What am I doing wrong??

OK I am going to preface this with I plan on taking some sort of photoshop course, since the last time I took one was version 2.0! But in the mean time...

Here are some fairly quick snaps I took this week. My neighbors have allowed us to go on their property to shoot whenever I want. So I've been excited to shoot this waterfall as often as I want in many different light/season/etc.. situations.

I never seemed to have this trouble with my old 30D (which I'm wishing I kept and just fixed and been without for a few weeks) but I'm having trouble with the 50D. I'm getting more noise on my longer exposures then I did with the 30D. If I turn up the long exposure noise control I'm not too happy with how it comes out.

I'm having more problems getting the nice images I very easily got with the 30D. I seem to have to work a lot harder to get the same quality. While this isn't always a bad thing since I do like messing around with my photography and I'm more then game to learn new stuff. For basic set up the tripod, set the f/stop and shoot type stuff it seems I just can't get it quite "right."

Maybe I'm just not happy viewing them on the computer. I did get a "new" computer around the same time. I know I should print them and see how they come out.

But how do I get shots like these to pop more? (without HDR since I know the dark shadows and the snow are confusing the metering a bit.) But even the non-snow ones are not quite as nice looking as they were with the 30D.

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I'm only saying lens because of the landscape in these images, in better light the lens is great.

But I want that dreamy look that some people get in forest light.

What time of day are you shooting?

About 3:30-4:00

Try shooting it during the Goldern Hours and see how it turns out.

Isn't a half hour before the sun sets part of the golden hours?

Shooting in better light is your best option for improvement. Mid-day light is the worst to shoot.

SE Smith Jr wrote in post #11585338
Try shooting it during the Goldern Hours and see how it turns out.

This time of year, 3:30-4:00 is pretty close to the Golden Hour.

I dunno... it's about 3:30 now and I'm looking outside and it doesn't really look all that golden...

To the OP: Where are you located? You don't have to be specific if you don't want to be; just a general idea.

EST, so yeah it's 3:30ish here and the sun is quite low, in an hour it'll be not quite set, but where I was shooting it'll be below the horizon. It's very "golden hour" right now.

SE Smith Jr wrote in post #11586232
I dunno... it's about 3:30 now and I'm looking outside and it doesn't really look all that golden...

To the OP: Where are you located? You don't have to be specific if you don't want to be; just a general idea.

That's cause you're lucky enough to be so far south! Here's it's cold getting dark and we'll get snow tomorrow.

Which reminds me, I'll want to try to shoot this again on Saturday after the snow. Or maybe during depending on how late it snows, which then it'll be overcast so the light will be better anyway.

What lens did you use on these?

Canon 28-105II, it's a great lens is good light, but in tricky light it seems to be harder to get the exposure good. I'm not looking to upgrade to the 24-105 since I plan on getting the 5DII kit in the next year. But other then that I don't know what other lens to use. I may be getting the 70-200 soon and the tokina 12-24 for my wide stuff. But the middle range I'm wondering about. In most of my shooting the 28-105 has great range for how I shoot and is very light (a HUGE concern for me) and is normally fine. But for some reason it's just not giving me the pop I want and those dreamy forest looking shots. I'm assuming I'll need an L prime to get those. But how can I fake it without going to all primes.

Mind you, I was a prime shooter until 2 years ago, so it's not like I can't go back, I'm just not sure I want to.

Of course I'm getting the tokina and will have to sell it for the 5DII, so maybe the 24-105 would be ok for me, then just sell the new one in the kit, or buy the 5DII as a different kit, like with the 17-40?

The noise issue you are seeing is most likely due to the greater pixel density of the 50D. Denser sensors tend to produce more noisy images due to the signal/noise ratio. However, your output isnt the same size due to the greater MP so you have to take comparing 30D to 50D images at 100% with a grain of salt - many are noticing this with their 7D's. Just print them out, you wont notice it at all. Im not sure about your settings b/c I dont have EXIF viewer at work but try shooting at ISO 100 from a tripod.

The reason you're not getting that ethereal forest feel is because it just wasnt there to begin with but I can see you were hitting the golden hour in these photos, but you just didnt nail the composition to show it.

For example, in number 1, all of that golden light - the part we are interested in - is stuffed into the upper right corner. Your shot definitely had the most traditional composition, but unfortunately that comp emphasized the 3/4 of the image where we see mostly shadows. We want to see more of that golden light - I might have tried to get to the right side of that stream to emphasize this light.

#2 - I know what you were going for in this shot because I want to shoot stuff like this around my house all the time. But, unfortunately, what you were feeling in this spot just didnt come across in the image. Could be the composition, Im not sure - but its really just not that interesting to look at. Plus, the whites are blown in the snow and everything else is just a bit muddy - I might have taken the exposure down a bit and/or toyed with this in PP a bit more.

#3 - I feel is the best of the bunch and Im not going to nit pick this image. Nice shot.