i cant fix this

[The_Traveler]

View attachment 72740

here is the the p.o.v im actually trying to take this pick from, crossing a over a waterfall and ravine. know why its so dark? I have it at iso 100 and f20 in the middle of the night. I cant get the light in this to save my life, least to any decent quailtiy. I jacked the dlight in this too by the way and the shadows, it really was that dark. But I had it there for a reason..

Remember the staircase above?
They must have like 100000000000000000000watt lights on that thing..

ISO 100 means a lot of light is needed.
f20 is a tiny, tiny aperture.
so you would need a very, very, very long exposure time.


You need to stop writing and read about the exposure triangle because it seems that haven't got that down yet.

View attachment 72756
15 second exposure f9 iso160 stair case blows out. Stairs not blown out were taken at f20 dropped to a 100 still on 15 sec. its on the timer.

I did manage a couple I liked at f10 but binging up the light the staircase still blows out. , really they are all pretty much not working. im going to get this though. Because im that irked.

read about dynamic range and you'll understand why bracketing shots is necessary.

 

[cheshirecat79]

To be honest, the shot isn't that appealing. I get the gist of what you're trying to present, but you have a ton of stuff in the way- power lines, light poles, random sources of light distributed through the composition, etc. It's not your fault- it's just a difficult shot to polish into what you want.

For many/most landscape and architecture shots, you need to use multiple exposures and blend/merge them to get a representation that's more natural (what your eye is actually seeing) or more visually palatable. Picasa isn't enough for this. You may be able to merge bracketed photos in ViewNX, but I would suggest installing the trial of Photomatix Pro instead.

Read up on bracketed exposure and HDR composting for architectural shots. Once you figure that out (process differs by camera, check your manual), take the pictures, and start processing them, (tutorial here), you can tone down the overwhelming light from the street lamps, bring out the church a bit more, keep the waterfall about the same as you have it, and play with bringing out the water in your shots via multiple pictures merged into one. You could do this with post-processing, but I don't think you're really at that level yet. Photomatix is pretty easy with the slider interface.

Lastly, perspective distortion is a leading issue for architectural photography. (look it up). A poster above corrected it for you, but you may want to read about it- how it happens, how to combat it, and how to correct it.

Good luck.

 

[astroNikon]

Don't worry about a perfect photo, because you might actually mention the powerlines going across the entire thing.

Can you try getting up close to the scene with a Wide Angle lens, in front of the power lines ?

In LR I started learning about the Shadow and other adjustment tools that you may want to investigate to help the brights and darks of this photo.

oh I could. im just using Picasso and view nx and want to shoot across the water fall. My biggest problem here, is I cant seem to do it. OR get this down. And I take this personally as if I am going to be worth a damn at this I should be able to do it. I don't give a crap about the shot, except for the fact I cant seem to do it. I manage to do it i'll smile, feel I accomplished what I wanted and I don't totally suck, then toss it out anyway. I know I cant fix the powerlines from where I want to take this from, so that really isn't even on the table for me.


doing stuff like this is good for me its like a test (which im failing so far)

An exercise. I get it. Last year I tried a shot which was in the bright sunlight, with a ton of very dark shadows in tree areas. Light was partially on a river. If you expose for the details in the shadows you blow out the bright area. If you expose for the bright areas the shadows are black.

You have bright lights, and dark areas. Sounds like it should be two photos merged right ?? ...

As Lew mentioned above, look into bracketing.


here's a quick guide to get you started
Bracketing explained: what you need to know about maximising detail | Digital Camera World

 

[bribrius]

Don't worry about a perfect photo, because you might actually mention the powerlines going across the entire thing.

Can you try getting up close to the scene with a Wide Angle lens, in front of the power lines ?

In LR I started learning about the Shadow and other adjustment tools that you may want to investigate to help the brights and darks of this photo.

oh I could. im just using Picasso and view nx and want to shoot across the water fall. My biggest problem here, is I cant seem to do it. OR get this down. And I take this personally as if I am going to be worth a damn at this I should be able to do it. I don't give a crap about the shot, except for the fact I cant seem to do it. I manage to do it i'll smile, feel I accomplished what I wanted and I don't totally suck, then toss it out anyway. I know I cant fix the powerlines from where I want to take this from, so that really isn't even on the table for me.


doing stuff like this is good for me its like a test (which im failing so far)

An exercise. I get it. Last year I tried a shot which was in the bright sunlight, with a ton of very dark shadows in tree areas. Light was partially on a river. If you expose for the details in the shadows you blow out the bright area. If you expose for the bright areas the shadows are black.

You have bright lights, and dark areas. Sounds like it should be two photos merged right ?? ...

As Lew mentioned above, look into bracketing.


here's a quick guide to get you started
Bracketing explained: what you need to know about maximising detail | Digital Camera World

pretty much. I can bracket but know nothing of compiling images... perhaps I have no choice but to learn to.

