Learning About Composition

As lovely as this photo is, it’s just not very good. The symmetry of the image and its reflection on the water are nice, but the composition just isn’t great. I think it would have been much better if I had shot it in landscape and moved the treeline either up halfway between where it is now and the top, or down halfway between where it is now and the bottom. The clouds over the left of the image are also pretty heavy, too heavy on one side of the picture. I think I could have played with the exposure in Photoshop and maybe gotten it a little lighter/brighter/more exposed, but the overall colors are nice, and the image does convey the feeling of being out on the Tensaw River at sundown.  There’s no exif data on this because it was shot with my iphone.  Still, it’s a good enough shot to play around with in Photoshop or Gimp.