Water Under the Bridge
by cyclist678

Comment by dr rick:
Greetings from the Critique Club

This photo nicely conveys the length and majesty of this bridge. The light has a great quality and nice color. The symmetric composition and horizontal format provide stability that is a good match for the subject. Lots of diagonal lines converging on the vanishing point make the photo dynamic. I really love the triangular negative shape of the water, and the choppiness gives the water a really interesting texture.

The major problem with this photo is the overall lack of sharpness. And there are three reasons for this. First is the wide aperture; going down just 1 stop would have helped, even at the risk of more color noise with a higher ISO (you wouldn't want a slower shutter speed here). Second, the whole process of converting a scene to pixels reduces sharpness, and you nearly always need to use some sharpening tool to add it back. (Unsharp Mask is the most common tool for this.) Third and most important, when using JPEG, always use the highest quality you can. Compression artifacts are the main source of fuzziness in this photo. They are most easily visible around the signs and car on the right side (magnify the image to see them more clearly), but they are prevalent in the water as well. If you use JPEG in your camera (instead of RAW), always choose the highest quality. And when you save photos for DPChallenge, choose the highest quality that keeps the size under the 150K limit (this photo is only 90K).

In an ideal world, the sky would have been more interesting here. Not a lot you can do about that, though. A polarizer might have helped, although it might also have made the water too dark.

Water Under the Bridge
by cyclist678

Comment by cutout:
make comments boring 6

Water Under the Bridge
by cyclist678

Comment by codfish:
Nice shot, I think the focus could have been a bit sharper.

Water Under the Bridge
by cyclist678

Comment by Retroesque:
This image lacks visual appeal. The sky is flat, the brightness really takes away from the waters beauty. Perhaps would have been better at another time of day.