Tappen Zee Bridge

[jacsul]

Hi, Enjoyed the day off on the river compliments of the boss...
Please feel free to C&C

Jack

[Dave Humphries]

Hi there Jack,

So, do you work on the river?
What prompted the day off?

#1 looks good; nice composition, reasonable exposure, the best of the five in my opinion

#2 might have been better just a tad more panned right and without the slight leaning to right, but again, I really like the basic composition, that's an impressive bridge and the viewpoint and zoom show its size to good effect. A touch of levels to give a true black and reduce the mist effect would help.

#3 is somewhat over exposed, a tilt down would have avoided some of this and left both feet of the standing chap more comfortably in shot. I'd consider a PP crop to lose some off the top and both sides.

#4 is also over exposed unfortunately, composition is ok, maybe you could afford to lose a little on the right. A fair degree of levels adjustment to give a true black and reduce the misty effect is needed here.

#5 is suffering a lack of obvious subject, if it is the guy with the cigar, I'd have zoomed a lot tighter on him, or cropped in post processing, the people on the right (and the left) don't add anything. If you're up for a little experimentation, try removing the label sticking out of the guys helmet with some cloning.

I hope that helps and doesn't come across as overly critical. I appreciate that the over exposure is VERY difficult to avoid with that kind of camera, especially in these kind of lighting conditions. You could do a fair bit with PP to improve them, have you got any software for that?

Best regards,

[jacsul]

Hey Dave,
Thanks for the insight....
We're renovating the bridge deck. The day off was for a job well done and to emphasize public and employee safety.

I have an older version of Elements 5 I can run them through and get some practice editing,
usually I just run them through Picasa because it's convenient.

Again, thanks for the insight.

Jack

[jacsul]

Ok, how about this?






#3 Still overexposed I think.....?

[Dave Humphries]

Better, don't you think?

Yes, the tug superstructure is still overexposed, but I'm not sure you can do much about it.

[jacsul]

Thanks Dave,
I've seen your photos.... Consider yourself an excellent mentor.



Best Regards

Jack

[Wirefox]

Jack

I think you have coped well with these weather conditions, cloudy but bright. These shots have a journalistic feel about them and it might be worth taking a peek in black and white. The bridge shots particularly, if in B/W, would allow you to crank up the sharpness and contrast.

The image below was taken with a fixed lens digital camera similar to yours and the conditions were pretty similar too (you can see over exposure on the dinghy). As a colour capture this did not work. However a quick conversion to B/W and a tweak on the contrast and unsharp masking allowed salvage from an image i would have otherwise assigned to the trash. GIMP is a good (and free) alternative to Elements (but not quite full photoshop yet).

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Steve,

I like the composition on that one.
Where is it? and how did you shoot it from that angle - a helicopter?

Good advice on the B&W, I must try that one day myself
Then I'll be saying the same, no doubt.

Jack,

Your last one is a neat twist, literally; my eyes keep telling me the picture frame isn't square cornered!

Regards,

[Wirefox]

Thanks Dave

The bridge is the modern (1960's) road bridge over the Conwy estuary taken from the battlements of Edward I's Castell Conwy. In terms of civil engineering this location is hard to beat. You have Telfords suspension bridge, Stephenson's box rail bridge and the 60's road bridge all crossing the same part of the river with Edward Is castle guarding the lot. More contentious is the 1980's road tunnel that runs under the estuary to the west.