A Walk in the Park

[joebranko]

While parking near the entrance to Bay Front Park, I saw this young lady just sitting and looking out over the water...




Was this why she waited? I did not wait to find out.



Too many photo-ops. so little time...



I shot this across the bay of the park into a shaded area where the geese were hanging out. It looks a little dark but that was how it was when I shot it; I resisted the temptation to lighten it up or raise the shadows because that was not how I saw it.

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts:
1. First image nicely composed, could use a bit of separation of the overhead leaves and the water and a bit more detail in the trees.
2. Better detail on the foliage, nice composition.
3. Best overall capture.
4. A bit soft.

[Geoff F]

My thoughts Joe would be:

#1 looks much better in the Lightbox view where the contrast appears higher. Looks good then.

#2 For me, there is a conflict between two subjects of interest. The red flower basket in the top right corner and the man's red shirt. I often find that an image can have multiple points of interest if they are connected together in some way so the viewer goes on a journey of discovery around the scene. But in this case there is no apparent connection. But removing the flowers creates a different sort of scene. Or possibly slightly cropping the left side would appear to bring those two subjects closer together? There is certainly potential from the scene.

#3. Why have so much space above the subject? It is potentially a good image but I would crop a little from the top.

#4. Yes, as John said. The left side is sharply focused but it gets softer towards the middle and right side.

[joebranko]

#1 looks much better in the Lightbox view where the contrast appears higher. Looks good then.

#2 For me, there is a conflict between two subjects of interest. The red flower basket in the top right corner and the man's red shirt. Here is a version with a reduced blaze of red in the upper right.



#3. Why have so much space above the subject? It is potentially a good image but I would crop a little from the top.

Here is the cropped version:


#4. Yes, as John said. The left side is sharply focused but it gets softer towards the middle and right side.

Thanks Geoff. I did not realise that the red flowers would detract from the scene. I was hapoy to see the red flowers so closely matching his shurt! Anyway i see your point that they be a dustraction and i will try reducing the size of that splash of colour when i am at my comouter again,

#3. I agree that there is too much space abive subject.

#4. I will have a look. Maybe my dof was too shallow and i focussed on the left?
PS I used f 5.6 for the shot.

[joebranko]

Nice efforts:
1. First image nicely composed, could use a bit of separation of the overhead leaves and the water and a bit more detail in the trees.
2. Better detail on the foliage, nice composition.
3. Best overall capture.
4. A bit soft.

Thanks John.

[Wavelength]

I just enjoyed touring through your images...feel relaxed!!!

[Geoff F]

Those edits look better to me, Joe.

With the last image of the pond, your focus is good on the left side for about a quarter of the scene but gradually softens towards the right side; so yes, I expect that is where your camera focused and a shallow focus depth couldn't retain that sharpness over the whole scene. Auto focus can sometimes cause issues like this without you realising what is happening. I always restrict my camera AF area to the central 12 points to prevent any accidental side focus problems.

[Jim A]

I enjoyed looking through your images, Joe. I wonder how the first image would look in B&W - think it would suit, worth a try!

[joebranko]

I enjoyed looking through your images, Joe. I wonder how the first image would look in B&W - think it would suit, worth a try!

Thanks Jim. Certainly worth a try.

Here it is:

[joebranko]

Those edits look better to me, Joe.

With the last image of the pond, your focus is good on the left side for about a quarter of the scene but gradually softens towards the right side; so yes, I expect that is where your camera focused and a shallow focus depth couldn't retain that sharpness over the whole scene. Auto focus can sometimes cause issues like this without you realising what is happening. I always restrict my camera AF area to the central 12 points to prevent any accidental side focus problems.

[joebranko]

Not sure what you meant in the last sentence. Can you restrict the auto focus area? And what. are the 12 central points?

[Geoff F]

It will depend on the actual camera, Joe, but on my 7D Mk II there are a number of possible fixed auto focus points which can be auto selected by the camera. I think there are over 40 in total on my camera. This means that your camera will choose the auto focus point which is the one closest to the nearest part of your subject.

Sometimes this can be very useful but on other occasions it may cause problems by selecting a focus which is one of the edge points while you are concentrating on getting the best central area composition. So if you don't notice that the camera has auto chosen one of the 'wrong points' your central area may be out of focus while the extreme edge is sharp.

I find this can be a big problem with things like wildlife photography when the camera focuses on a branch which is much closer than your desired subject. So your eventual image shows an out of focus subject while a branch/leaf etc on the image edge is sharply in focus.

My camera has many options for limiting the AF points which are available for the camera to use. Such as just the central AF point, or a cluster of points around the central point; which could be, for instance, 5 AF points. This cluster can be offset from the central area if that is desired.

Then there are square clusters of AF points which can be used. These can also be offset as required. I normally set my options for the camera to use a central cluster of 15 possible AF points; so this means it can only achieve auto focus by using the central area.

Any area of my intended composition scene which is outside of this control area will not be used to obtain a focus point.

Sometimes there are problems with limiting your focus area but holding the focus while recomposing the composition is a commonly used trick when a simple central focus area isn't suitable. However, in most situations the central area will be the main area of interest to your composition and will be the point of sharpest focus.

So to sum up, if your camera is using all of the available AF points there is a risk of it choosing an unwanted point so you end up with the sharpest image area outside of your intended best focus part of the composition.

[joebranko]

Thanks Geoff, niw i know what you mean. I will have to check this setting,
I think mine is set to one central point. But it may have changed.