Monterosso Magic

[luvaneezer]

A magical trip to Italy this April included time in the Cinque Terre villages. What glorious surroundings and incredible opportunities for photos. I enjoyed trying my hand at some landscape photos and realized that I have a world of things to learn about being able to capture this kind of outdoor beauty. As always, I am appreciative of all of your help, comments, suggestions - and look forward to learning and improving. What works here - what could be different/better?
Many thanks, Diane

CinqueTerre-6 by luvaneezer, on Flickr

Olympus OMD EM-1 14-150mm F4.0-5.6; f/11.0; 1/320; ISO 200

[GBO25]

Lovely shot Dianne. About the only thing that might improve it to me would be to have got the tops of the trees on the upper right.
The couple in the shot add that very nice extra bit of interest.

I was there a couple of years ago and we were on the railway station platform waiting to catch a train back to La Spezia when an announcement came over (in Italian of course) saying the next train through was an express and wouldn't stop. By the time someone translated the message and while we were standing about 3 feet from the edge of the platform out from the tunnel came one of those high speed trains at about 140mph. Whoosh!! didn't that wake us up.

[JBW]

You have taken a beautiful shot with superb dof and colour. There is for me one missing attribute, a something that draws my eyes. Perhaps a little enhancement on the staircase? the people? the gun emplacement?

[IzzieK]

I have nothing to nit about here..........wwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaa............beautiful shot, Diane...

[Shadowman]

Nicely done, the only thing different could be time of day.

[dje]

Nice shot Dianne of a very nice place. The water is just beautiful there.

This is probably just personal taste but I would reduce the exposure in pp by about 0.25 of a stop. I'm not saying the image is over-exposed but this will just give a small boost in contrast. Perhaps reduce the highlights a little too.

Dave

[ied]

Beautiful capture. I love the composition.

Irene

[bnnrcn]

Very nice image, beautiful place I would try reducing the highlights just a little bit to see how it works.

[luvaneezer]

Lovely shot Dianne. About the only thing that might improve it to me would be to have got the tops of the trees on the upper right.
The couple in the shot add that very nice extra bit of interest.

I was there a couple of years ago and we were on the railway station platform waiting to catch a train back to La Spezia when an announcement came over (in Italian of course) saying the next train through was an express and wouldn't stop. By the time someone translated the message and while we were standing about 3 feet from the edge of the platform out from the tunnel came one of those high speed trains at about 140mph. Whoosh!! didn't that wake us up.

Thank you, Graham, for your comments. I will see if I can expand the crop on this. I did like capturing the couple in this shot - I think it would be bland without them. Wonderful place - and surely an 'awakening' experience you had with the train!
Diane

[luvaneezer]

You have taken a beautiful shot with superb dof and colour. There is for me one missing attribute, a something that draws my eyes. Perhaps a little enhancement on the staircase? the people? the gun emplacement?

Brian - your suggestion/observation really hits something that was not quite right for me as well. I will experiment with that and appreciate your comments on the revisions! Thanks, Diane

[luvaneezer]

I have nothing to nit about here..........wwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaa............beautiful shot, Diane...

Thank you soooo much, Izzie! I loved Cinque Terre - truly a magical place. And, we were blessed with perfect weather!
Diane

[luvaneezer]

Nicely done, the only thing different could be time of day.

John - agreed :-) Wish I could have changed the time of day!
Diane

[luvaneezer]

Nice shot Dianne of a very nice place. The water is just beautiful there.

This is probably just personal taste but I would reduce the exposure in pp by about 0.25 of a stop. I'm not saying the image is over-exposed but this will just give a small boost in contrast. Perhaps reduce the highlights a little too.

Dave

Dave - I was amazed at how beautiful Cinque Terre is - the color of the water is almost unreal. I like your suggestion of dropping the exposure and highlights a tad. I'll give that a shot.
Diane

[luvaneezer]

Beautiful capture. I love the composition.

Irene

Thanks, Irene. I'm trying to learn about composition. I like this, too - but not sure exactly what makes it work. Any other comments about what makes this a good composition?
Diane

[luvaneezer]

Very nice image, beautiful place I would try reducing the highlights just a little bit to see how it works.

Hi Binnur - thanks for the suggestion. I'll incorporate that into some experimenting as see how that looks! It was such a wonderful place. So much beauty, it was difficult for me to figure out how to capture any of it.
Diane

[luvaneezer]

Experimented with the suggested changes: (1) dropped the exposure by about .25 (2) cropped to include trees in upper left (3) lightened path (4) highlights were down all the way so could not changed that (5) increased attention to the couple on the path (exposure, saturation, clarity).

Thoughts on these changes - better? worse? anything else to modify to improve?


Another thing - I like this composition - but cannot articulate why. Could anyone point out what works about this photo composition-wise?

Thanks so much for joining with me in playing with this photo - I so appreciate your observations and suggestions!

Revision-1

CinqueTerre-6A by luvaneezer, on Flickr

[dje]

Experimented with the suggested changes: (1) dropped the exposure by about .25 (2) cropped to include trees in upper left (3) lightened path (4) highlights were down all the way so could not changed that (5) increased attention to the couple on the path (exposure, saturation, clarity).

Thoughts on these changes - better? worse? anything else to modify to improve?


Another thing - I like this composition - but cannot articulate why. Could anyone point out what works about this photo composition-wise?

Thanks so much for joining with me in playing with this photo - I so appreciate your observations and suggestions!

Revision-1

CinqueTerre-6A by luvaneezer, on Flickr

Hi Diane

The changes you've made are all nicely subtle and in my view all add up to an improved image. Technical critique of composition is not my strong point but I think it works because of the mix of interesting elements in a beautiful setting. The people and the winding stairway definitely contribute to the strength of the composition.

Dave

[JBW]

Experimented with the suggested changes: (1) dropped the exposure by about .25 (2) cropped to include trees in upper left (3) lightened path (4) highlights were down all the way so could not changed that (5) increased attention to the couple on the path (exposure, saturation, clarity).

Thoughts on these changes - better? worse? anything else to modify to improve?


Another thing - I like this composition - but cannot articulate why. Could anyone point out what works about this photo composition-wise?

Thanks so much for joining with me in playing with this photo - I so appreciate your observations and suggestions!

Revision-1

CinqueTerre-6A by luvaneezer, on Flickr

Nicely done. No make that very nicely done.

The composition works for many reasons. The horizon is in the top third which gives the feeling of great distance and depth. Most people see from left to right and top to bottom. The cliff draws us in naturally and effectively. You have a strong but natural colour shift from one side of the shot to the other.

I have found it very helpful to become acquainted with the Renaissance masters who looked deeply into composition as they developed their painting styles. The same rules and techniques they developed can be transferred to photography.

Brian.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Diane . Your revision looks very nice. I like the composition because it conveys the feeling of serenity, freshness and happiness for me. I really wanted to be there when I saw the image for the first time and I thought that the couple in the image must be really happy to be there

[Barbara Ponder]

Lovely photo!