Please comment on these scenic photos

[ksasidhar]

I have recently started taking photos in aperture and shutter priority modes. I took some pictures at the beach and riverside recently. Comments regarding anything from composition to camera settings to picture quality will be very useful in my learning process. Please give your suggestions and comments for the attached pictures.

 

[john.margetts]

The first five are very dark with little actually to see. A picture, to be successful, has to tell me something and these do not.

The last two are much better even if I cannot see any evidence of a baby. In both, I would have the figure much further to the left so she is looking into the empty space rather than having that space behind her.

 

[ksasidhar]

Thanks for the reply John. But how would I indicate dawn or sunset while taking photos at large exposure?

Sent from my Moto G (4) using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[WesternGuy]

You would do your viewers a favour if you numbered your images, particularly when you post more than 1 or 2 of them. This makes it a lot easier to refer to an image by its number, rather than a reviewer having to flip back and forth to ensure they are commenting on the correct image. You have also posted a large number of images. If you consider that a good review takes from 2 to 4 minutes an image, then you are asking a lot of a reviewer. You would be better off posting only 2 or 3 images for review at any one time.

While I can't comment on any particular one, the horizon in the last 5 seems to be tilted to the left. This is easy to fix, but you need to fix this before posting the image. I also agree with John that the first 5 images are quite dark. As well, without knowing what the camera settings were, it is very difficult to comment on them. Also, you have not told us what sort of post-processing you have done to these images.

I am not sure what you mean by "large exposure". Sunset or sunrise pictures are usually composed to show the colours in the sky indicative of the reds and oranges associated with these types of pictures. These colours usually occur after the sun has set, rather than before, at least in my experience. If you Google "photographing sunrise and sunsets", I am sure you will find an immense amount of information and guidelines on this subject.

WesternGuy

 

[OGsPhotography]

Post less pictures. They havent loaded yet sorry dont care.

 

[OGsPhotography]

If the subject is the sun, well, try again I guess

 

[ksasidhar]

Thank for the comments. I am posting 3 of the images again. I will describe the details camera setting below each of the images. The only post processing I have done until now is to adjust the histogram levels.

Image 1

The image was shot using 18-105mm Nikon lens at focal length of 105mm. I set it in aperture priority mode with a setting of f/20. ISO was at 125. I used the pattern metering for this image. When I look at its histogram, I don't see any option of modifying the levels. How do I make it brighter?

Image 2

Modified

Original

This image was taken in shutter priority mode with exposure time of 1/2 sec and ISO 640. The focal length was 105mm. I used the pattern metering for this image. The above image is with post processing the histogram levels. The photo was taken about 20mins after the sunset down. Is the modified image better than the original? If so, is there a way to capture modified image directly from camera by adjusting the settings?

Image 3

This image was also taken at shutter priority mode with focal length of 18mm. The exposure time 1/1000 sec and ISO was set to 1000. I used spot metering for the image while setting the focus at sea before taking the snap. When I look at its histogram, the levels look filled on the brighter side. If anything, there are some dark levels missing from the histogram. However, both John and Westernguy seem to indicate the image as dark. How do I adjust the setting to make it better.

Thanks for all your valuable comments.

Regards,
Sasidhar

 

[OGsPhotography]

Ok, well, to be more specific. Whats the point? !

The palm tree is kinda cool i. #1. Besides that its just some bad photos of a lake and a roof. Why care?

 

[ksasidhar]

For image 1, idea was to capture horizon of morning sun behind the palm trees. The image was captured from a hotel room. I could not get different angle to avoid the roof.

For image 2, I wanted to capture the sunset along with the river. I was more to show the shadow land side in the river.

Image 3 was an attempt to capture sunrise while letting people realize the location to be beach.

Thank you,
Sasidhar

 

[WesternGuy]

Well, over all, I would think you need to do a lot of reading about composition.

#1. What's the subject - the roof, the palm trees, the sunset - there is too much stuff in this image and it is does nothing for me and really comes down to just being a snapshot. This image shows as being a jpg. Why are you shooting jpgs? You lose a significant amount of your image information if you are not shooting raw as the camera throws away a lot of information and leaves you with a jpg. Also, if you need a different angle, get out of the hotel room and get down on the beach.

#2 Again, this seems to be all about composition. You are trying to shoot a sunset, or at least the last part of it and you have this large land mass intruding into the picture - why? - it adds nothing to the image. I would much rather have seen an image of the sky and the water with the colours from the sunset, than something with a big land mass in it.

#3. The horizon is still tilted to the left. It may not be as dark as it first appeared to be, but the "piling up" of components of the histogram on the right suggests that some of the image is blown out and thus not recoverable. As with the first one, the histogram indicates that this one is a jpg image. See my previous comments. Why ISO 1000 and 1/1000 of second? Landscapes (seascapes, sunrises/sets, etc.) should be shot at as low an ISO as possible as this limits the amount of noise in the final image. I could go on...

You might want to have a look at a book by Bryan Peterson - https://www.amazon.com/Understandin...=1482132606&sr=8-1&keywords=peterson+exposure .

As I said before, you really need to do some reading and understanding about composition and the elements that go into making a good image as compared to a simple snapshot. Have a look here - Photography Composition Articles Library , perhaps you will find something here to help you.

As far as shooting raw vs jpeg, there are a lot of web pages around that discuss this reasons for shooting raw, this is one of them - From JPEG to RAW: A Beginners Guide to Start Shooting in RAW - The Easy Way - CHRISTINA GREVE .

WesternGuy

 

[ksasidhar]

Thanks for all your advices. Next time I will try to get better at composition before concentrating settings of camera.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

 

[KmH]

Post less pictures. They havent loaded yet sorry dont care.

Posting smaller image files lets the photos load faster.
For online display you can reduce the file size quite a bit without diminishing the quality of the photos much, if any.
Don't confuse file size with image size.

For detailed C&C post 1 photo at a time.
I too just moved on rather than wait for the photos to load.

The OP posted 7, un-numbered, photos.
I a person spent just 5 minutes looking closely at each photo, and typing detailed C&C for each photo, they would take 35 minutes to do so.
There are not many forum members willing to spend that much time.

 

[ksasidhar]

Dear Keith, Thanks for your message. I am posting the photos with reduced size. Hope you can view these images. Your comments will be of great help.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3