Sometime the perfect shot presents itself, and you sit there with your camera and take it, and you know that you've created something special.

This is one of those for me.

Featured in Ex-po-zure's Advanced Photography 101 Class.


1. Taken Outdoors (duh)

2. Weather conditions: Sunny day, clear blue skies, no clouds.

3. Time of Day: 3:52 PM

4. Equipment used: Camera, Canon Rebel XT. No tripod, no flash, no reflector.

5. Camera Settings: Manual, I always shoot Manual now that I've learned how to get what I want from it.
ISO Speed: 100 (I'll always use the lowest ISO possible, unless there's poor lighting or motion. Neither was the case, so I stuck with 100)
F Number: F/10.0 (Next I set my aperture. I wanted to get as much of the scene in focus. With models, I use a much lower F/stop, but with landscapes, I'll want to get the scene sharp. Especially here with the lines drawing your eyes into the background. So I wanted something about f/9 - f/13. As it turned out, this shot at f/10 turned out best.
Shutter Speed: 1/200 second (Since I set my aperture first, I needed to compensate with the shutter. Here I let the camera do most of the work, telling me when I had it right, and then I went back one step. The camera suggested 1/150, but I always go one step darker.)
Focal Length: 55 mm (This is the length that got everything I wanted in frame, and eliminated anything I hated)

6. Post processing: In Photoshop 7.0, I first used the clone tool to clean up the dust specks that were in the original, I was overdue for a camera cleaning and shooting against the bright sky made them show up against the clear sky. Then I adjusted the levels without altering the colors. I fixed the contrast and brightness so that I could eliminate the "haze" that is common in a lot of photos. Also, I like a strong backgrond, especially here with the bright land and sky, and the dark lines and tree. Finally, since none of the colors were really popping at me, I turned it B&W so that the colors do not detract from the focus which for me were the lines of planted crops. I loved the lines, and saw how the tree was breaking them up. Any interference in patterns like that always gets my eye. Overall, post processing took me 30 minutes.