[whitelotus9]

Attachment 80905

This is a photo I took on Saturday, January 15th of the original chapel of St. John's Episcopal Church. The chapel is still used every Sunday for their 8:00am Traditional Service. This photo is as taken by the camera (auto aperture, auto focus) without post processing beyond resizing for submittal. I would like to obtain suggestions and/or guidance how to improve this shot. I took several photos while at this chapel, this was the first one taken.

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Last edited by whitelotus9; 03-17-2012 at 04:37 PM.

[Sparkle]

The photo looks a bit tilted to the right. It may be because of being at 28 mm. You should include the EXIF data. If that is available in your camera. If the lights were on inside the church it would look better. The sidewalk is not needed. the top of the church should be it the photo. You may have to climb up onto something to avoid distortion if you tilt the camera.
Hope this helps. Beautiful trees.

[whitelotus9]

Here is one of the other photos I shot while at the chapel. This photo was originally shot with the camera rotated 90 degrees to capture the full front of the chapel. But I was standing too close to also include the beautiful old oak trees with their hanging moss.

Attachment 80942

The EXIF data is present in my copies of the photos. I'm not sure why it would not also be present in the uploaded files.

[Sparkle]

Those beautiful trees have to be included, IMO.

[juu]

Shoot from lower position (kneeling), and include less of the pavement (it adds nothing) - that way you can include more of the majestic trees. Shoot in better weather too - the overcast skies kill the colours.

[whitelotus9]

Attachment 82733

Attachment 82734

I revisited the Chapel today when the lighting was better. I wanted to post these two shots for comment.

[SpecialK]

Well, it's a difficult location for sure, but...the first one is underexposed, and the second set is overexposed. You need something in the middle :-) Also, they all seem to lean to the right.

If you crop off most of the asphalt at the bottom of the first one, it makes a pretty nice composition.

Personally, I would go wider and closer, and forget the trees if need be.

[whitelotus9]

The initial one was slightly slanted when examined with the grid in PSE. After that was brought to my attention (not to examine with PSE's grid, just that it was slanted), I made sure when taking the last two that I insured that the guide marks in my viewfinder were parallel with the vertical items on the chapel to make sure it wasn't slanted. One thing I might do it take a long level with me the next time I visit the chapel to make sure it's not leaning slightly...given its age, one never knows.

Given that those two vary stately oak trees have very large canopies, they do a very effective job of shading the front of the Chapel as well as their trunks and the ground in the area. I'm thinking that the overexposure was my flash firing to provide fill light because the camera (Pentax iST DL) called for it. I was shooting in Auto Mode using an SMC Pentax-FA 28-90mm lens set for
"A" on the aperature. The viewfinder indicated the scene was in focus so I squeezed the shutter release.

[SpecialK]

Both my bodies have a problem with the sensor/viewfinder alignment, so now it is almost natural for me to reach for the leveling tool in Elements.

[whitelotus9]

Both my bodies have a problem with the sensor/viewfinder alignment, so now it is almost natural for me to reach for the leveling tool in Elements.

I checked the alignment in the two recent shots using the grid in PSE to make sure things were straight before posting them. I would like to have more of a grid in my iST DL's viewfinder.

[Sagitta]

This is one of those scenes that almost screams a need for using HDR.