Constructive tutorial (2) - Alastair

Following on from my last post, I've been given a request from Alastair.

"Hey Ed!

I would love it if you could give this image a bit of a critique and edit (if needs be). I'm very happy with it although not completely pleased with the tree on the right but I think overall it's a good photograph and had a particular mood to it. What do you think?"

















It's a pretty landscape. This small version above doesn't quite do it justice. A larger version is available if you click on the image. What works here is a well captured sky that's filled with interest. The cloud formations as well as the distant horizon bring lots of promise to this image. It's not all good news though - we have a situation completely the opposite to the last tutorial with Thomas' image - we have too much contrast here. There is a large dynamic range between the sky and the foreground; this accounts for the dark and underexposured trees. But there's no need to despair! Underexposure is easier to correct than overexposure in post-processing, so all isn't lost. I'll talk through what we can do to rescue much of the detail in the video. The other issue we have, and Alastair has identified himself, is the composition. The trees aren't quite placed "perfectly" to be pleasing on the eye. Again we can remedy this, and I'll talk a little about some fundamentals in composition in the video.

Finally there isn't an immediately obvious focal point in this photo. The peak lies close to centre, but is marginally overexposed and blends in with the clouds; we have the dark underexposed trees in the foreground, but they don't act as leading lines into the image. I found that my eye wandered across the image. But again we can remedy this, and the other two issues mentioned:


















I've used the construct of the golden mean as well as a natural frame with the dark trees and clouds. This should give more lead into the frame and not let our eyes wander far off. What we've framed is that peak and all the depth behind it. We've also reclaimed a bit of the foreground and added even more drama to an exciting sky.

Here's the video (in two parts) that talks you through my analysis and what I've done.






Once again, this is only my interpretation of how the image should be. I hope I've explained the concepts behind what I've done and if there are questions, please post them in the comments section at the end of this.

I'll finish off with a little in-camera technique. I haven't a clue how Alastair focused for this image - if it were focused at infinity at the peak, that wouldn't be unexpected. However if you're exploring great DoF whilst retaining sharpness, there is the hyperfocal method. You focus one third of the way into the frame using a small aperture, f/11-16. This is because DoF extends two thirds beyond the point of focus. This should achieve a greater DoF and sharper image than just focusing at infinity.

Many thanks to Alastair for providing us with a great image to learn from.