Fall hike CC

Hooker771 · Oct 27, 2009

I went with the fam on a fall hike this weekend. Found a nice trail that was easy for a 2 year old (tough to do). We had a great time. I tried some long exposure shots of water without a tripod but balancing the camera on a rock. I think next time ill take the tripod to see if I can get a bit of a crisper background. Any other suggestions? Like is it possible to keep the shutter open too long? What is a good time for this type shot? All photos taken with Canon XS

1. Exposure:0.5Aperture:f/22.0Focal Length:21 mmExposure:-0.10

2. Exposure:0.2 sec (1/5)Aperture:f/20.0Focal Length:55 mmExposure:0.00ISO Speed:100

3. Exposure:0.8Aperture:f/32.0Focal Length:40 mmExposure:0.00ISO Speed:400

4. Exposure:0.004 sec (1/250)Aperture:f/8.0Focal Length:55 mmExposure:0.00ISO Speed:400

tirediron · Oct 27, 2009

C&C per req:

1. Nice idea and well composed, but with exposure issues. Long exposures can be tough to get right, especially when there are very bright and very dark areas in the image. Your best bet here would be to try the shot at a different time of day when the lighting was more even. An overcast day might work well. With respect to the time, it varies, but I find somewhere between .75 sec for very fast moving water to as much as four or five seconds for a slow stream. This example was shot at four seconds and was a fairly slow stream.

2. A very nice image, but again with too much deep shadow.

3. Much better exposure on this one, but in need of a slight perspective correction; it rather seems to be running down hill to image left.

4. Very nice; a classic fall image, and one which an off-camera strobe to illuminate the subjects would have taken from good to great. I think both #s 3 and 4 would both benefit from some slight curves/levels tweaks to bring out the greatest level of detail.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

Gaerek · Oct 27, 2009

I was going to offer my own C&C here, but tirediron said everything I would have said. Having said that, I really like the look of #2, it's probably my favorite.

Hooker771 · Oct 27, 2009

Thank you! What if I cropped number 1. I could pull the top down just to the top of the small "fall" going into the pool to eliminate the overexposed part above? I cant now, but may try later. As for #3 do you mean that I should of tileted the camera to run with the water landscape? Wouldnt that make the rest of the picture a weird angle? Or are you talking about cropping? I see what you are talking about but am confused as to how to correct it.

tirediron · Oct 27, 2009

Hooker771 said:
Thank you! What if I cropped number 1. I could pull the top down just to the top of the small "fall" going into the pool to eliminate the overexposed part above? I cant now, but may try later.

Definitely worth a try; that's the beauty of digital photography, the film is cheap!

Hooker771 said:
As for #3 do you mean that I should of tileted the camera to run with the water landscape? Wouldnt that make the rest of the picture a weird angle? Or are you talking about cropping? I see what you are talking about but am confused as to how to correct it.

Levelling is always best done when the picture is taken, but unless you're shooting with a tripod and have time to set up the shot perfectly, it often needs some tweaking in post. Any editing application (Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Paintshop Pro, GIMP, etc) has tools for leveling images. Most of the time it's a dedicated tool.

Hooker771 · Oct 27, 2009

I use lightroom 2.3 ill have to look into that. I just got that as well, so I have no idea what im doing. I can tweak colors, thats about it. If someone could "level" it for me to show me what im looking for it would be much appreciated.