Suggestions Please

[mrclark321]

Hi

Could someone comment on this picture
This picture was taken on auto with a Rebel 350 XT.
Any suggestions for settings would be greatly appreciated.

Dan

[PaCiFiSt]

Nice shot - A little too dark for my likeing though, I prefer brighter

[johneric8]

thats one of those shots where you cant expect the bridge to look very good because of the bright sun behind it.. You should try pointing the camera at the bridge and exposing on that and then opening up about 2 stops of on your camera

[mrclark321]

Can you explain a little more...I am totaly new to photagraphy

Av, Tv which one to I use? or is it best to learn on just one setting and try to perfect on that?

Thanks again
Dan

[khtwo]

IMHO, it's not a good idea trying to show the detail of the bridge because actually there are not
much detail you can show. So I think the drawback of this picture is the time choosing. It should
be beautiful if you take the picture at dusk, when the sky is showing orange or red.

[Bob_A]

I remember the Bluewater Bridge from when I was a kid visiting Sarnia many years ago.

I like the composition, but the picture is dark because the light meter was fooled by the position of the sun. Also, as khtwo already mentioned, try taking the picture at sunset if you want a different look.

As I remember, the bridge made for a great scene in the summer when the sailboats were out.

Bob

[jukas]

Your main challenge in this photo is getting a correct exposure, and the biggest hurdle to overcoming this challenge is understanding the difference between what your eye can see, and what your camera can see.

Here is a brief breakdown of the comparison of tonal ranges between eyes, film, digital, etc :

Human Eye: 11 stops
B&W Film: 7 stops
E-6 Slide Film: 5 stops
Digital Camera: 4 stops

In your image above there is a drastic difference between foreground, midtone and highlight exposure which your camera just can't handle. This is why the foreground is dark, the bridge is a silhoutte and the sky is overexposed with blown areas around the sun.

There are a couple of options for how you could have shot this including:

A) Come back at a different time (i.e sunset)
B) Expose for the highlights and let the bridge and foreground fall to shadow
C) Expose for the foreground/bridge and blow out the highlights (not recommended)
D) Use a grad ND Filter to bring the exposure difference between foreground and sky into a range your camera can process.

Difficult exposure situations take a lot of practice and even when you think you have it down you can still mess it up (I was doing long exposures at the coast and accidentially blew out the highlights on a series). There is a book by Bryan Peterson I found very helpful. Amazon has it for about $20 which you can find Here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0817463003/qid=1112806703/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-7074459-0139348)

[mrclark321]

Thanks jukas, I ordered the the book from Amazon.ca, a little more Canadian but so be it. Now I have to find a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lense.

Dan