Leon S Loc: Minnesota

Thought I'd try another entry for analysis. I would appreciate your comments.

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

Tough shot to get right. The exposure and focus is right on but too much going on in the background for me. A lower shooting angle with the sky as a background maybe a blurred background would be better.

Leon S Loc: Minnesota

Thanks for the comments. I would love to have been able to set up a tripod, but that is not allowed. I also thought of cropping a little tighter, but didn't want to lose her beautiful home. Its very hard to get a time when the background is not full of other people walking through. Thanks for the positive remarks.

djtravels Loc: Georgia boy now

Definitely a lower angle, but if the place is so busy you better take a 'body' guard.

Leon S Loc: Minnesota

Thanks, the next time I'm there, i'll try that and i'll try a f2.8 or a f1.8. I don't need a body guard, my cane works just fine.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

A lovely statue in a lovely setting but hard to photograph. You got it sharp, you didn't blow the whites, so you have plenty of data. But you've also got the problem of bright mid-day light and limitations on shooting strategies.If you get another visit, you may want to try various angles - from below, from front, up close for small details of your mermaid with blurred background. I like seeing the blue water and its ripple patterns but that robs you of the better angle where you could look up at her. Hard shot!

The white background with the little lines bothers me, I'd either crop or blur/darken it.

An idea to consider if you're an experimental sort of photographer: Because she is an art work, you could treat her photograph as art and try some artistic processing, such as some of the painting filters in Topaz or some of the soft filters in NIK. Other software probably has these offerings too. That would soften the effects of the lighting and the rather busy background.I think it would be pretty in that kind of version.

Leon S Loc: Minnesota

Thanks for the ideas. I just got done cropping the light part at the top of the picture off and didn't like the balance of the shot. I now remember why I didn't try a shot from a lower position. The white at the top is actually the side of the building and would have appeared in the picture if shot from a lower angle. I think the only cure would be if I were to take the shot from a low position inducing a heavy blur and copy stamp any offensive areas to match. Either way it would not be easy. I could post my crop, but I don't know if the rules allow it. Thanks for your comments.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I like the angle. It creates tension and I like shooting from the side which makes the front mysterious while preserving some modesty.

The problem I have with this picture is the overexposed background. The dynamic range from dark to light is just too much. I would mask off the statue and water and then darken the background. Lighten the statue a bit to make sure it stands out from the background and, finally, add just a little negative vignetting.

Leon S Loc: Minnesota

Thanks. As I learn more about processing, I will try your suggestions. I think what you suggesting requires using layers which is something that I haven't gotten into yet.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

No, you can't post other versions in this thread, not even crops :-( . However, if you wanted to start an interactive discussion about post processing possibilities including crops and other stuff, you could trot the pretty mermaid over to the pp forum section and get/submit versions to see what can be done. Some pretty interesting ideas can sometimes emerge over there. These two sections can supplement each other.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

You seem to have used a wide angle lens which is going to give you a lot of depth of field unless you open wide.

I am sure selected a viewpoint that gave you the least cluttered background. If so, there is not much hope for this one since there is simply not enough separation. Shooting from a lower or higher level would not have moved the background enough.

About all you can do with this statue is to zoom in (use a longer focal length, not a crop of this image) to isolate a part of the statue and reduce your DOF. Otherwise, just enjoy it in real life and look for something else not so close to the background.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Leon, if you are game, post this photo in the post-processing forum and I will edit it.

Leon S Loc: Minnesota

Thanks, its on its way.