 

[astroNikon]

Sometimes you just have to learn something new

 

[bribrius]

Sometimes you just have to learn something new

i usually avoid processing like the plague. And yeah, if you could see the image i just made doing this with photomatrix.. nevermind, i dont even dare post it. Guessing this takes a lot of practice. it down right scary. :lmao:

 

[The_Traveler]

Sometimes you just have to learn something new

i usually avoid processing like the plague. And yeah, if you could see the image i just made doing this with photomatrix.. nevermind, i dont even dare post it. Guessing this takes a lot of practice. it down right scary. :lmao:

My estimation is that 60% of any decent image comes from the processing.
And to confirm that you have to look at the average picture from slide film and from digital images.

You should take a rest from expressing opinions and stuff some learning in your head.

 

[bribrius]

Sometimes you just have to learn something new

i usually avoid processing like the plague. And yeah, if you could see the image i just made doing this with photomatrix.. nevermind, i dont even dare post it. Guessing this takes a lot of practice. it down right scary. :lmao:

My estimation is that 60% of any decent image comes from the processing.
And to confirm that you have to look at the average picture from slide film and from digital images.

You should take a rest from expressing opinions and stuff some learning in your head.

yes teacher. you are correct. way too much time goofing off in class. im going to become a really good photographer. Just for my own personal reasons. And the world has enough goof offs. i've gotten a lot of compliments on my work lately. No school drop out here. And i decided this, and that is all there is too it. :thumbup:

 

[Designer]

..doing stuff like this is good for me its like a test (which im failing so far)

Don't be so hard on yourself. Seeing straight, level, and plumb is something that you can learn over time. I have always been around buildings, so it is second nature to me.

For someone who is not sure; look for something that SHOULD be level or plumb. Streets are almost never level, power poles sometimes lean, distant shorelines can be deceiving. If you find discrepancies between two verticals, for instance, then it is probably distortion. Hopefully you can find something in the middle of the frame that can be keyed off of to make it as straight as you can.

 

[Derrel]

i can't fix this....that title just totally makes me think of the old MC Hammer song!!! ... can't touch this!!!

<strong>

 

[astroNikon]

Next we'll have Popup Video rehashes ....

 

[bribrius]

View attachment 72859


okay. few observartions

a. i dont really know how to use this
b. the "natural look" this program wasnt really pulling off i tried that it was a no go
c. im not sure if i should blame the the program or the files i used, could be both
d. this program is entertaining, it gives plenty of options for making a photo surreal type, problem is i just wanted a better normal photo
e. im not sure if i will buy this or not, im wondering what else is out there, it could be too soon to make that judgement
f. But as of now, if i buy it im thinking for a toy, as im not really into the hdr thing. i just want to fix photos, but then, i dont really know how to use this properly either

but yea, i i did the one above, came out like a nice toy but i couldnt fix my original issue with this. it just wasnt happening i just made a crappy hdr.

which is fine, i could play with hdr for a while. i really just wanted to fix my photo though. could be user issue.

basically, what it comes down too, i think i could play with hdr, it is kind of cool. But i wanted the photo to look real and i was having trouble doing that with this program, which could be operator error. im not sure.

 

[snerd]

Don't feel alone. I too have put off learning about "bracketing." It's high time I opened the books too!

 

[bribrius]

Don't feel alone. I too have put off learning about "bracketing." It's high time I opened the books too!

i usually use bracketing doing hand held at slow shutter speeds trying to get a shot that isnt blurry and in questionable light, basically like continuous but with crappy lighting only hitting the shutter once and refusing to use a tripod. Think i spent a good portion of evening shooting handheld over the winter using bracketing (so cold my hands kept shaking) or even during the day (so cold my hands were shaking). And most people have them set so close together they are tards for using it anyway even when actually using it for the intended purpose. As they probably go home and frig with it in post and change it anyway. And even without bracketing ive spent times taking two or three shots of the same thing adjusting each time which basically is better than bracketing as that is just exposure.
but..
wtfdk

 

[bribrius]

..doing stuff like this is good for me its like a test (which im failing so far)

Don't be so hard on yourself. Seeing straight, level, and plumb is something that you can learn over time. I have always been around buildings, so it is second nature to me.

For someone who is not sure; look for something that SHOULD be level or plumb. Streets are almost never level, power poles sometimes lean, distant shorelines can be deceiving. If you find discrepancies between two verticals, for instance, then it is probably distortion. Hopefully you can find something in the middle of the frame that can be keyed off of to make it as straight as you can.

thanks for the advice. i also think im going to have to redo this shot at 5- quarter past five in the morning. sun up is at 5:30. Lights will still be on, sun wont be up yet but maybe just enough glow in the sky to bring the entire frame up a couple levels....The sun coming up in this would be coming from the left hand side of the frame. Parking lot should be near empty or empty too. Feel like its kind of cheating though. Then it isnt really a "night time" shot im just making it look like one. The lights are brite enough in the frame it isnt like im going to be losing out on stars in the sky because they weren't that visible to being with.