• Autumn in Wtarevale
    Autumn in Wtarevale
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Hi Paul,

One thing that you start to learn after you have worn out a few cameras, is that the best photos are usually a distillation of a good idea. You start by seeing the potential for a photograph, but then you work the situation to emphasise the positive and eliminate the negative.

In this photograph I can see good potential, but I don’t feel that you have distilled the image down to its full potential. What do I mean? Well lets just start by having a look at the overall image. We have a lane with a nice “S” bend in it, golden leaves, a wagon laying against a tree and a bridge in the distance.

Now, remember what I said before about emphasising the positives and eliminating the negative? 

Two of the positives in this photo are that wagon and the bridge, but because you have used quite a wide lens, they have become rather small in the scene. And regarding the negatives, that small piece of fence on the left of the picture is not really contributing to the image.

To resolve all this, one of the simplest solutions is to move backwards two or three metres and use a slightly longer focal length. This simple technique can help increase the scale of the background while maintaining the scale of the foreground.

As for the bit of fence, there are two options here. One is to crop it out of the picture, but I feel that would take too much away from the picture. The other option though, is to clone out the fence. If you are using Photoshop, one simple technique is to use the Lasso tool (make sure the feather option is at zero) and then hit the Delete Key and choose the Content Aware Fill option. The computer should replace the fence with a leafy background – or at least get it close for you. 

I hope this is a help.

Cheers,

Anthony

 

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