Project Two - Scene

 

Title – Peaceful Peachtree City
Tags- Landscape, Peachtree City, Digital Photography Class

For the second assignment of creating a scene, I read the textbook, my Canon manual, and websites for suggestions on how to take a quality landscape picture.  There seems to be a fair bit of leeway into way denotes a quality landscape picture and there are definitely some creative decisions the photographer is able to make.  I purposely chose to frame the picture with the trees and have a sharp contrast on the foreground while softening the bridge.  This was the one area where my teammates made suggestions for improvement.  Two of them thought the bridge should be in sharp focus.  I think this is an area where there is no specific correct approach, but it is open to the photographer to choose the focus he/she wants. One suggestion from the Complete Digital Photography book was to remember the 1/3rd, 2/3rds rule.  One-third of the range of depth of field should be in front of your point of focus and two-thirds behind it.  That is why the bridge is in soft focus.  I still maintain that I like the soft focus of the bridge.   This particular assignment was to choose any camera setting except portrait and I chose landscape to experiment with to fulfill this assignment.

I worked with HP Media Smart and PicNik to add saturation and hue to the colors.  The one area where I would still like to improve is the top corner where there is extra sunlight.  I wish I could have toned that down, but every attempt I made did not work.  My PhotoShop Elements had not arrived by the time this assignment was due.  I plan on editing this photograph in the future with PhotoShop to see if I can soften that area at the top.

“Try to find a slice of that vista that is compelling” (Long, 266) was the idea behind this picture.  The entire area where I took this photograph is beautiful.  There is a creek, a dam, a bridge, beautiful boulders, and lots of vegetation.  I chose this little spot because I thought the tree and the plant framed the picture well.   The value of this assignment is the beauty that it conveys and the peaceful mood I achieve while looking at the photo.
This type of photo could be used in an educational setting for a lesson on perspective.  We could discuss how changing the focus to sharpening the bridge would change the perspective.  With great pieces of art, the perspective the artist uses sets the tone for the project.