hotel,devon,paignton

[jason lyons]

[Shadowman]

I like it, very sharp. Would be willing to bet that you could have waiting a little bit longer in the evening and would have gotten more contrast in the image straight from the camera.

[jason lyons]

hi thanks for your comments,im very new to this photography game,have a look at my mushroom one,thanks again

[GrahamH]

Hi Jason,
Great colour sky, you were out at a good time (a little before sunrise or a little after sunset).
Love the colour contrast between the land and sky.
Interesting lights (Xmas type lights) in vertical bands and that interesting pyramid shape. If you are nearby, some great potential for further shots.
Could do with some straightening clockwise however.
Also perhaps get a little closer and angle the camera more upwards to get more sky and less of the dull grey road. (Closer to the brick parking space may give some interesting foreground texture.
And perhaps (if you are shooting on a tripod), you could put yourself in the image to the side to give it more scale and human interest. Again, lots of potential.
Graham

[jason lyons]

thankyou very much for your comments it was taken by hand on a 2 second exposure,i think i was lucky to get it looking well enough to see

[Dave Humphries]

thankyou very much for your comments it was taken by hand on a 2 second exposure,i think i was lucky to get it looking well enough to see

HI Jason,

The EXIF says 1/60s (at f/3.5 and 18mm on a Nikon D3100 at iso 2800 with flash)

Perhaps you used the 2 second self timer?

or is it a combination of shots?

Apart from the tilt, which should be corrected in PP if you don't get it right at the time, it is a good shot as others have said.

I might crop to remove a bit of the bland foreground tarmac, perhaps to just the other side of the second manhole cover.

Cheers,

[JPS]

Hi Jason,
nice picture.
I agree with Graham it could do with a bit of clockwork straightening, but has great potential. Well done.

As you said you are new to photography I've made a quick adjustment and applied a bit of sharpening, to show what you could do in PP if you feel you wanted to. At the end of the day it's your picture and I thank you for sharing it with us.

[Donald]

I think the comments above and then what John has illustrated in his example, really captures all that needs to be said.

Only additional point I'd add is that you could consider cropping to a 2:1 ration retaining the existing top and sides, so that you cut away some of that driveway/walkway at the bottom. I don't think we need to see so much of it.

[jason lyons]

thats realy good,whats pp thanks

[JPS]

thats realy good,whats pp thanks

Jason, sorry about that; PP stands for 'Post Processing', which is the use of software to improve the image after it has been taken. There are many software packages that can do this some are free and can be downloaded from the Web, other's like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements are widely available to buy either from the Web or your local retailer.

[jason lyons]

can you recommend any for me ,thanks

[JPS]

Photoshop Element 10 at £79 is an excellent program and can be bought from most Camera or computer retail outlets.
However if you want to try one of the free programs first and see how you get on, 'GIMP' is a program well used by many members on this site. I understand it works well." If you use the Google search engine, just type in GIMP" and it will direct you to their site and the download, or use this link if you prefer. http://www.getgimp.com

I'm sure others on this site, will be able to advise you of other software that is just as good, if not better.

This type of software will allow you to adjust your pictures, correcting anything (most things anyway) that you are not happy with in the original picture. However, it is always better to try and get as much as possible correct when you take your picture. PP software can do lots of things but not everything and it can take a lot of time correcting things you could have got right when composing the picture in the first place.

Hope this is of help.
John

[Geoff F]

If you are thinking about Elements 10, Jason, have a shop around for prices as there are a few bargains around; recently it had been selling for as little as £30.

But there are a number of good software companies which vary in price between free and several hundred pounds.

Before getting Adobe CS5, which is excessively priced, I always used Serif Photo Plus and one of their older versions like X3 will be available at a considerably reduced price.

Unfortunately, there isn't a simple 'this is the best for you' answer, which is where getting one of the free trial versions might be worth considering until you find something which you like.

But many of them are a bit tricky to initially understand.

[Donald]

Geoff makes a good point about some of the software packages being tricky to understand. So, you really need to make an assessment of your willingness/keenness and, indeed, ability to commit to learning.

As John said, the GIMP (which I use) is an open source package, meaning it is free to download (but you are invited to make a donation towards development expenses). But because all the volunteer time is devoted to development, there is a lot less time devoted to providing support information. Although there are an excellent series of video tutorials available at www.meetthegimp.org, which again are open source (i.e. free to view).

The Adobe products (e.g. Elements) because they have such market clout and are used by the vast majority of people, have literally hundreds if not thousands, of sources of support (most of which you have, of course, to pay for). So learning one the Adobe products is, theoretically, a much easier pathway.

[jason lyons]

thankyou everyone for all your help,to be honest i need it,as ive only had the camera a few months,and never had one up to that point ,so thankyou to everyone

[MrB]

Jason, I see that you live in a part of the country that I enjoy visiting at least a couple of times a year, and there is also an interesting photographic gear shop in your little town!

The colours of your photo make it a very pleasing image. The only thing not mentioned so far is that there seems to me to be some lens distortion (barrel distortion) that is making the edge of the road curved. This can also be corrected in PP software unless, of course, you intend it to have that appearance.



Philip

[jason lyons]

hi yes nice place here in brixham,thanks for the tips,and yes very good camera shop here as well .