2 problems, C&C and 1 question

[Rudha]

hi i am having some problems with sharpness in images and exposure..i want to know if it's poor focus/handling or something else....

f-stop: f/11
Shutter speed: 200
the picture is not that sharp even the closer stuff why is that ? and is there too much clutter in this pic?

f-stop: f/10
shutter speed: 160
focal length: 24 mm
the sky here is really bright i can't get it to correctly expose without darkening the whole scene (blown highlights?) what do i do?

C&C

C&C

oh the question....i took 493 pictures in 2 days and minus 20 pictures that were just random clicks i got around 30~40 pictures that are good is this good or should i just donate my camera?

 

[Sherman Banks]

First bit of advice: Shoot in better lighting. It's going to be impossible to properly expose a photo with such extremes. The light you get in the middle of the day produces harsh lighting and dark shadows, both of which are a bad combo for a good picture. Try your luck in early morning or in the evening and you'll see it is easier to get a good exposure. Colors look better than anyways.

My other advice would be to lower your aperture and isolate your subject. When you have a shot at f11, more things are going to be in focus and when a scene is busy like your first, it's hard to tell where the focal point is. Isolate your subject with a shallow DOF and you'll see your photo sharpen up just based on it's surroundings.

 

[Rudha]

First bit of advice: Shoot in better lighting. It's going to be impossible to properly expose a photo with such extremes. The light you get in the middle of the day produces harsh lighting and dark shadows, both of which are a bad combo for a good picture. Try your luck in early morning or in the evening and you'll see it is easier to get a good exposure. Colors look better than anyways.

My other advice would be to lower your aperture and isolate your subject. When you have a shot at f11, more things are going to be in focus and when a scene is busy like your first, it's hard to tell where the focal point is. Isolate your subject with a shallow DOF and you'll see your photo sharpen up just based on it's surroundings.

thanks for the advice.... until now i almost burned my sensor with mid-day pictures...lol

 

[Big Mike]

The sharpness looks OK...but it's hard to judge with resized JPEGs on the web. There are methods of post processing that can add some 'pop' and sharpness...maybe that will give you what you want...but they don't look too bad to me.

The first answer hit the nail on the head in terms of your exposure problem. Your scene is just too contrasting for your camera to capture it all at once. If you expose for the brights, the darks are too dark. If you expose for the darks, the highlights are blown out. This has been a problem for photographers since day one. The simple answer is to choose what is most important and expose for that.

There are ways to expand your 'dynamic range'. You could use graduated filters to bring down the highlight areas, you could selectively edit the different areas or you could take multiple exposures and combine them with software.

 

[d40bby]

Was there water or something on your lens in the third pic? It looks like there was something in the top left corner of the photo...that's the one thing that bothered me right away because I've seen the same thing on some of my shots and it was from water droplets

 

[Photoadder]

This cat smoke something? ;-)

 

[Rudha]

This cat smoke something? ;-)

hahaha...lol i think it must have all the time i was shooting it looked baked:er:

 

[Rudha]

Was there water or something on your lens in the third pic? It looks like there was something in the top left corner of the photo...that's the one thing that bothered me right away because I've seen the same thing on some of my shots and it was from water droplets

yeah it was drizzling lightly

 

[d40bby]

understood...and I LOL'd at the cat too

 

[nikonpreap]

to avoid blown skies.. use a ND filter

 

[Ron Evers]

In my opinion, the first three pics have too much foreground in addition to other comments provided here.

 

[Sodak]

#1. Looks about as sharp as you're going to get with the ap. The ground seems just a tad sharper than the leaves, was it breezy?

#2. As mentioned, it's beyond any camera's ability to get the right exposure on everything here. Definitely a job for Post-Process Man! Or HDR-man. Or woman.

#4. Love the expression on the cat, but the bike tire and garbage don't make a great background.

 

[bigtwinky]

For the over-exposed sky issue, you can take 2 pictures, one exposing for the dark, one for the light, and then use some post processing to merge the two. As mentionned, you can also use filters. But its a common problem when in high contrasting areas like that.

I'm not sure if exposing for the sky and then using a flash to bright up the foreground would work, worth a try.

A closer crop/zoom on the cats face alone would of been great. Too much clutter in the picture me thinks