Fall Colours & Landscapes - First Try

[Brownbear]

I'm trying to try different things to learn and expand my repertoire. In the following 3 images, which all look soft to me I place my focus on what I estimated to be the hyper-focal point, near the horizon at the tops of the trees or buildings, in an attempt to maximize my depth of field.

Manual A 11 SS 160 ISO 100 Exp Bias -1.3 to +.3

I processed from raw using LR and I think I did a fair job with the colours?


#1 (Wonky buildings, slightly crooked or just soft)



#2 (the path is leading my eye out of the frame or into the trees behind?)



#3



I would be most appreciative of general feedback on composition, sharpness (tripod used but still soft) and colours. I am posting 3 photos not for feedback on each one but simply because I am hoping to learn which of the photos I did a better job on so the next time I try, I will try those same things again. I think I did the best on image #3?

I would also like to know if focusing on the tops of the trees or buildings seems fitting for the hyperfocal point position to maximize depth of field and if my colours are fine or not.

Thank you.

[Mike Buckley]

Overall Impression: I love the mood of all three images -- misty and with low contrast. Wonderfully delicate color palettes.

Sharpness: It's difficult to tell when viewing small images, but they look fine to me. Considering that you think they are a little soft, my guess is that the mist is misleading you. Alternatively, these definitely seem sharp enough to me that if you think they should be sharper, you should be able to solve that issue during post-processing without introducing any artifacts. Did you try using more sharpening?

Colors: They look fine to me, though I don't know what colors you saw or imagined.

Path in #2: It's leading my eyes outside the frame.

Hyperfocal Point in #1: This is a photo, so it's more difficult to determine the ideal point than when experiencing the scene in three dimensions. You could have tested whether or not it was working for you by viewing the image throughout using Live View highly magnified. Did you do that?

Best Photo: The last one works best for me and is one that I would be proud to make. Having said that, it's also the easiest style to make at least for me.

Other: In Photo #1, notice the blur that seems to be tall blades of grass in front of the clump of trees on the left. That seems to be motion blur caused by using a shutter speed that is too slow. Considering the shutter speed that you used, I'm surprised that it was too slow.

[Nancy Moran G]

#2 is my favorite. Yup, the path leads your eye thru the photo. And the fog works with this mood for me.
A forum post mentioned once, 'shooting in fog' has its own technique, but the person did not elaborate. Will be curious what others will say to your questions.
Nancy

[Brownbear]

Hi Mike,

Thank you... Truly appreciated and helpful.

Sharpness.... When it is a bird I can tell how sharp it should be but I'm not sure about landscapes... When I see landscapes of buildings they are all super sharp and mine doesn't look like those. I only did normal sharpening because these are just for me to learn. I am going to try again another day... And yes, I think the fog makes things look soft.

Colours... I'm just checking up on my post processing skills... all done on raw files in LR so good to know... I added a little vibrancy because it looked right.

2. Path.... I thought so... Next time I will go to the other side.

Hyperfocal point... I forgot about live view because I was so focused on trying to figure out the right focal point... I will try that next time around.

Best photo... Thank you. Very nice to hear that, but yes it is just a tree.

Other... Yes, 160 seems fast enough... My tripod is one I bought for $25 in Mexico and now that I am trying landscapes and different things I'm learning that it wobbles at the slightest thing, even with my little lens on it... If I hold it steady with my other hand that seems help. I might try a bean bag until I buy a better tripod.

Colours... yes, all my own... Thank you.

[Brownbear]

Hi Nancy,

Thank you. It is moody... However, note that Mike says that the path leads your eye out of the frame... Something to think about... I should've photographed it from the other side.

Here is a very informative link

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tu...hotography.htm

In general I've learned from my experience that it is challenging to grab focus on some things, even impossible sometimes when the fog is heavy and your lens mists up... The light is low so you need to use slower shutter speeds and higher isos, and positive exposure compensation.

#2 is my favorite. Yup, the path leads your eye thru the photo. And the fog works with this mood for me.
A forum post mentioned once, 'shooting in fog' has its own technique, but the person did not elaborate. Will be curious what others will say to your questions.
Nancy

[TonyW]

I like these colours. We just don't get anything like them in our sub-tropical climate with mostly evergreen forest.

To me, these images are sharp enough. The featured tree in the third one actually looks over-sharpened to my taste. It has that granular look that does not appeal.

I like the composition in all of them. The path leading back in the #2 is a classic feature that you see in many paintings.

I wonder myself often how much perspective should be left in photos of buildings. Did you adjust this in #1? The closest one looks to be leaning in slightly too much but if you adjust that the distant ones might start to lean out, or appearing to, which would be worse. Perhaps it is just right as it is.

They're nice images. I like the misty mood.

[Brownbear]

Hi Tony,

Thank you for the feedback. Truly appreciated.

And thank you for letting me know about the tree. That is one thing I don't want to do as I learn to post process is oversharpen. I just did it by 25% here with an unsharp mask in Elements, so I will have to revisit and see what happened.

Interesting...

I did try that perspective tool on one shot with buildings and it might have been this one but I'm not sure..The buildings looked crooked so I tried it and ended up cropping the shot a bit due the adjustment. I will revisit that too.

Thank you Tony.

I like these colours. We just don't get anything like them in our sub-tropical climate with mostly evergreen forest.

To me, these images are sharp enough. The featured tree in the third one actually looks over-sharpened to my taste. It has that granular look that does not appeal.

I like the composition in all of them. The path leading back in the #2 is a classic feature that you see in many paintings.

I wonder myself often how much perspective should be left in photos of buildings. Did you adjust this in #1? The closest one looks to be leaning in slightly too much but if you adjust that the distant ones might start to lean out, or appearing to, which would be worse. Perhaps it is just right as it is.

They're nice images. I like the misty mood.