-angle zoom to show the sky as the larger object.

Learning HOW to use a wide-angle lens takes time, and lessons, exercises, and an understanding of lenswork theory and practice.
 
Horizon isn't level, comp is pretty boring, and I believe I see some haloing around the tree branches where you pushed the shadows too hard. Some harsh critique but that's what helped me grow, so I'll pass it on
The horizon is curved due to it being hills. How do you level a curve?
 
Thanks Derrel I will try to use this piece of advice on my next session... I kind of understand a bit more of what you saying... I'll keep reading on this until I get my camera back and than put it to practice
 
Horizon isn't level, comp is pretty boring, and I believe I see some haloing around the tree branches where you pushed the shadows too hard. Some harsh critique but that's what helped me grow, so I'll pass it on
The horizon is curved due to it being hills. How do you level a curve?

you get it as close as possible. It looks 5-10 degrees off
 

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