A few pics

Here are a few pics i took today. None of them have been post processed or anything. Please let me know what i should do better and what i could do in CS2 to make these pics look better.

01

Anyone?

The window is blown out completely in #1, but I think it has to be that way in order to preserve the mood of the scene. There are 3 main objects, and that makes for a good composition here. I think this image stands on its own with no help from PS needed.

In #2 the composition does not seem to work as well. I think it's because the primary object, the chair is too centered, and that leaves the glass on the floor and the box of junk as just unnecessary intrusions to an otherwise simple composition. Perhaps cropping out the box of junk (take off the entire right hand 20% of the image) would help the composition.

In #3 the left hand 1/3rd of the picture is just dragging down the composition. I would say that cropping that out and making it a portrait format instead of a landscape format has some promise - however, it's still just a power pole with some wires, and you can't get too excited about that. Also note that this image is rather dull and of limited tonal range (considerably underexposed). You could give it much more impact by extending the tonal range and increasing the overall contrast using Image->Adjustments->Levels.

Thank you

What exectly does that mean if an image is underexposed or overexposed?

Also do you have any idea why these pictures came out alittle grainy?

basically not enough light or too much light...you can better control your exposure by your camera settings if you have an slr...

#1) your window is overexposed...a couple of things could have been done to get a good shot, not getting the window straight away like that is one of them

#2) I'm not sure what your taking a picture here...the chair, the wall, the floor or the clutter?

#3) its not bad but again if your using an slr you can probably adjust the settings to make the pole pop more, you are crooked...the subject isn't really that appealing.

When you take shots, ask yourself what it is you're trying to capture. this is something I generally do by habit.

A couple of books that can help are from Bryan Peterson.

Understanding Exposure (which I read and is excellent)
Learning to see creatively ( I haven't read because I never thought I needed to but from what I heard it helps people create a bit of an eye)

best of luck to you.

Allow me to elaborate a bit on the subject of under and over exposure.

Yes, it is certainly true that too little light or too much light on the scene can lead to an over or under exposure. Since we cannot, in general, change the light in a scene (unless you have control over the source of light), it is necessary to adjust the lens opening and/or adjust the time the shutter is open in order to control how much of that light gets to the sensor - that's where the recorded image gets its light, from the combination of how big the aperture opening is and how long the shutter stays open.

So, since we cannot control the amount of light in the scene, in general, we have to control the aperture and shutter speed. The light meter in the camera can do that job automatically, but it is pretty dumb and is subject to many effects which may also lead to over or underexposure. Once you can see that the image in playback is over or under exposed, it is necessary to apply a compensation or offset that corrects or compensates for the problems in the auto exposure circuitry (and then re-shoot the scene).

There is a great deal of subjectivity involved in the judgement of whether a picture is over or under exposed. However, for purposes of this discussion we can simply say that when the brightest highlight in the scene is exposed to a digital value of 255, that is the safest exposure. It's called "exposing to the right".

It is not as difficult to tell when your highlights are properly exposed as you might think, because your camera has a feature called Highlight Alert, which is described on page 124 of your manual.

I have ignored the ISO setting, which also affects the exposure by changing the effective sensitivity of the sensor.

Robert_Lay wrote in post #2480443
Allow me to elaborate a bit on the subject of under and over exposure.

Yes, it is certainly true that too little light or too much light on the scene can lead to an over or under exposure. Since we cannot, in general, change the light in a scene (unless you have control over the source of light), it is necessary to adjust the lens opening and/or adjust the time the shutter is open in order to control how much of that light gets to the sensor - that's where the recorded image gets its light, from the combination of how big the aperture opening is and how long the shutter stays open.

So, since we cannot control the amount of light in the scene, in general, we have to control the aperture and shutter speed. The light meter in the camera can do that job automatically, but it is pretty dumb and is subject to many effects which may also lead to over or underexposure. Once you can see that the image in playback is over or under exposed, it is necessary to apply a compensation or offset that corrects or compensates for the problems in the auto exposure circuitry (and then re-shoot the scene).

There is a great deal of subjectivity involved in the judgement of whether a picture is over or under exposed. However, for purposes of this discussion we can simply say that when the brightest highlight in the scene is exposed to a digital value of 255, that is the safest exposure. It's called "exposing to the right".

It is not as difficult to tell when your highlights are properly exposed as you might think, because your camera has a feature called Highlight Alert, which is described on page 124 of your manual.

I have ignored the ISO setting, which also affects the exposure by changing the effective sensitivity of the sensor.

Sorry im still not understanding this very well By the way im using a Canon S2 IS camera.

I just bought the "Understanding Exposure" book of ebay so that will be a good read

zach1288 wrote in post #2483928
Sorry im still not understanding this very well By the way im using a Canon S2 IS camera.

I just bought the "Understanding Exposure" book of ebay so that will be a good read

you won't regret it although I don't knwo the Canon S2 and how much control you have on any of the settings.

zach1288 wrote in post #2483928
Sorry im still not understanding this very well By the way im using a Canon S2 IS camera.

I just bought the "Understanding Exposure" book of ebay so that will be a good read

Sorry, somewhere I got confused and thought you were using the new 400D. My mistake.
Just read it over, and you will see that we are talking about controlling the amount of light the sensor sees as a process separate and distinct from the light falling on the actual scene.