South Bridge Attempt 2 - C&C Appreciated

manaheim · Oct 2, 2008

I'll refrain from editorial so as not to predispose anyone's comments. I'll add my thoughts after I hear what you guys think. Let me know. Don't hold back. I'm not fragile. Thanks!

manaheim · Oct 3, 2008

hmmm... that bad, eh?

skates94 · Oct 3, 2008

I think the subject is interesting but it looks a little harsh to me...... the white things in the water (maybe some sort of birds) are distracting and it almost appears that there was too much natural light when the photo was shot. All the green seems to be a little much.

In my opinion this would be and excellent shot if it was taken in the fall with some color change and at a different time of the day.

manaheim · Oct 3, 2008

Yup, that was almost exactly what I was thinking.

It's a weird spot... the sun rises over and to the right there, and then sets back and to the left. On each side the sun in the early and late day is obscured by trees. There's probably only a period of like 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM where the sun is reasonably up above to illuminate everything in the shot more evenly, but of course then the sun would also be pretty harsh. CPOL would help, obviously, but I'm not sure how much. It's a bit of a head-scratcher.

I'm going to check it out again tomorrow mid-day since I'll be out and about and see what I can do with it. I'm actually experimenting with it now so I can try to nail it when the foliage turns more... you just never know when the best day will be for the combination of the foliage, the sky, etc.

I also wonder about maybe dawn/dusk. I'm figuring dawn would likely result in just a black bridge since the light woule be coming from the other side of the bridge... I'm not sure what dusk would do since the light would come from behind me but be kind of obscured from the trees... I think.

Of course... is the shot worth this is another thing I wonder about... it looks like a nice scene, I like the bridge and the water, etc... but is it good enough to bother???

Aggressor · Oct 3, 2008

It's always good enough to bother! Just the thought process you went through alone allowed you to think about the scene and make you a better photographer. Actually putting into practice your ideas will allow you to cement those ideas or allow you to throw them out so that in the future, you can just tell yourself... Nope... never gonna work... Unless I have some serious lighting equipment! $$$!

realitycheck3907 · Oct 3, 2008

Chris I went back and looked at your first shot of this bridge and I have to say I really like the first shot better. I think the trees on the left side of the photo were too bright, and maybe been played with too much in pp. But I think the best time to take it is probably when you took the first one. You can actually see the whole bridge, and maybe you can catch some fog/mist this time.