Path to Western Brooks Pond

[Melissa Groo]

Canon 5d Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS, taken at 24mm
ISO 100
1/125 sec
f/8.0
Handheld

Taken last month along the path to Western Brooks Pond, in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland. I now know I should have gone with a smaller fstop. I did do single image tone mapping in Photomatix and did some sharpening, levels and curves in CS3. No cropping.
Any comments and critiques greatly welcomed.
One thing I'm wondering--is it ok if the path is in the center? I know usually one should offset things, but I thought this might be an exception.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Melissa, Actually the walkway isn't exactly centered in the image but the fact that it's almost centered doesn't bother me in this case. Due to the angry sky and the empty terrain the image emits a mood which is appealing.
The tone mapping creates a softer look but I still see detail. The comp is also divided well(1/3rd-2/3rds). I might play around with it a bit on contrast and slight lightening. Not sure if that would have a great effect but worth exploring...

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks Dave. I'll try the contrast and lightening!

[denise ippolito]

Melissa, I love this. The tone-mapping adds some interest and the dramatic sky looks great. I think the center boardwalk works really well here.

[Melissa Groo]

Thank you Denise!

[Morkel Erasmus]

the road in the middle works well in images like this. nice use of tonemapping too...I do find myself wishing for a stronger foreground anchor

[Chris Hansen]

I like the effect and I like the centered walkway. It really works for this image. As a a matter of personal taste. Just mine mind you. I don't like the vignetted corners

God bless, chris

[Melissa Groo]

Yes, the 24-105mm has been doing a lot of vignetting on my landscape pics lately, it's making me nuts. I need to correct that in this,thanks.

[denise ippolito]

Melissa, Are you using the lens hood when you take the images?

[Melissa Groo]

Yes, I am! Is that the problem? Should I just have it off most of the time? Egads, I never thought of that.

[Robert Amoruso]

Melissa,

I never use lens hoods on my wide lenses. If shooting into the sun, better to try to block the lens flare with you hand, body or someone helping you. The Vignetting can be correct post-processing. Some do this ofr affect, though I rarely do but yours looks like the lens hood.

I really like this image. It has an appealing soft look to it thanks to the HDR tone-mapping. That look of soft calm is why the centering of the walk way works so well. You asked if that was the right choice and here it is, different like and perhaps not. I will always make multiple compositions in the field for consideration later. Here you could have done this one and then placed the walkway on the left and on the right.

Thanks for posting and looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Melissa,
Great advice given above! I am not as partial to the almost centered walkway.....so for me taking 1/2 of the space on the right and ten some off the bottom.....would make this stronger for me comp wise. I do think that if you had gone slightly higher with the camera too....getting more of the wonderful sky....but not sure if there was enough interest up there! Overall, I think you did very well with the tonemapping and a good job composing this too!

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks so much. I'll take off the hood from now on! Appreciate your comments and help.