Boathouse on Rydal Water

Rydal Water

A final set of shots from the trip taken at Rydal Water and “featuring” … The Boathouse. An exercise in composition.

I’d be interested in hearing which one you like best, and why?

Boathouse on Rydal Water

 

[EXIF: 1.6sec @ f/16; ISO 50; Sony ILCE-7R; Sony FE 24-105 F4 G OSS @ 63mm]

Rydal Water

 

[EXIF: 1.3sec @ f/15; ISO 50; Sony ILCE-7R; Sony FE 24-105 F4 G OSS @ 43mm]

Boathouse on Rydal Water

 

[EXIF: 0.8sec @ f/16; ISO 50; Sony ILCE-7R; Sony FE 24-105 F4 G OSS @ 42mm]

Boathouse on Rydal Water

 

The featured image [EXIF: 1.0sec @ f/16; ISO 50; Sony ILCE-7R; Sony FE 24-105 F4 G OSS @ 105mm]

You can see all of these images, and a few more on flickr

Lake District 2018

17 thoughts on “Rydal Water”

  1. Lovely photos. I think I like the second and fourth the best. I like second with the view if cottage through the trees. Like a ‘peekaboo ‘. Fourth with nd (?). Nice reflections.

    1. Thanks Bobbie, I didn’t use any filters as I recall. I probably should have used a polarizer, but it was drizzling and I couldn’t cope with extra glass!

  2. In terms of composition, I prefer the first of the boathouses, David. I like the way the curve of the water’s edge leads my eye from the stones round to the boathouse. However I am not so keen on the yellow colour. Number four is blue in comparison.
    Number four bothers me, because the boathouse is on the intersection of thirds, when it doesn’t need to be emphasised in that way. I like the autumn colours in the top left quarter, and would like to see more of them, even if raising the height of the image meant pushing the boathouse down towards the bottom right.

    1. Interesting Jim. All colours pretty well untouched. I’m not sure I agree with you about thirds and #4. I think it creates the focus for the picture. As far as #1 is concerned – I do agree with you and that was intentional.

      1. Colours untouched, unless maybe the white balance was set to auto.
        I think the boathouse would be the focus wherever it was, David. Putting it on the thirds makes it too prominent for me, and I’d like something to balance the composition. I think the ‘rule’ of thirds is only a guide, not to be applied too rigidly.

        1. We’ll have to beg to differ on that one then Jim. As you may have guessed – it’s my favourite!!!

          I always use AWB – preferring to (perhaps) change White Balance in post-processing, but usually the camera (using RAW) does a pretty good job of getting accurate and sympathetic colours.

          The simple processes and workflow I would tend to follow then are tweak exposure and contrast if necessary; then look at Highlights and Shadows and adjust if necessary; maybe Blacks and Whites if needed; then look finally at Colours – Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation. [Maybe Dehaze now I’m using Lightroom 7.]

          1. Do you have any comment on the change in colour between #1 here (Boathouse on Rydal Water in the album) and the one you took three minutes before (Rydal Water), David?

          2. OK Jim, I have regained control of Lightroom!! The main difference between the two shots is that the warmer image (and the one shot through the trees) had WB changed in post-production from AWB to Cloudy. Both had a bit of dehaze applied, but nothing much else.

          3. To be totally honest, not at the moment Jim! My photo hard disk has been in a state of backup and sync to Google Drive for a few days now, so I can’t access Lightroom to check it. My first guess would have been polarizer as one of them seems to show the rocks on the lake bottom much clearer than the other, but as I’ve already said that I didn’t use any filters, I suspect the answer is actually Dehaze. I’ll get back to you when I get my hard disk back!!!!!

  3. Hi David,
    I think my preference is the fourth, but it could be the second; with a little more foreground cropped!
    I’m loving your tour round some of my favourite places.

  4. Hi David, My joint favourites are nos 1 & 2 mainly because of the warmth of the colours. 3 & 4 are too “cold” for my liking. What Jim said about number 1 about the eye being led from the stones around the curve of the trees towards the boathouse is exactly what I would have said had he not got in first! Number 2 I really like because trees are “my thing”, although I would have cropped a little from the bottom of the picture. The waterfall is fab.

    1. Thanks Yvonne, I think #3 and #4 were taken when the weather had begun to close-in, hence the bluish tinge. I know that #2 was the first shot I took. I was walking along the track and I just saw the picture and although there is a school of thought that’s against “framing” pictures with trees, I don’t subscribe to that school! I don’t agree with you about the crop (sorry) as I would have lost the trunk of the tree coming in from the bottom right-hand corner – which is, and was, intended.

      What’s not obvious from #1 (look at the EXIF info) is that it was taken using a long shutter exposure (on a tripod obviously) to smooth the surface of the water.

      I think why I like #4 is that is sums up the location, and shoot, on that day, at that time. It wasn’t particularly cold, but it was a bit dismal.

  5. Hi
    Looking through he pictures of the boat house I kept thinking ‘Why all the distractions”; foreground rocks and trees and a little boathouse in the distance; a gap in some trees and a little boathouse in the distance; more rocks and weed in the foregroundand and a little boathouse in the distance and then finally a picture of the boathouse plain and simple, bravo

    1. Hi Stuart, pleased you’ve dropped by! Where do I start? If you just want a picture of a building, well I guess that’s what you want. Me … I’m trying to capture in the picture a little bit more. So, it’s not like the Sculpture Park where we last took photos together, although even there, I would try to make the background as interesting, or alternatively as least distracting, as possible. So, you look to things to frame, to draw the eye in, to give greater meaning to the scene. That’s all.

      Glad you like the last one though, it’s my favourite ?

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