Beach n moon

[divejunky]

My first post
I took this with my canon 400d,sigma 17-70mm, using the noise reduction, iso 400, f4 with 25sec shutter speed, but it looks grainy. i know a lower iso might've improved it but would've pushed the shutter time out, any ideas how to improve it for future photos would be greatly appreciated.

[sukanta]

The first thing you need to told your camera is to "relax".If you wouldnt told me that its a night shot I would probably thinging of this a day shot with some filter attached. 25 sec on ISO 400 is really a unusual setting(a quite dark) so why dont our shot would show that mood? If I were there I would probably set it on ISO 200 with 25 sec or even 20 sec or so to create the darkness there.
otherwise I really like the shot...Just play with exposure compensation in PP and take a look what you can get.. I didnt know anything in PP..otherwise probably I couldnt resist me to take a grab of this shot.

sorry for my english.. English is not my primary language.

[divejunky]

Thanks sukanta, don't worry about your english, its fine, i did do another pic with a lower iso and shorter exposure, but i lost the colour in the sand and it was way too dark, seemed flat and dull, maybe halfway in between would've been better, thanks for your comments .

[sukanta]

just a trick I want ot share..
In manual mode, set all the value(ISO,Exposure) to create the meter show 0 compensation.
Then blindly set the exposure compensation to -1 to -1.33 or even you can set -1.66 also. This is something I allways do when taking night shot with long shutter speed exposure.
but as of allways I am newb in Photography.. so use my experience with a grain of salt of course

[jiminyClickit]

divejunky, Welcome

Horizon: straight would be better. Landmass: one-third of the photo would be better. Moon position: one-third of photo height from top would be better. An impressive site, good shot.

[divejunky]

Thanks for you comments jiminy, i know the composition isn't perfect, but what i'm really asking is how can i reduce the noise in future pics with a long exposure time. it's not too obvious in this small pic, but it's there.

[jiminyClickit]

divejunky,

Hoping you weren't focussed on one aspect only and missing the rest. If you get a chance to try sukanta's suggestion, let us know how it changes things.