Is this upgrade worth it? (Canon)

[Overread]

Aperture priority is probably the most widely used mode these days. If you use exposure compensation and review the histogram it can do very well for you. Indeed in some areas its superior to manual mode (eg shifting light and action situations - since the camera can keep up with the changing light far faster than the user can).

For landscapes though manual mode can be very useful; the scene isn't (typically) going anywhere so you've got time. Plus proper use of it means you can do things like bracket shots for merging into HDR or mess around with the settings to get an exposure you want without having any subtle shifting in the lighting messing things up (ergo without the camera changing settings)



Edit 0 also note that most home computer screens are oftne set to be high brightness and high contrast by default. You can get screen calibrators (such as the Spyder or Colour Monkey) which will clip onto the screen and will then balance the output to be a fixed calibrated state.
Screens also drift naturally over time so calibration is a good thing to do every few weeks or so.
The idea here is that it gives you a known working start point for your screen that is always the same.

 

[stk]

I probably went a bit too far, but at least you can see that there is some life in your photos.

 

[Overread]

Stk - good work though might help the OP more if you go through (in brief) what methods you used to get that extra performance out of the photos. Even just a rough run through of what adjustments were made can really help them get an idea of the workflow that you used.

 

[stk]

Well, I could try...

Step 1:
* leveling the horizon
* cropping

Step 2:
* adjusting the exposure. For your pictures it was mainly raising the shadows, adding a bit contrast and setting white and black points.

Step 3:
* adding a whole lot of clarity, vibrance and saturation

Step 4:
* playing around with curves, basically to increase contrast without to much clipping

Step 5:
* adding some sharpness with some masking

Step 6:
* add a slight vignette

Step 7:
* adjust the blue primary saturation slider way up

Step 8:
* adjust the temperature to liking

Step 9:
* play around with graduated and radial filters to add som extra attention to specific areas

Step 10:
* last adjustments to the overall exposure

Tip: To get a head start use the auto button. In the newest version of Lightroom it's really doing a good job.

 

[Thalion]

Well, that's something else indeed. I was feeling inspired and went by the mall to buy me a book about Lightroom editing (yes, I know the internet has loads and loads, but I like books lol), but I was gutted to see that not one bookstore had any books about photography or editing.

At least it means I can spend hours practicing in Lightroom, waiting for some daylight to be available for photographing.

 

[ac12]

Another thing is you need to understand how the camera meters and exposes the scene.
There WILL be many times when the meter is flat out wrong. Like the pix of the small island with the trees.
You need to learn about the different metering modes; evaluative, center weight, and partial. And when to use each. Read the manual to learn about them.
Then learn to use the exposure compensation (EC), when you want to adjust beyond what the meter will do. EC can be used to push the histogram to the right or left.

When you go out shooting, try the different metering modes, to see how it changes the exposure. Then try to figure out why the exposure changed for each mode. Once you figure out why, you will be able to better select the appropriate metering mode for a scene.
In the extreme, you may have to go to full manual, so YOU have control over the exposure.

Now go out and shoot.

 

[Thalion]

So I've been out doing my homework. And my eyes have been opened! (As well as my shutter - for a considerable longer time than the camera suggested )

A few words about the conditions; I live north of the polar circle, so there's only a couple of hours of daylight this time og year - and no sun. Today is also cloudy. On the plus side; that means an even, soft light sort of similar to my last photos. Now, already at the beginning I saw how my camera suggested underexposing, and as the daylight faded and I had to let in more light it became rather extreme. For each photo I took one with the camera's suggested shuttertime, and a few where I aimed for the right side of the histogram. I kept aperture and ISO the same for each motive.

Following are two examples of the finished photos. I might have overdone the editing a little, but I was excited lol.

The first one is shot at f/5.0 ISO-800 18mm 1/50 sec - my camera suggested 1/160 sec
The second one f/4.5 ISO-800 43mm 1/50 sec - my camera suggested 1/200 sec

I think they look bright, but Lightroom didn't show them as overexposed. Maybe it's my (cheap) screen.

I wish to thank you all again for your input. I really look forwards to learn even more now. And as for my original question; I will wait until I can afford a better ca,era than the 750d. Meanwhile I'll practice more on this one. But count on me to ask for more advice.

 

[Overread]

Cheap screens can be a pain, if you change your viewing angle the contrast and brightness and even colours will change on flatscreen. We never had this problem with the bigbox CRT screens (in fact in all things barring size the old CRT were pretty much superior - flatscreens were just snazzy and smaller).

You can get higher end flatscreens without those issues, though they can cost. A simple calibrator (spydr or colour monkey) can resolve at least the base brightness and contrast