Day 1 Project

The project for Day 1 of the Better Landscapes in Just 7 Days tutorial is to:

"Find a landscape photo you've taken close to home, and decide how it can be made better. Then go back to the same location and shoot it again using your critique to take an improved image."

The photo I've chosen for this project is an urban landscape (The Hunger Strike Monument):


Here is my critique:
The good:
Well, there is not much good technically about this shot. It's not a bad shot, but the compositional errors distract from what I think could have been a decent photo.

The bad:
Exposure-wise this photo is underexposed. There is really no detail on the right-side of the histogram (the highlights). The colour balance is also off. The Free Derry Corner mural (that white mural on the left of the monument) should be, well, white. This shot was also taken in the early morning on an overcast day. Not the best conditions for producing a dramatic sky. Unfortunately for me, though, it's under these conditions I take most of my photos.

When it comes to the composition of this photo, I think it really falls down.
(1) I failed to notice an encroaching tree branch in the upper left corner.
(2) I didn't keep the horizon line straight. This was because I wanted to show the monument in relation to Free Derry Corner and was concentrating on keeping that even. The result was that in doing so I ended up with an uneven horizon.
(3) I didn't remove the distracting lamppost, even though I did notice it when taking the photo. I could just have easily changed my viewpoint as press the shutter button.
(4) I wanted the bushes in the foreground to provide a lead-in line to the monument, but there is just too much of it. It didn't work out as I intended.
(5) There is a dark patch in the lower left-hand corner (it's mud), that is very distracting. Again, shifting my viewpoint would have eliminated this.
(6) There isn't enough blank space on the right-hand side of the photo. The monument looks like it has been crowded in.
Overall, this photo also has a very cluttered background. Since the camera I took this photo with had no aperture control, the only way to eliminate these distractions would be to change my viewpoint.

Tomorrow I will show the results of my re-shoots.