Reservoir scene

[LDasmaria]

Hello,
I recently purchased my first DSLR camera, and started trying to take some nice pictures. I've never had any training on picture taking and am sort of learning things by trial and error. So far I can take pictures, but don't know how to do any post production work. My friend got me a copy of Microsoft Digital Imaging Suite 2006, but I have yet to figure out how to do much with it.
I took this shot yesterday afternoon and was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to make it better. Thank you in advance for any and all comments.



Camera Sony SLT-A33
Exposure 0.2 sec (1/5)
Aperture f/25.0
Focal Length 28 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

[EOBeav]

First of all, welcome to DPS forums and the world of digital photography. This is a good place to learn if you don't mind getting slapped around a little bit occasionally.

This is a nice location, and one certainly worth returning to. A couple of things:

1. Did you have your camera set to these values for a reason, or were you in automatic mode? There are some good articles here on DPS that discuss ISO, exposure time, and aperture and how they work together. Just search for "exposure triangle" and you'll find the information you're looking for.

2. The white parts of the water and what we call "blown out", meaning, too much light in those areas got to the camera, and your sensor just kind of freaked out and made it all white. A digital sensor can only handle so much contrast between bright sunlight and normally lit spots. This happens when you shoot scenes like this in broad daylight. Which brings me to my next point.

3. Shots like this generally do best when you shoot them during the "golden hours", the time approximately a half hour before and after sunrise, and then again a half hour before and after sunset. That's two hours a day to get good shots, so use them wisely.

4. My last point will have to do with composition. There are some very broad, general rules about the subject, but my best advice would be to spend some time in Flickr looking at images you're really drawn to, and then critically examine what it is about the objects in the image that make it a good photograph. I recommend photographers like Chip Phillips and Gary Randall, for starters. There are many, many others.

Oh, and if you want to try out some good editing software while you're starting out, but don't want to put up the big bucks for Photoshop, check out some titles like Paint.net, GIMP, and Picasa (the desktop version, not the web version). There are others as well. Also, Picnik has a good basic photo editing service that you can upload to and use for free.

Most of all, keep shooting! We look forward to seeing more of your shots, especially from locations like this.

[Krusty79]

Welcome to DPS. You're actually supposed to ask questions on specific aspects of your shot. You may not know what to ask when you're starting out, but that will get you in the habit of analyzing your own shots and you'll be able to critique your own work eventually.

You have a decent shot there, but there are some branches that obscure the view and you should try to eliminate any distracting elements from your shot. Like EOBeav says, the best time to shoot is usually in the golden hours, but if you are going to shoot in the afternoon, a circular polarizer can give you more vivid colors and reduce glare off non-metallic surfaces (also depends on your angle relative to the sun).

You should get familiar with the histogram function in your camera to help to determine if parts of the image are blown out/underexposed. Shooting RAW and bracketing your shots helps to overcome the limitation of your camera sensor (you can look up those topics for more info).

One last thing - the pros on this site generally don't recommend using an aperture smaller than about f/13, as that can introduce diffraction, which degrades sharpness. This article has more tips - http://www.livermorevalleycameraclub...O_critique.pdf

[EOBeav]

Originally Posted by Krusty79

One last thing - the pros on this site generally don't recommend using an aperture smaller than about f/13, as that can introduce diffraction, which degrades sharpness. This article has more tips - http://www.livermorevalleycameraclub...O_critique.pdf

You might find some lenses do great at f/16, but not much smaller than that.

[LDasmaria]

Thank you both for your feedback. I will try out your suggestions and hopefully be back soon with a much improved shot. Thank you again for the input

[dleanne]

Another good program to use would be adobe lightroom 2 or 3... Its very user friendly and you can do a lot to improve a photo with it