Fall leaf in the winter...

here are two quick pics i took earlier today. this is straight out of the camera. let me know you thoughts and any tips on improving are greatly appreciated. oh, editing is ok...

1.

Okay, I'll go. First, they're both very underexposed. Your camera's meter will never expose snow correctly. You usually have to overexpose by about 1.5 stops. If you shot in RAW, you can just bring them up in PP.

Now for the bad part...I'm afraid these are just uninteresting. I hate to say that, but it's my opinion. Yours might be different, and that's fine. For me, there's not much here. A dead leaf and some buckets by the side of the house is not, IMHO, worth photographing.

Now, don't be too upset by what I said. You got out of the house and took some shots, which is more than I did with a camera today! If you could find a leaf that still had its fall colors, that would be interesting. If the buckets had frozen water spilling out of them, that might be worth a shot. Get closer to your subjects, get some good light on them, and keep shooting.

Sorry if this isn't all that helpful.

Tip for shooting in the snow. Snow is very bright in the sun which causes the camera to get "confused". The camera will try to correct for the super bright snow by shooting faster and causing snow to look grey and therefore underexposing the entire picture. Make sure you are shooting in manual and set the shutter speed a little slower than what the meter is telling you it should be. Experiment and you will find the sweet spot.

One thing I try to do when taking a photo of anything is to try and get the exposure to look the way it does to my eyes. If my eyes see bright white snow then I want my camera to see the same thing.


edit: I did not even read gibbit1's post. He had already touched on the snow part haha.

dkmoy118 wrote in post #11593149
here are two quick pics i took earlier today. this is straight out of the camera.

Right there are your two major mistakes: "quick pics" and "straight out of the camera". Quick pics indicate that you were somewhat aimless and just popped your shutter on any random object, like any Photography 101 student on the first assigned shoot. That's frequently a recipe for photographs that lack impact.

On the other matter, almost every image could do with some post processing. This is not to fix it, but to put it in a form that the photographer envisioned for it before he or she even released the shutter. Since "quick pic" and forethought are mutually exclusive, the craft of post processing your images before you share them would probably not occur to you.

I tried to do a little with your picture, hope it's ok.. EV is 0.5 up, gave it a bit of contrast and definition, brightent up the shadows and turned down the highlights. A 20 second job.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/png'

thanks for the input... i'll shoot some more snow tomorrow with the advice provided

Wiinberg wrote in post #11594354
I tried to do a little with your picture, hope it's ok.. EV is 0.5 up, gave it a bit of contrast and definition, brightent up the shadows and turned down the highlights. A 20 second job.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/png'

thanks for the edit. great 20 second job!

Can't help but thinking that three buckets "abandoned" in the snow, one tipped over, might make an interesting shot that suggests a story somehow. Unfortunately, this is not it. Walk around, study it, and maybe you will find an interesting angle (and maybe not). But good job just getting out and shooting under challenging conditions. Keep it up!

What lens do you have? 18-135? Try just locking it to a certain focal length (35/50/85) and actually move around the subject to find an interesting angle.

As convenient as zoom lenses are, I sometimes find I become lazy and just 'zoom and snap' instead of finding the most interesting composition, just a tip anyways.

Just so you know, in spite of the best intentions, it is considered ill-mannered on this forum to post an edited version of a member's photo if they do not have image editing ok turned on in their profile. Some people don't want anybody to touch their photos and this is the only way to tell.

joedlh wrote in post #11613658
Just so you know, in spite of the best intentions, it is considered ill-mannered on this forum to post an edited version of a member's photo if they do not have image editing ok turned on in their profile. Some people don't want anybody to touch their photos and this is the only way to tell.

hi, you are correct, i would normally be upset if my images are altered without my consent. in this case i stated that editing is ok in my original post since i knew it wasn't my best shot and i'm in the process of learning PP.

if you (or anyone else) have some time please feel free to edit the image in this thread. thanks

Maybe if the focus had been the farther bucket where the lines point to and merge on it would have been a better capture.

I can accept the detail and the focus, but the composition just doesn't do anything for me.

When the sharpness, and exposure are as spot on as this shot, the composition will carry the capture.