view from Griffith Park observatory for c&c

Carla_ · Mar 18, 2012

Here's one more from the observatory. As usual, any c&c is appreciated.

TIA

Carla

Carla_ · Mar 20, 2012

That bad?

J_T · Mar 20, 2012

I think you have a potential picture here except you just needed to bring it out a little more. I'm new at this so take my opinion lightly...

I think you underexposed the foreground with all the trees being a bit dark and the entire picture needs to be tilted slightly clockwise (because it's a tiny bit crooked).
The focus could be a bit sharper too.

Also if the city was your subject, I would crop some of the random trees in the front away (just my opinion though haha).

bhop · Mar 20, 2012

I live down the street from Griffith Park.. I have some similar photos. That's Century City in the shot eh? Towards the ocean? The biggest thing I notice is the softness of the photo. What lens were you shooting with? f-stop? What were you focusing on? Infinity? The second thing is that it's slightly crooked. I think it could be improved with more contrast, or color 'pop', but the lack of focus is really killing it...

Joel_W · Mar 21, 2012

Basically, it's a nice snapshot. Sorry, but that's what it looks like. For starters it's really tilted. Your horizon is nearly dead center, so the basically bland sky takes up way too much real estate in your picture. As already mentioned Century City is your main focus, so crop some of the foreground and sky, and re-post.

molested_cow · Mar 21, 2012

It looks like you took it with a wide angle lens and later decided to crop 90% of the photo out. Image quality wise this is worse than the old 2.1mp camera my dad got more than 10 years ago. Horizon needs to be corrected. The foreground (trees) can be brighter and the cities can have more contrast to reduce some of the haze effect.

baato · Mar 21, 2012

I'm guessing you don't have a skylight 1B filter. That's what most people use to correct for haze and ultraviolet. Like many people, I have my skylight 1B on all the time - there is no significant loss in light transmission, and it

also protects the front element of your objective. So if you damage your filter, that's not the end of the world, but if you damage the lens ?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !!

Also, is the picture that tilted ? Cities aren't actually level,

they're not generally built on 100% flat/level ground.

And the clouds don't look dreadfully out of whack...

Carla_ · Mar 21, 2012

Thanks for the feedback.

Bhop, I think that is century city, it was the east view from the observatory.

I had a polarizer but no skylight filter on. There was haze over the horizon which makes it look oof.

How's this? I messed with it in Topaz adjust.

Carla_

Carla_ · Mar 22, 2012

molested_cow said:
It looks like you took it with a wide angle lens and later decided to crop 90% of the photo out. Image quality wise this is worse than the old 2.1mp camera my dad got more than 10 years ago. Horizon needs to be corrected. The foreground (trees) can be brighter and the cities can have more contrast to reduce some of the haze effect.

With all due respect, this is why I posted in the beginners forum originally. IMO I would love to have that forum open to post in an environment where it is assumed I don't have the skills of a professional photographer but just want to learn to take better photos.

In any case, I do appreciate any constructive criticism that will help me learn.

ETA, regarding the 90% crop comment, this is the original RAW image SOOC except resizing.

flasharps · Mar 27, 2012

I think it's a great shot! If you could get rid of the smog, you could make millions.

Scuba · Mar 27, 2012

OK I think this just not a great shot. I understand you are new so I am not trying to be mean just trying to help you understand why so you can work on it. The first thing I notice is there is nothing specific to look at here and the view of the city is not anything special even if the haze were removed. Sometimes things just don't translate the way we intend to the image. The haze is a big issue here. I am not an expert but I know humidity can cause this problem. I don't think a UV filter would do anything here as someone mentioned (that is a whole other topic). The image is also underexposed, the reason this occurred is due to the bright sky and likely you were using matrix metering and the bright sky caused the rest of the image to be underexposed. Also, always make sure your horizon is straight as this is something you will always get jumped on about. It is a obvious sign of inexperience. We have all done it so don't worry. I think you need to consider what exactly you are trying to show or the purpose behind an image. This can be anything from it looked cool to emotions etc. This thought will help you take better images. Normally I would say what I think you could do to make this image better but I can't see why this image was taken so I can't point you in that direction. I hope this helps. Keep Shooting!