Beginner needs help...

[Derrel]

I wasn't there, but I would guess at ISO 800 and at f/4 you could have boosted the speed from 1/60 second to 1/125 without any issue whatsoever, and maybe even hit 1/200 or so with slight underexposure. But perhaps this was later in the day than I think it was,and this was really a dark,dark sunset? Like I said, I was not there, but my gut feeling is that the dark area was slowing down the exposure suggestion at least one or two stops' worth.

If there is any kind of wind (and as I recall you said there was), it can be tough to keep things like grasses from blowing around in the wind, but sometimes shots can be made in-between windy gusts.

 

[Designer]

On the sunset shot. what should my settings have been? What should the aperture have been? With the ISO at 800 and the shutter speed a little higher like you mentioned.

If you're unsure of the exposure, try several shots while adjusting the exposure compensation. I think the default is 1/3 stop (?) but you can change that to be 1 stop per notch so you can add quite a bit of exposure compensation with a simple button press or two. This is called "bracketing" and is a fairly common practice when the photographer isn't quite sure of how he wants the image to turn out. Take a shot at whatever the meter is telling you, then boost the exposure by a stop or two and then decrease it by a similar amount. When you get home and you're on the computer, you can take your time and select the best shot.

 

[Lisa Chapman]

I wasn't there, but I would guess at ISO 800 and at f/4 you could have boosted the speed from 1/60 second to 1/125 without any issue whatsoever, and maybe even hit 1/200 or so with slight underexposure. But perhaps this was later in the day than I think it was,and this was really a dark,dark sunset? Like I said, I was not there, but my gut feeling is that the dark area was slowing down the exposure suggestion at least one or two stops' worth.

If there is any kind of wind (and as I recall you said there was), it can be tough to keep things like grasses from blowing around in the wind, but sometimes shots can be made in-between windy gusts.

It was a very dark sunset and it was very windy. I took my time on the shot itself, I just should have taken more time on the settings consideration and as the person below you said, used some bracketing. I think I missed an opportunity here because of the mixture of those things I neglected.

I held my breath before pressing the button to steady the shot and waited for the wind to slow as much as possible but, it was a steady breeze so, not much could be done. I sure wish I had of taken more control over the shutter speed on this shot. Thank you for the feedback!

 

[Lisa Chapman]

On the sunset shot. what should my settings have been? What should the aperture have been? With the ISO at 800 and the shutter speed a little higher like you mentioned.

If you're unsure of the exposure, try several shots while adjusting the exposure compensation. I think the default is 1/3 stop (?) but you can change that to be 1 stop per notch so you can add quite a bit of exposure compensation with a simple button press or two. This is called "bracketing" and is a fairly common practice when the photographer isn't quite sure of how he wants the image to turn out. Take a shot at whatever the meter is telling you, then boost the exposure by a stop or two and then decrease it by a similar amount. When you get home and you're on the computer, you can take your time and select the best shot.

I will try bracketing for future shots for sure. I was left disappointed with this one. Bummer. I also realized when I got home that I was shooting JPEG and not RAW like I have been up to now. I reset my camera because of the focus issues I was having just in case. I forgot to change back to RAW! Ugh!

 

[stapo49]

Lots of good advise here. Some cameras will allow you to set up the bracketing in the camera and once set up it will take as many shots and exposures as you have programmed.

I dont have the technical knowledge that some of the guys have here but some suggestions are to think about what sort of shot you want and plan ahead. If its sunsets scout out a good location that has interesting foreground features. Do a google search and see what time the sun is setting and set up before hand. If you want long exposure put your camera on a tripod etc.

If you are having trouble with the technicalities do a google search for "sunset photography technique" videos. I found a good one that Gordon Laing from Cameralabs did in relation to long exposure beach sunsets that helped me.

Or again there are a lot of fantastic photographers with a wealth of knowledge on these forums who can help you.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

 

[The_Traveler]

Small point.
There is not one best exposure for a scene.
One exposes to get the best image of the subject that you want with the composition you desire.
Your camera, with its built-in exposure meter and ability to do exposure compensation, gives you all the information and tools.
It is your knowledge and experience that tells you how shoot at that moment, how to deploy those tools.

 

[SquarePeg]

Just wanted to comment to take your time getting the basic stuff down pat and build on that. If not, it will make everything else harder than it needs to be. Sunsets/sunrises are not easy captures. The stunning landscape photos that you see online usually have not only been highly edited but they are sometimes composites of multiple images. Just my two cents but if I were you I would concentrate on learning your camera inside and out (it's amazing how many people never even read the manual), experiment with the exposure triangle to get a feel for what each adjustment will do and work on slowing down your process so you have time to think about the composition of each shot. It may seem tedious but you will soon have that moment when it clicks for you and then you will be able to use all of that knowledge to get those more complicated sunrise/sunset shots or that action shot of your child running toward you or that blurry background portrait.

Best advice I ever got: Before you hit the shutter, check your backgrounds for distractions. See if there is anything in the frame that you don't want and re-frame if you can. Make sure you haven't cut off anything important (top of a steeple, subject's feet, end of a branch).

 

[Donterg]

I'm an absolute beginner to the photography, I always thought I was good because my shots from a smartphone looked decent lol.
After finding this forum and reading a bit im completely overwhelmed by how many aspects there are to a photo. I've been saving some buy poe currency on my holiday trip and I'm saving more now to afford my first semiproffessional camera, although I don't even know what kind of price should I aim for. Plus obviously I assume you need to buy items like tripod etc for your camera so there is some more expenses to that..
anyways, I wanted to show appreciation to all of you who post on this forum because I think I will learn a lot here, unless I get too discouraged by how many things there are to learn...

