Street Scene - Vernazza, Italy

[MackS]

Looking for opinions...

http://www.macksplace.com/Vacation/vernazzamainstreet_1_std.jpg

Just trying to improve my skills from taking ' nice snap-shot' to 'wow, good shot!' to eventually being able to sell a print (that's a long way off but a goal), so any feedback will be great, good or bad. I'm trying to break the habbit of 'point & shoot' and think about the comosition before pressing the button. This photo was taken around 2:30 PM and was shot (hand held) at: 17mm, 1/400 sec., f/4.5, ISO 400 Not the best time of day (light wise) to be photographing, but it was when I was there and I think it looks good.

Thanks!
-Mack

[saravrose]

really underexposed. atleast to my eyes.. maybe some adjustments in RAW or curves could bring some detail out?...

[Robert_Lay]

Dear Mack,

Using PSCS or PSCS2 Image->Adjustments->Shadows/Highlights, it is easy to obtain more detail in the shadow and mid-tones, thus giving a brighter and more vibrant image.

Insofar as your exposure and composition are concerned, I would say that you only overexposed a little and your composition is great.

In order to do much better with this scene, you could use "Merge to HDR" and combine two or more images taken on a tripod in order to compress the extreme dynamic range into the available digital space of 0 - 255.

[Broncobear]

Listen to Robert he has taught me lots :-)..

[MackS]

Thanks for the comments! I went back and adjusted the Shadows/Highlights and tweaked the curve. Here is the adjusted version:

http://www.macksplace.com/Vacation/vernazzamainstreet_1a_std.jpg

That made a big difference. Thanks!!
-Mack

[Wildewinds]

Initially I thought this would be an easy brightness/contrast fix with photoshop. However, it would require a bit more work to get it to look right. The problem with the photo is that you've got the blown out highlights in the background and a lot of underexposed un-contrasty stuff in the foreground.

In the future, you need to be aware of the wide dynamic range in something like this and either take multiple exposures to merge together in photoshop, or change the composition of the shot to eliminate the parts that make the range too wide for good exposure throughout.

[Mr B Snappy]

Once adjusted, very nice picture.

[MackS]

Thanks for the tip Wildewinds. I'll try to be more aware of the range next time. And I'll have to try using that multiple exposure setting on the camera and see how that works.

Thanks!!
-Mack