A picture of Long Pond in Cape Cod.

I am someone who is new to photography, and am wondering how I could

improve. What would make this photo better, for future reference?

if you can crop the picture horizontally from bottom up to where the reflection start it would be better. I may be wrong. I am a new starter here too. also if you have a tripod and get the foliage sharper it would improve more. I myself just bought a tripod (: :). keep working

I can't tell whether this image is fuzzy because you needed a tripod. The image loaded onto my screen is massive at medium! Either way, get a tripod anyway and get a polarizer too. With a polarizer used properly I think you'll find you will get deeper more satisfying colours that will just have you jumping up and down with glee particularly if applied to a colourful pleasing composition such as this one.

 

 

1) Get a 28-105 zoom. You can then have the option to zoom in and out to see for yourself different compositions of the same picture. Without a boat, you could not have gotten closer with your 50mm lens.

 

2) Get a circular polarizer and/or ND grad filter. The sky is too light.

 

3) Shoot a good landscape film. Royal Gold is a low contrast unsaturated film. 400 film is also less contrasty and colorful. Even Kodak Gold 200 would have been better, but you may also want to experiment with slide films like Velvia, Kodachrome Elite Extra Color, and Provia 100. See what you like the best.

 

4) Use a tripod so you can maximize your depth of field with an aperture between F8 and F16. With 100 speed films you will not be able to handhold the shot.

 

Then, handhold it in the vertical and horizontal position, and zoom in and out to see various choices. When you are ready, put it on a tripod and fire away.

 

 

 

While zooms let you be more versatile, I think as a beginner it is a good idea to keep working with that 50/1.8. That's a great sharp lens, and your compositions will improve the more you use it. With out the ability to change composition so easily, you'll think more about what you are including in each photograph. And that's a good thing in my opinion.

Robert, a polarizer would darken the sky. It's a bit washed out. Also, there's too much water at the bottom. you can crop that out. Otherwise the exposure on the trees and water is good

I think people tend to get lazy with zooms also. A shot with a 300mm from afar will look different than a shot closer with a 50mm. It's better to know what focal length works best for the shot then WALK to where it works. Of course you probably couldn't get closer in the case, but I found that working within the limitations of a single focal length really strengthed my photography. Prime lenses are sharper, too. That being said, a decent zoom is great to have when you have to travel light, I just wouldn't recomend it when you are learning. I wish I had gone the prime route early on.

 

Oh yeah, the photo... I personally would crop down to the top of the trees and up past the start of the reflection to where the red starts.

Although the weeds/plants in the water provide something in the foreground, I like to look for a stump or rock or something like that to place in the foreground to give the photo more depth. A polarizer would help blue-en (?) the sky. When I started using an SLR, a 50 mm was all I had and I got some shots I still love today. It is a great learning tool, but I found the convienience of a zoom lens gave me more flexibility once I had the jist of compositional technique. Have fun!