advice need for beginner

[shua2162]

I took this pic this afternoon with some others, and I think this is the best I got. I took some color pics, and I think they are not good. As a beginner, I really need some advice.
Would it be better without the jungle on the right?

[Bill Boehme]

Welcome to POTN. I think that you will meet many helpful folks here who will be glad to help answer your questions.

The image that you posted has good composition, however, the exposure settings chosen by the camera are interesting and the result is under exposed -- I would say at lest 2 EV. It appears that you used full Auto mode to take the image along with a setting of -0.67 EV exposure compensation. I am not sure if it is the scene with lots of water and sky that confused the metering, but the camera gave you an interesting combination of high ISO speed, wide aperture (f/5.6), and extremely high shutter speed (1/5000 second). It is probably a good idea to cautiously trust the camera in full Auto … in fact, it would be advisable to abandon using Auto as soon as you gain more familiarity with using the other camera exposure modes.

I would start off by setting the exposure bias back to zero and then using something other than full Auto for the exposure. You may decide later that your camera needs a fixed amount of exposure compensation, but in most cases on Canon cameras, it probably doesn’t. I recommend using the Av mode as a good place to begin learning to use other modes (it is my preferred shooting mode). In Av, you set the ISO speed (I suggest using ISO 100 as long as there is enough light), you also choose the aperture (if you are not familiar with this, hopefully, somebody can suggest a good book -- I think that there is one by Bryan Peterson called Understanding Exposure that is good), and the camera's automatic exposure system will determine the necessary shutter speed.

One of the useful tools in evaluating exposure is the histogram. If you are not yet familiar with using histograms, that would be very worthwhile. Here is the histogram from your image.

255200

It shows that the image is very dark overall. A "normal" histogram (there isn't really any such thing, but you develop an intuition for what is and isn't good), will have more of a bell-shaped curve that peaks near the middle and tapers off at both sides.

[shua2162]

Thanks a lot.
I did set the exposure to negative 2 EV. Well, I didn't mean to do that, I set this exposure level yesterday for some reason and forgot to reset it. Shame on me.
This pic was taken under P model, and I set aperture myself, my problem is it's a little bit hard to see the pic clear under sunshine. So after I took the pic, I didn't know it's underexposed.

Thanks again. I'm sure I will learn a lot here.

[shua2162]

My second try. I modified the color a little with canon software, the histogram is still not good.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3135/2351410736_c742e6d028.jpg?v=0

[PhotosByCynthia]

I like the lines of the second photo, yet I think it's still somewhat underexposed. You might want to try an extended shutter time - say 3 seconds. If you wanted to get really fancy you could get one of those starburst filters which would make the lights on the posts sparkle. :)

[shua2162]

I like the lines of the second photo, yet I think it's still somewhat underexposed. You might want to try an extended shutter time - say 3 seconds. If you wanted to get really fancy you could get one of those starburst filters which would make the lights on the posts sparkle. :)

Thanks. I tried to be there earlier, so I could get a better exposure, but after waiting for my gf, I was late. And I don't have a tripods, I will try again either earlier or with a tripods. thanks.

[PhotosByCynthia]

If you're really still you can do 3 seconds handheld easily. I did it with this one.
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc37/PhotosByCynthia/8910_11x14a.jpg

[shua2162]

If you're really still you can do 3 seconds handheld easily. I did it with this one.


Cann't imagine that. Is there any secret of doing this or just practice. I cann't even hold my camera for a half second shot.

[Bill Boehme]

My second try. I modified the color a little with canon software, the histogram is still not good.

Shooting into the setting sun can be difficult. This would be a good candidate for an HDR image.

[russ_hillis]

Cann't imagine that. Is there any secret of doing this or just practice. I cann't even hold my camera for a half second shot.

Just a bit of a guess, but I know from shooting sports that the trick to steadiness is to relax rather than tense up when trying to be still. Use a little muscle strength as possible.

[Bill Boehme]

If you're really still you can do 3 seconds handheld easily...

Cann't imagine that. Is there any secret of doing this or just practice. I cann't even hold my camera for a half second shot.

Same here -- I have managed to get an occasional decent shot at around 1/13 second, but nothing longer -- maybe too much caffeine.;)

I just can't hardly imagine a 3 second exposure hand held. Wait ... I think that I see some motion blur in the image ... never mind ... it's the water moving.:)

[Flo]

Reading all about hand held shots..lol.ALL of mine are handheld.:confused: I have tripods.just never seem to use them......:o

[PhotosByCynthia]

Thanks! I like to use a tripod for these, but we were hiking in that area and it's not handy to carry a tripod as well. lol

Just practice, that's all it takes. Frame up your shot, take a deep breath, let it go, relax and shoot. :)

[shua2162]

I try to post my pics in one place, so I can see if I make any progress. Here are some new. C&C are very welcome.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3266/2394732930_8a16babe74.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3043/2394732362_07c2867549.jpg?v=0

[http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3148/2393900097_49e0af14ac.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3240/2393899595_42f57fc4d5.jpg?v=0

I don't know if there are still kind of underexpose, but I took these at sunset, and I tried to catch the feel of quiet and peace, so I felt a little bit underexposure worked for me. Let me know what do you think. Thanks.

[shua2162]

Don't know how to post a little bit larger pis. I upload my pics to flickr, and posted them here. Kind small.

[Bill Boehme]

Pointing the camera at the sun will always be problematic, especially on your third shot because it is going to completely throw off the exposure metering. What I would suggest is to point the camera at something that you think should be a middle shade of gray (so that it fills most of the image area and making sure that you don't have any direct sunlight hitting the lens) and taking an exposure reading. Next, switch to manual and apply those settings. Now, you can recompose with the sun in the image, but understand that the image will be completely blown in the vicinity of the sun. This would also be a good time to bracket your shot to see what level of exposure works the best.

If you want sunsets, I would suggest waiting until the sun is almost on the horizon or even slightly past sunset.

[russ_hillis]

You can also try using a polarizing filter to see if it will help the colours a bit.

[shua2162]

what about problem with composition. I sent the 4th pic to someone, and was told the composition was bad, no interesting point. What can I do, is that too many things in one pics, or it's just bad at all.