What would you change here?

Southbound33 · Jun 25, 2015

I wanted to get a lot in one picture. The famous bridge, the covered piers, the deep channels, all in a humid and hazy sunset. The bridge was waaay off in the distance and I had a lot of shadowy areas to deal with. A lot of my favorite places to shoot are like this and Id like to hear what some of the advanced photographers here would recommend.. One thing I do try to do is keep edits to a minimum unless Im doing something artistic. I like for my photos to come through as I see them in real life. Keeping that in mind Id love to hear some feedback. Thanks!

Details:

Settings:
I believe it was in the "creative" setting which only allows you to change a few things, but honestly can't remember

Canon T3i
Canon EF-S55-250mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/7.1
Shutter: 1/320

Edits:

Slight shadow lift
Darken highlights
Saturate a little bit
A tad more exposure

SnappingShark · Jun 25, 2015

I think I may have taken 2 shots and merged them - one for the background/bridge detail, and one for the foreground.

BananaRepublic · Jun 25, 2015

Why don't you put up some alternates and see what people think.

Southbound33 · Jun 25, 2015

BananaRepublic said:
Why don't you put up some alternates and see what people think.

Alternates? If you mean more pics of the same scene, I only took this one.

ronlane · Jun 25, 2015

Lesson #1, why only take one shot, when you can take a few (hundred) for the same price.

I try to take a few so that I have options.

"Working the scene" is helpful too. Move around and take multiple angles. This gives you choices and you may find that one angle doesn't work well or that you just absolutely love another one.

Designer · Jun 25, 2015

Trying to get "a lot" in the frame sometimes leads to "nothing much" in the frame.

Southbound33 · Jun 25, 2015

Designer said:
Trying to get "a lot" in the frame sometimes leads to "nothing much" in the frame.

I'll keep that in mind

The_Traveler · Jun 25, 2015

All of that stuff on the left just merges into one confusing mass.

Sorry.

KmH · Jun 25, 2015

The composition is good.
Even with just a hot shoe flash unit you could have added light to the side of the pier closest to the camera.
Lots of amateurs don't use supplemental light though light is what makes, or breaks, a photograph .

So my usual - you could have better considered the light quality and direction.

In the visual arts there is a saying - Light advances, dark recedes.
Darker subject matter has less visual weight, and humans tend to look first at the bright parts of a photo or painting.
Your primary subject matter is usually closer to the camera, giving more visual weight.
Secondary and more distant subject matter has less visual weight and we can make our primary subject really 'pop' if that subject is brighter than anything else in the image frame.

The_Traveler · Jun 25, 2015

Two different responses.

Southbound33 said:
I wanted to get a lot in one picture. The famous bridge, the covered piers, the deep channels, all in a humid and hazy sunset. The bridge was waaay off in the distance and I had a lot of shadowy areas to deal with. A lot of my favorite places to shoot are like this and Id like to hear what some of the advanced photographers here would recommend..

You aren't looking hard enough at your pictures before you shoot. Mentally you are separating the structures on the left from the stuff behind it but the sensor doesn't process through your head and so the structures overlap.
Even if you did get a separate structure on the left, it isn't clear what about it makes it the center of interest. Pick what you want to be important, then expose and compose around that.

Southbound33 said:
One thing I do try to do is keep edits to a minimum unless Im doing something artistic. I like for my photos to come through as I see them in real life. Keeping that in mind Id love to hear some feedback.

Settings:
I believe it was in the "creative" setting which only allows you to change a few things, but honestly can't remember

These two bolded statements are at odds.
First you want things as you see them but you are shooting jpegs that have edits built in from the factory by engineers who aren't at the scene. So you are editing the original scen - and throwing away 30% of the data and a good bit of teh dynamic range.
Second your mind doesn't see what your eyes see, it adjusts DOF so you can integrate the scene, your mind manages the dynamic range and no one has informed Mother Nature that the light has to be what the camera can handle.

Jpegs are great if you have 1000 pictures to deliver tonight or if you are shooting in a controlled environment where you can adjust the lighting on the center of interest and manage the dynamic range.
Shooting in rather extreme situations with some backlit subjects and deep shadows and bright highlights, that's when shooting raw gives you the tools to make a good picture.

Southbound33 · Jun 25, 2015

Here is the uncropped image. Not sure its any better but after reading the feedback here I guess Im trying to make wine out of water. When I saw the scene, in my mind, I thought it would be a great pic. Im guessing sunrise would be a better time as the light would be illuminating all these shadows. Very interesting feedback, thanks guys.