Evaluate My Photo

[svenivan]

Boat on Mekong in Chiang Kong.

[hanno]

I like the other photos you posted today, but this one does nothing for me Plants sticking in at bottom and top are distracting and the picture lacks color and contrast.

[yumidesign]

I like the other photos you posted today, but this one does nothing for me Plants sticking in at bottom and top are distracting and the picture lacks color and contrast.

as a picture its a mess...... 1 out of 10

delete it from your file and never look at it again

Edited May 2, 2009 by yumidesign

[svenivan]

I like the other photos you posted today, but this one does nothing for me Plants sticking in at bottom and top are distracting and the picture lacks color and contrast.

as a picture its a mess...... 1 out of 10

delete it from your file and never look at it again

Hi yumi,

If I am going to learn anything from this "mess" you have to tell me why!

I appreciate all advice I can get, that is why I post photos here!

As for that the photo lacks color and contrast it might be that it was a early in the morning and very foggy.

[BigSnake]

Background ok, but the boat look like a big old log with a knot sticking up, floating down the Mekong,

[hanno]

As for that the photo lacks color and contrast it might be that it was a early in the morning and very foggy

Photos in foggy/misty conditions are tricky to pull off, and it did not work here. That ethereal quality you were looking for just did not come across.

As for the branches sticking i: that was a bit lazy on your part as they are easy to crop out.

[svenivan]

Here is a new version of the same photo:

So is it better?, no branches in the bottom, no leaves in the top, better colors....

[Kan Win]

You could have added a wee bit more colour like I have to your original photo.

Yours truly,

Kan Win

[canuckamuck]

I think you were right to take the photo, there is a really nice scene happening here. It was also good to take out the distracting pieces.

The fatal flaw I see is the high amount of noise in the image, and there isn't a lot you can do to fix that. Also I would be tempted to reduce the saturation rather than increase it. you might as well go all the way for the mist effect. In my version I also brought up your whites and dropped the mids and blacks in levels.

[svenivan]

I think you were right to take the photo, there is a really nice scene happening here. It was also good to take out the distracting pieces.

The fatal flaw I see is the high amount of noise in the image, and there isn't a lot you can do to fix that. Also I would be tempted to reduce the saturation rather than increase it. you might as well go all the way for the mist effect. In my version I also brought up your whites and dropped the mids and blacks in levels.

Yeah, I think I like your version!

But what you can see in both, my last one and yours is the sunrise reflecting in the mountains in the background.

In my first try you could not see that.

The photo is taken straight north.

Thanks everyone!

I am learning!

(maybe better to post a real bad one because I got much more responses to that one than to half decent ones!

red: about the noice, I took lots of photos in VGA-mode, like 170-200kbyte

Edited May 3, 2009 by svenivan

[yumidesign]

Boat on Mekong in Chiang Kong.

Its a 'mess' because

the bits of elements protruding into the frame top and bottom detract from the image. this can be a usefull device when you use it as a frame but in this case they are not strong enough

although the landscape / waterscape is in misty light the overall light particularly in the distance is too flat to be interesting

all landscapes have a subject, the subject is not the general scene, but a subject in a setting. the small boat in your landscape is badly positioned in the frame and looks as if it is going up hill

in landscape photography, when you look through the view finder (do not use the led screen as you will not concentrate your view) try to decide what is the subject and then how the space around it will work best

you can also use this technique.... curl your index finger to create a small hole and look through this hole with one eye to decide on the subject then increase the size of the hole to include the scene, then look through the view finder

hope this is helpful for you

[svenivan]

Its a 'mess' because

the bits of elements protruding into the frame top and bottom detract from the image. this can be a usefull device when you use it as a frame but in this case they are not strong enough

although the landscape / waterscape is in misty light the overall light particularly in the distance is too flat to be interesting

all landscapes have a subject, the subject is not the general scene, but a subject in a setting. the small boat in your landscape is badly positioned in the frame and looks as if it is going up hill

in landscape photography, when you look through the view finder (do not use the led screen as you will not concentrate your view) try to decide what is the subject and then how the space around it will work best

you can also use this technique.... curl your index finger to create a small hole and look through this hole with one eye to decide on the subject then increase the size of the hole to include the scene, then look through the view finder

hope this is helpful for you

Thanks yumi!

This is what I want to hear. I have been taken 1000´nds of photos without thinking. Sometimes, 1 out of 100 might been quite good, but I never understood why, just pure luck.

So I am here to learn, the basics, composition and also what you can do in the "lab" (PS etc).

Thanks again yumi and everyone else that tries to explain what is wrong and what is OK.

[Who, me ?]

^^ On another note, but still on topic, I feel I am in the same case. I made thousands of pictures, and still I feel I don't understand why a shot is good when it happens to be. Is there any course in Bangkok, that I could attend in order to get some "basics" . Should be great to have some guidelines.

I have a Canon Kiss, that I believe to be a good camera for non experts, but I feel a bit lost when it's time to use the manual settings...