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Hello
This photo was taken from a bridge at Mt Rainer National Park in Washington. I would appreciate your feedback and advice on how to improve it. Thank you.
17mm
ISO 200
F/8
1/50 sec
Hello
This photo was taken from a bridge at Mt Rainer National Park in Washington. I would appreciate your feedback and advice on how to improve it. Thank you.
17mm
ISO 200
F/8
1/50 sec
Hello Sharon Kim ,
Welcome to the Critique Forum.
Thank you for giving us a chance to critique your photo.
To answer your question about how to improve your photo, I like the scene that you have captured with the foggy atmosphere, but the covered bridge as a frame doesn't work as is because it is out of focus and that is distracting. I have taken pictures in similar situations and what I did was use a tripod and take a picture focusing on the frame and take another one focusing on the landscape behind it and then blend them together. Also, for the background, you could have use a higher f/stop (maybe f/11).
Also, even if the lattice on the bridge was in focus, it is not symetrical here (left and right on the top and bottom versus top), which doesn't work for me. So the symmetry is something to pay attention to when you frame your photos in this way.
I hope this helps you for the next time.
Good luck.
Lucie, senior critic
Sharon,
Thanks for sharing the photo with us here in Critique. When I saw it, I immediately thought of Washington State. I used to go there sometimes many years ago. I remember the dense, lush, green forest. It seemed to often be misty or foggy as in your photo, and there were creeks and waterfalls everywhere. Did you see any Sasquatch? That's their home turf you know.
In Critique we take screen shots and edit them to show our suggestions. Lucie made a good suggestion for next time - focus stacking. It's much easier than you'd think, and often you can get by without a tripod if necessary by shooting a burst in Continuous shutter mode and rotating the focus ring as you shoot. Photoshop does an amazing job of aligning and blending the frames together and using just the sharpest parts of each. Once you've done it a few times it goes pretty quick.
The other option is to stop down the aperture to f/16 or even f/22. Some sharpness is lost because of diffraction when very small apertures are used, but if you need the depth of field that's a compromise you sometimes have to make. And we can always add a bit of sharpness in editing to compensate. Diffraction affects all lenses regardless of price - it's one of the Laws of Physics.
From the screen shot the bridge parts were selected with Photoshop's 'Quick Selection' tool, then with 'Filter>Camera Raw Filter', the Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze sliders were used to enhance the texture of the old iron. While that area was selected I changed to colour to a redder shade of rust. The trees were made more green with 'Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation' - selecting 'Green' from the dropdown menu, clicking the eyedropper on a medium green tree, and then sliding 'Saturation'.
These are suggestions only. You were there, so you remember the colours and the mood. Edit until it feels right.
. . . . . Steven, senior critic
Sharon,
Second try at uploading the sample . . . . seems we can edit our text, but not a photo once it's uploaded.
Thank you Steven and Lucie for your edits, feedback, and advice. I agree that it would've been better if I had the frame in focus. When I have the opportunity to shoot a similar scene, I will most definitely implement the advice that you both shared!
