River in Thaw

Nintendoeats · Jan 28, 2018

I went out on Friday and got a whole bunch off good shots! These are just a few, it was an excellent day. I would really like feedback on these. I feel like some of them would benefit from post processing but I'm not sure where to go with it.

weepete · Jan 28, 2018

1 is a bit underexposed in the foreground and your depth of field is very thin meaning you have some out of focus foreground. I'd crop it tight to the icicles, even up the exposure then just work through the develop module in lightroom and sharpen. I quite like having a little vingette on a lot of my shots so I'd add a barely perceptable one here too to pull the focus into the middle of the image.

2 I'd do a little dodgeing and burning, wb, maybe a little contrast boost to bring out the texture of the ice and sharpen.

3 Depth of field on this one is way too thin, you've only really got the middle of the "bridge" in focus. This for me kills the shot and it would end up on the cutting room floor.

4 I find this is a bit confused. The lighting draws the attention through the bridge to the other side but there's nothing really there to focus on, depth of field is too thin and a lot of foreground is out of focus. There's quite a bit of compositional structure in this shot with some good elements (leading lines, geometrical stucture, foreground interest, lighting differences) but they need bringing together a bit more. This shot may well work better with the sun in a different position so you have at least a bit of light on the path and include a little more of the bridge at the top of the frame. Use hyperfocal distance and f8-f16 for front to back sharpness.

5 Not sure what to say about this one. If the aim was to show the interesting shapes of the icicles again I'd shoot with a longer focal length to isolate the shape, making it big and promenent in the frame.

Nintendoeats · Jan 28, 2018

weepete said:
1 is a bit underexposed in the foreground and your depth of field is very thin meaning you have some out of focus foreground. I'd crop it tight to the icicles, even up the exposure then just work through the develop module in lightroom and sharpen. I quite like having a little vingette on a lot of my shots so I'd add a barely perceptable one here too to pull the focus into the middle of the image.

2 I'd do a little dodgeing and burning, wb, maybe a little contrast boost to bring out the texture of the ice and sharpen.

3 Depth of field on this one is way too thin, you've only really got the middle of the "bridge" in focus. This for me kills the shot and it would end up on the cutting room floor.

4 I find this is a bit confused. The lighting draws the attention through the bridge to the other side but there's nothing really there to focus on, depth of field is too thin and a lot of foreground is out of focus. There's quite a bit of compositional structure in this shot with some good elements (leading lines, geometrical stucture, foreground interest, lighting differences) but they need bringing together a bit more. This shot may well work better with the sun in a different position so you have at least a bit of light on the path and include a little more of the bridge at the top of the frame. Use hyperfocal distance and f8-f16 for front to back sharpness.

5 Not sure what to say about this one. If the aim was to show the interesting shapes of the icicles again I'd shoot with a longer focal length to isolate the shape, making it big and promenent in the frame.

I definitely see what you are saying about the DOF in #3, I am disapointed that I didn't close the aperture a bit further. #1 I have in 3 different forms with the back in different degrees of focus. Perhaps I will try merging that one with the middle one to bring the back of the ice shape back into focus.

I'll spend some time applying the suggestions you mentioned. Thank you!