 

[frank raney]

This image was taken basically right outside my house so if needed, I can re take it as many times as requested.
I shot it in Aperture priority as that is what everyone has told me to do. I was shooting manual but, I am obviously not ready for that yet. My images however in Aperture mode just don't seem to come out well and I have no idea why.
Composition obviously is bad and creativity is lacking but that's okay, what I am looking for here is improvement feedback, this shot is terrible, I know it. But why?
What am I doing wrong? How can I correct it? I know my camera is working properly, it's all user error.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
EXIF DATA:
Focal Length: 80mm
Shutter Speed: 1/125
Aperture: F/8
ISO: 500

Was shot RAW, I imported it into lightroom and exported as a JPEG. No other editing has been done.

What time of day was it. By your settings and the looks of the photo it was late evening. Your ISO may have been OK. Shutter speed was too fast or F stop not open enough. You did not get enough light for your photo. Aperture priority controls depth of feel how much is in focus. Shutter speed controls how long the shutters open therefore how much light gets to your sensor. When you taking a photo you want to expose to the right you want to adjust the shutter speed and F stop so that your expose your bar is slightly right.

 

[SquarePeg]

I'm an absolute beginner to the photography, I always thought I was good because my shots from a smartphone looked decent lol.
After finding this forum and reading a bit im completely overwhelmed by how many aspects there are to a photo. I've been saving some currency on my holiday trip and I'm saving more now to afford my first semiproffessional camera, although I don't even know what kind of price should I aim for. Plus obviously I assume you need to buy items like tripod etc for your camera so there is some more expenses to that..
anyways, I wanted to show appreciation to all of you who post on this forum because I think I will learn a lot here, unless I get too discouraged by how many things there are to learn...

Don't get discouraged. Take it slow and enjoy the process.

 

[ac12]

It looks like the hands/mittens are in focus, but not the eyes. With people, you generally want the eyes in focus even if that means other parts will be outside the DOF and will end up blurry.

Lisa,
What exposure mode are you in?
On my Nikon, "Auto" puts the autofocus into "closest subject" mode. This means whatever the camera detects as closest to it, will be what it focuses on. That could explain the closer glove in focus. As a result, I never use 'Auto' mode. Program lets ME select what I want the camera to focus on.

 

[vintagesnaps]

The exposure was off... sunset can be tricky because you're losing light, and a camera is recording light. Sometimes I frame lower to get the camera's meter to read the light hitting a subject/scene in front of me, instead of reading the light coming in from the background.

I usually just bracket shots when I'm shooting B&W film so I have negatives that aren't too dense and definitely not too thin (not enough there to get a decent print). So with the sun going down and the light keeps becoming less, that might be a time to take more than one photo, changing the f stop and/or shutter speed one stop each time. Maybe jot down what you did so you can look thru your photos and start seeing what worked best.

I would suggest practing holding the camera so you can become able to hold the camera steady at a 1/125 shutter speed. I usually don't go slower than 1/60 unless I get set and braced to hold the camera steady (which I don't do often).

You don't always have to take a picture, sometimes just look thru the viewfinder, make your eye move around to see the sides and corners and everything in the frame. I've been a photographer forever, so I got to the point I can see everything in the viewfinder and take it all in quickly (without consciously moving my eye aroujnd, that's what I did years ago starting out - other techniques may work better for you).

It takes lots of practice to be able to see the shot and get a good composition. That and learning how to get proper exposures will be I think the key things to learn.

 

[vintagesnaps]

And looking again, the photo's actually not bad, you could crop along the top edge - the whitish sky isn't adding much to your photo. If you go out and try it again, I'd suggest framing a little lower; if you brought the camera down a little just to the top of that cloud you could've gotten a bit more foreground and probably a better balance to your composition.

You could probably crop this one and brighten it up and improve it. It might be interesting to go out there again and walk around a little and look at the scene from different vantage points - notice how what you see in the viewfinder changes. You could try straight on or from one side or the other. Sometimes a step or two or a few can make a difference, or try scrunching down, changing the angle, see what you're getting - better or worse? Try reframing and see then what you get. Take more than one photo and look thru them later to see what looks best.

 

[dxqcanada]

Hmm, I wasn't expecting this thread to go on this far ... looks like some good back and forth conversation about taking good photographs.

My question on that for you is. If you had only those two lenses and you were going out, you could only take 1, which one would you take with you and why? Which would you leave behind and why?

If you really don't know what you are specifically taking pictures of ... I suggest taking all your lenses.
Once you get a feel for particular subjects you will find that you will "know" what lens you will tend to use for it.

Like when I go to the Zoo, I will only bring two lenses ... a long focal length zoom (outdoor animals) and a mid focal length with very wide aperture (indoor animals).
If I am going to Algonquin Park, then I will bring them all (well not ALL) as I know there will be all kinds of subjects ... including small mushrooms for my macro lens !!!

For now I suggest carrying both with your camera ... they shouldn't take up much space ... unlike some other people in this forum that have a gazillion lenses or ones that are bigger than their children

 

[Lisa Chapman]

It looks like the hands/mittens are in focus, but not the eyes. With people, you generally want the eyes in focus even if that means other parts will be outside the DOF and will end up blurry.

Lisa,
What exposure mode are you in?
On my Nikon, "Auto" puts the autofocus into "closest subject" mode. This means whatever the camera detects as closest to it, will be what it focuses on. That could explain the closer glove in focus. As a result, I never use 'Auto' mode. Program lets ME select what I want the camera to focus on.

I mostly shoot in Manual Mode but I took the sunset shot in Aperture priority.