Technical > Digital Imaging > [CritEditY] Help please

[CritEditY] Help please

I think it's overall too yellow, so I adjusted it a bit:

reply to SueS

reply to SueS

reply to SueS

I agree that the sky is a bit bland, but the canoe works as is. I do find the tree on the left a bit distracting, but I think cropping it would throw the rest of the picture off balance.

reply to SueS
I'd say the biggest mistake, which was not yours really, was the time of day the photo was taken. I see a good use of the rule of thirds, a subject, a skyline, etc, etc.. The trees seem bland 'not your fault, the sky seems bland, again, not your fault'.. What you could have done? Shot it closer in. Make the canoeist (aka; the subject) larger with a smaller portion of the background and sky.

Also, Was the image bumped up in shadows because it was underexposed?

Either way, don't kill yourself over it.

reply to SueS
Thanks, all the replies are very helpful. I pulled in by the lake and saw the canoes and quickly grabbed the camera. I only had time to set the camera settings and check to see if I would be able to get some sort of composition, but I did not know exactly where I wanted the canoe in the photo, so I got two shots, one farther to the left by the clump of trees and this one. I did not know how to make the sky more interesting, and was not sure how to darken the light water at the bottom. I also do not know how to do the lighting to make something like the canoe stand out in a photo. All comments are very helpful for me and I appreciate them good or bad. Seems other people can see things I miss.

Forgot to mention this was not underexposed.

reply to SueS

It was shot at 7:15 PM, hardly mid-day. I didn't even get in the car till 7:00 PM. I like your crop, but at the time I thought I needed the trees on the left. I just don't get many opportunities for landscape shots here, so not much practice.

I suspected it was late afternoon but, it might as well have been mid-day because the light is/was bad.. If you have too, drop the ISO, decrease the aperture and maybe increase the exposure. Though, clearly the subject is the canoeist so, don't confuse the subjects in my opinion. Just know that tight crops are perfectly fine for landscape shots. Wide-angle will often loose detail in the background and muddle the foreground if it's too far away, as is the case in this shot.

Like I said before, I certainly wouldn't kill myself over it. It's just one of many more to come I'm sure

Thanks for the help! I think because of not much time to react, I was making sure I was getting the shutter speed fast enough to stop the canoe. Maybe it didn't need to be 1/400?

it's all relevant. 1/400th only means something when all else is known..

You may have needed 1/400th just to stop camera shake and everything else needs to fall into place because of that.. so then, what kind of shot can you take if you need the shutter speed to keep the image sharp? Well, then you're definitely needing to open up the aperture or increasing the ISO , thus losing sharpness.. Give and take...

So, what is the EXIF data?

All EXIF is there with my original post.

reply to SueS
I see you edited the original post..

So, f6.3 is too narrow a FOV at what should have been either HyperFocal or simply Infinity - My guess is f11 through f16 would have cut it nicely. Slow the shutter to about 1/125 or so, maybe even 1/60th with ISO about 200, maybe 100.

f6.3 is for when you want to separate the subject at moderate distances, that doesn't seem the intention of this shot. Am I right?

To elaborate - with a decent lens, f22 at hyperfocal will capture everything in the scene perfectly sharp. From there you decide how to open the aperture or increase the ISO to capture the shot you need. If you want the water ripples, increase the iso slightly, if you want more exposure and still keep the canoe still-ish, lengthen the shutter some.. experiment..

My guess for this shot..

ISO 100, F16, 1/60th - 1/25th

ISO 100, f11, 1/125th - 1/60th

Focal length, 100 - 300mm, likely 200mm on the nose judging by your 70mm shot.

That canoe was not just sitting there, it was moving right along. I thought I needed a fast shutter to stop it, maybe I didn't. In the light I had there was no way I could have used f/16.

Well - you decide for yourself.. Think about it..

The canoe is traveling, yet VERY slowly. The trees and water are moving too, again very slowly.. I honestly think that ISO 100 -200 at f11-16 at between 1/25 and 1/125 would have preserved the subject while showing motion without losing sharpness. Though, the only way to know for sure is to have been there and tried it..

If your camera has a 'user' setting - I suggest thinking ahead and setting the camera up for a shot like this, then take one in auto, the switch to user mode and shoot it again. See the difference and then tweak your user mode settings..

Taking the same shot with different settings is really the only way to know. My settings may work for me because I might be able to pan the canoe, or even pan towards me grabbing the edges of the ripples, you may not - Then again, you might be better than me at it and can track that canoe while exposing a bit longer with an even smaller aperture.. What I can do and what you can do is only separated by trying

reply to SueS

reply to Rogue
Thanks, I will certainly try different things.