Howdy Pardner!

by Peter Menard
(North Bay, Ontario, Canada)

Some old cabins for sale not far from me & I took this shot of the post just outside the front entrance.

I just like the look of the little figure attached to the post to welcome you.

Also I was trying to include the bell on the entrance gate in the foreground as well.


(For convenience, all links below open in new windows)
That's one fun lookin' fella ya got there!

Peter has clearly taken to heart the most important rule in photography – whenever you can, carry a camera! When you see something eye catching like this you'll be glad you brought it along.

So what is good, and not so good about this photo? Well, the subject itself is interesting. And it appears that there is a nice shiny bell in the foreground too. So Peter has spotted some interesting subject matter.

Unfortunately this is where we move onto the improvements . . . the bell first. It sits there not quite being part of the overall photo. The reason is that it is cut off, and out of focus.

Taking a photo like this, where there is distance between focal points, requires a small aperture in order to keep everything in focus. The amount of the scene in focus is called the depth of field. Click here to read more about how you can use your aperture to control depth of field. I feel that in this case keeping the bell in focus would have worked well.

There is also something creeping into the bottom left too – part of a picket fence, possibly? The point is that it just sits there. Not quite being part of the photo.

I think this shot would have been better if there were only one focal point, the bell? Or the Cowboy? Pick one, and work on that.

My final tips here would be in post processing. Load this up into your image editor, Peter; increase the contrast a little, then increase the saturation just a touch. I think you'll appreciate the difference.

Thanks for the submission Peter, and if you spot any more unusual objects, be sure to snap them, and send us the results!

Ed.
Want more tips? Get our recommended eBook.
Read a hands on review here