Newbie on site looking for advice and pointers on how to improve.

Hi everybody, I took this Picture a few years ago on My Nikon D60, It was shot as a JPEG well before i ever knew how to do anything with Raw Files, and consequently has had not processing done other than a little sharpen.

I'm heading back on holiday to the same spot in a few weeks with my New D7000, and would love some pointers and or criticism from this picture so that I might be able to capture some better images this time.

Image Details:

Device: Nikon D60
Lens: VR 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus Mode: AF-A
AF-Area Mode: Dynamic
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:
Exposure
Aperture: F/3.5
Shutter Speed: 10s
Exposure Mode: Manual
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 200



Many Thanks Trevor

Hi Trevor,

The major problem I see with this shot is a color balance problem. Seems there is a light source that give a complete different hue than the other one. One is green the other is red.
By correcting this with post production (CS5, element or PSP), you could get rid of the red, or, go B & W.

Here is what I mean:





So the problem was not with the picture, but with the source of light itself.

Keep all your settings the same, except bump up the ISO to about 1200 to 1600 with your new D7000. Also, Marcel makes a good point, too, about the light source. Here's the biggest tip I could give you; keep practicing! Nice shot otherwise. I like the composition of it. Now it's just a question of "tuning" it up.

Personally I like the original color but that is the great thing about photography. There is no one right way. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Your EXIF data indicates a 10s exposure with the VR on. For an exposure that long you have to be tripod mounted (or mounted in some way to stabilize it). If that is the case turn the VR off, it's not needed. I would also crop down on the foreground to eliminate some of the empty space. If you are reshooting it, maybe use a 35mm focal length rather than 18mm. I don't think there is much you can do if you are faced with the same colors, red and green, dominating the shot. Hopefully that has changed since the last shot.

Wow! Thanks everybody for the comments and suggestions, I must say one of the things I liked about the original was the bright colours, but I can see how it is not to everybody's taste, and I was asking for ideas and comments, I must say I am quite fond of the black and white version that Marcel did, and thanks to fotojack and Joseph for the tips on the ISO settings and removing the VR!

The biggest issue I see here is a Rule of Thirds violation. I like to break rules, but this is one that should be followed any time there is a hard horizontal line running through the photograph.





I also happen to like the colors. In fact, I would add more pop to make them really stand out:

I agree with the comments about too much empty space and rule of thirds. So I'd crop the picture like this. I may also want to try with less shutter speed to reduce the amount of light reflected from the water.

I agree with Anthony, also what I would do is keep my ISO low and make the shutter speed longer to make the water look like glass, use an ND filter if need be to get the shutter speed slow, and of course a tripod. I did a similar shot at 20 sec, and I was very happy with it.