HODGE'S PARKby
mysticredComment: From the critique club:
My finish in this challenge did not do well. Beset with double vision I was unable to travel and so I did my shot around the corner from where I lived. My mistake was to present a 9th zone study. Too much of any zone, except 5 is boring. However, I took an image similar to yours and discarded it because of the snow in the front. The white is so stark that it creates an inteference with the rest of the view. It is better to reduce this white foreground more because the eye tires quickly.
The first piece of advise is that when shooting such a vast amount of real estate is to close the aperture. By employing say f 16 you then select to focus right at where the snow ends. You may also try for some of the bushes. Several foreground targets are available in this image and bringing back images with different focal targets makes the selection easier.
You must understand that this image is difficult to capture because of the stark white which occupies zones 9+. Your exposure gave the snow or 9th zone the preference because i see a lot of texture. Now, this will have the tendency to lose detail and clarity in the 4 and lower zones.
The white snow will tend to hog the metering sensor. So lets say, the reading is f 9.5 at 1/180. I know I need a smaller aperture. Go on aperture priority and move the f 9.5 to f 16. This reduces the speed accordinly in steps. Now, once at f16, say the speed is 1/50 I will then consider using 1/25 and 1/15. Of course you will need a tripod. It is this concept that rules the zone system. If you want to shoot for the snow, you did it. If you want to shoot for the darker areas then you need to over expose.
Outside of the focus the image is nice and well composed. Remember that scenes like these require a deep dof and that dof increases the more you close your lens.
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