A river bend

by Ashim
(Kokata, India)

It is shot around 12:00 noon with a compact digital 2MP camera.

I like to capture the bend of a river passing through a village in Bengal (India).

The bend of the river is to reflect the turn around from rural to modern World.

I need suggestion about composition, angle of view and other critical things.


(for convenience links below open in new windows)
First of all, apologies for taking a while to come back to you about this one Ashim.

This is an interesting shot from the point of view of the photography tutorial section.

It's interesting because there are so many things that are right about the photo, and yet, somehow, there is something missing.

I always like to go through some of the good aspects on these pages, because it gives our site visitors ideas on how their own photography can improve.

So, here goes – the good stuff . . . First of all, the vantage point. Ashim has positioned himself on the apex of the curve of the river. This gives the photo some nice lines curving from the bottom corner right into the picture itself.

We call these "lead in lines" and they really help to give landscape photography some depth.

Something else good that also helps to give landscape photography some depth – foreground interest. Here Ashim has captured a tree on the right of the photo, with it's branches hanging low into the top of the picture.

Again, this is a good way to add depth to landscape photography.

So, Ashim has definitely done a lot right in capturing this photo. But I still have that nagging feeling that something is missing. A bit like a wide angle shot of Paris with the Eiffel Tower missing, or Sydney without the Harbour Bridge. Just doesn't work.

There are two things I think would really lift Ashim's picture.

The first is the colours. I realise there is not much that can be done about the muddy river, but it doesn't really add impact to the photo.

Imagine a bubbling stream in it's place and you're getting somewhere. Maybe there was such a stream nearby?

The colours are a bit 'blunt'. Adding some saturation using software could help and is worth a try.

It would also be worth taking the photo later in the day, to take advantage of the Golden Hour (see "Tip 2").

The second suggestion I have is the composition. The branches of the tree on the right sweep so low that they blend into the rest of the greenery.

I think a lower angle (crouch down low to take the photo, or even lie on the ground to take it) would have created a sky-filled gap between the tree and the ground, and a lower angle would have emphasised the bend in the river too.

Thanks for the submission Ashim, and I hope there are some useful photography tips here for you.

Ed.
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