Aperture to make the amateur's results better, what next?

[Soocom1]

Ill get hammered on this.
but being next door in New Mexico I can attest to the problems of low contrast dessert shots.
for midday shooting, a UV filter is an almost must have, and then a ND or Polarizer may be in order.

Even putting on a colored filter or graduated filter will help.

But also consider this. High altitude (Phoenix for example) you have a much higher UV index and it DOES reflect in images.

Those shots look like they are either Phoenix or near Sierra Vista. Irregardless, midday shots can be done nicely, but you may have to play with the image post pro. to achieve the desired result.

 

[TWX]

Heh. I may have had a UV filter on the front of the lens simply to protect from dirt/dust. I'd bought a few back early on but had removed them because of the ghosting effect I was seeing in some conditions, but put 'em back on after a gentle cleaning when I figured dust/dirt would be worse than usual.

 

[Vtec44]

IMHO, once you're proficient with the technical aspect of photography then you should focus on the artistic aspect of photography. Beautiful photos are often because of the emotions they bring to the viewers.

 

[JBPhotog]

UV filters are of little actual use in modern day digital cameras since their sensitivity to UV is considerably lower than film. As a protective device, well that's a controversial topic.

What I noticed most about the desert photos is their lack of contrast. That has a lot to do with the time of day and the inherent characteristics of the desert, lots of muted mid-tones.

I'd start with a proper WB and then look at post processing, you'd be surprised what a simple curve adjustment can do to these.

 

[TWX]

IMHO, once you're proficient with the technical aspect of photography then you should focus on the artistic aspect of photography. Beautiful photos are often because of the emotions they bring to the viewers.

That's the thing, I'm technically-capable in some situations, but other situations still leave me stymied a bit. Making an exposure within the exposure-triangle is not the same making an exposure that really captures the vibrancy of the colors or captures enough light to reduce the effects of atmospheric haze.

In some ways I put so much attention on low-light shooting that I'm not sure what to do when it's bright out but contrast isn't great.

UV filters are of little actual use in modern day digital cameras since their sensitivity to UV is considerably lower than film. As a protective device, well that's a controversial topic.

What I noticed most about the desert photos is their lack of contrast. That has a lot to do with the time of day and the inherent characteristics of the desert, lots of muted mid-tones.

I'd start with a proper WB and then look at post processing, you'd be surprised what a simple curve adjustment can do to these.

I'll have to play with those photos. I've been shooting RAW+JPEG the whole time so I'll see what additional I can recover, or how much I can push contrast without it looking strange. The software I used on the mountain with the powerlines in the foreground was just GIMP, and I didn't even particularly go crazy with thresholds either.

 

[Soocom1]

UV filters are of little actual use in modern day digital cameras since their sensitivity to UV is considerably lower than film. As a protective device, well that's a controversial topic.

What I noticed most about the desert photos is their lack of contrast. That has a lot to do with the time of day and the inherent characteristics of the desert, lots of muted mid-tones.

I'd start with a proper WB and then look at post processing, you'd be surprised what a simple curve adjustment can do to these.

With respect to you, my experience has been different.
Yes you are correct that desert photos during midday can be highly problematic.
But with digicams i have still had great results with UV filters, polarizers, and ND filters.

Shooting B&W a yellow filter does wonders.
An older 1A sky filter also works as well even with digital.

But my technique sometimes includes the use of a slower shutter speed and tighter aperture.

It depends on the variations and no one set of rules are specific. Blank ground with lots o sand and no trees does this.
scrub brush and wide open are subject to the UV and reflective/refractive stray light.

 

[malling]

One more from this outing, basically straight out of the camera:

View attachment 187181 Canon EOS 77D, 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 at 35mm f/11 1/125th second ISO 125(?) scaled for forum

I might have too much sky in this shot. Might have benefited from some white balance control as well.

Don’t go out in the middle of the day, that would be a start. Go early or go late in the day eg. The golden hour or no more than 45 minutes after, in the middle of the day when the sun is high on the sky everything will burn out and you’ll also tend to get some very harsh shadows etc. The only thing to really counter such conditions is a 10 stop ND filter, but even that is a poor fix for choosing the wrong time of the day.

You will also avoid getting a sun burn so win/win

 

[TWX]

One more from this outing, basically straight out of the camera:

View attachment 187181 Canon EOS 77D, 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 at 35mm f/11 1/125th second ISO 125(?) scaled for forum

I might have too much sky in this shot. Might have benefited from some white balance control as well.

Don’t go out in the middle of the day, that would be a start. Go early or go late in the day eg. The golden hour or no more than 45 minutes after, in the middle of the day when the sun is high on the sky everything will burn out and you’ll also tend to get some very harsh shadows etc. The only thing to really counter such conditions is a 10 stop ND filter, but even that is a poor fix for choosing the wrong time of the day.

You will also avoid getting a sun burn so win/win

In this case, the photography was secondary to going four wheeling. At some point I may be able to do otherwise but for now it's likely to remain that way unfortunately.

I have thought about trying to get some Golden Hour city shots, I know where I can get up high (relative for where I live) but that'll have to be dependent on schedule.

 

[Derrel]

The light in your dessert shots is flat and....boring. the first two hours and the last two hours of every day will give you some direction of light.

The "quality" and the direction of the light is very important. Here you shot in low-quality, omnidirectional light....boring...earlier or later in the day you would have had some shadowing that would have shown us the shape of things. I don't mean for this to sound harsh oh, but it is the reality. When Shadows Fall straight down or nearly so, Landscapes often look quite flat.

 

[TWX]

No it's fine, I did ask. Being that this is a hobby I'll only have so much opportunity but those are the breaks.

 

[JBPhotog]

UV filters are of little actual use in modern day digital cameras since their sensitivity to UV is considerably lower than film. As a protective device, well that's a controversial topic.

What I noticed most about the desert photos is their lack of contrast. That has a lot to do with the time of day and the inherent characteristics of the desert, lots of muted mid-tones.

I'd start with a proper WB and then look at post processing, you'd be surprised what a simple curve adjustment can do to these.

With respect to you, my experience has been different.
Yes you are correct that desert photos during midday can be highly problematic.
But with digicams i have still had great results with UV filters, polarizers, and ND filters.

Shooting B&W a yellow filter does wonders.
An older 1A sky filter also works as well even with digital.

But my technique sometimes includes the use of a slower shutter speed and tighter aperture.

It depends on the variations and no one set of rules are specific. Blank ground with lots o sand and no trees does this.
scrub brush and wide open are subject to the UV and reflective/refractive stray light.

I am not arguing the use of other effect filters, specifically UV filters. From a technical point a digital sensor has literally no sensitivity to the UV spectrum thus a UV filter has zero effect since filtering out what the sensor can’t see is pointless. This is the reason many high end brands now offer NC (no colour)filters for the specific purpose of front element protection.

However, many UV(yellow tint)and Skylight(magenta tint) filters affect the digital captured image by the tint inherent in the filter. Personally I stopped using them when I converted to digital cameras.

 

[TWX]

And of course today we had rainstorms on and off all day, including actual fog up on the mountains in the middle of town including during intermittent sunny gaps in the sky cover, and I didn't have my camera with me.

 

[Derrel]

Intermittent sun through fog or gray clouds, fantastic...but no camera...iPhone to the rescue