The Arno

I can't decide if I like this picture or not. I some times feel that it is too dark, but I do like the

motorcycle in the picture. it's an okay picture, and I'm wondering how it could have been

made into a great picture. Thanks for your comments and critiques.

Darkness is not bothering me,it is the f number, maybe to small, but all together it is fine work.

I think part of the problem is you have a dark foreground and very bright sky to deal with. I wonder how it would look if you cropped out some of the sky.

 

Thanks, for the advice. I'll try cropping it and post the new one for a side by side comparison.

Hi Alexa,

I was just admiring this photo and realized I know the photographer! Small world.

I like the composition in this shot--the diagonal line of the curb leading the eye to the motorcycles at different distances.

Do you have a graduated neutral density filter? Using one in this kind of high dynamic range scene you might be able to use a sligthly larger aperture to brighten the foreground without overexposing the sky. You'd have to crop the building on the left though to make the filter look natural. So maybe it's a bad suggestion; I'm pretty new at this.

Hey Brian - I unfortunately don't have a ND filter. In fact all that I have is my Digital SLR and film SLR bodies, one lens, and a UV filter. Thus I need to get better fast (or stop being a grad student) so that I can make some money to get more equipment. I had tried to crop the picture with out the building, but that got voted down. I just took it off too since I wanted to put up another picture. I tried playing in Aperture with this one, and the picture is still up, but I don't really like it. I think I went too far and now it looks fake. Oh well live and learn. Thanks so much though for leaving this note, it's great to hear from you, and bye the way, I'm pretty new at this too.

Hi Alexa,This image seems fine to me, as already mentioned the kerb leads the eye to the bikes.I have had a little play with your composition for your comparison of how I may have composed it. I rotated 3deg right,cropped a little from both sides to take away parked bike and post,and top and bottom, to lessen sky(ie zoomed in)Also flipped horizontal to follow the eyes natural way at looking at a pic left to right.

What do you think?

It was very odd to see the picture flipped since I'm so use to seeing it this way, but all in all I think that you got much closer to what I was going for when I initially took the picture. Thanks for the advice - Lex

Dia dhuit Alexa, I don't really think you can make a great photo out of a poor one (I'm not referring to your photo) but sometimes you can change it into a very good photo. I know that we should all try to get our exposures 'right first time', but I for one fail miserably in this regard. So,I use Photoshop Elements 4 for post-processing most of my photos. It's relatively cheap compared to the full version but it really is a great and very powerful tool and well worth buying.....actualy I think PS.Elements 5 is the latest version. e.g.,In the above photo you could brighten the dark areas without affecting the brighter areas...also it's just blooming great fun and allows you great latitude for creativity. Another piece of advice is to buy a polarising filter...again it's relatively cheap and does a superb job of enhancing the sky. In my portfolio I have some shots which I took in Wyoming in August which are good examples of how well this filter works....it also gets rid of 'hot spots' on flower/foliage shots.

I do realise that this is fairly basic advice with which you may already be acquainted .... anyway, these two items are number one and two on my accessories list, and I really couldn't exist without them. Best regards, SLAN.....FRANK. p.s., the best piece of advice I read somewhere is that when you look through the viewfinder you should have 3 things in mind...Compose, Compose and Compose. It's really more important than the equiptment you are using (or can afford). I wish I always took my own advice, but that's life I suppose. FRANK.

Thanks Frank for the info on PS. I'm hopefully getting a new computer soon, then I plan to put down the money for photoshop. Also I just got a polarizing filter, and I have to agree with you... I should have gotten it in the first place instead of the UV. Thanks again for your suggestions - Lex