Serengeti Sunrise

[tolgademirel]

New to the board and photography so I would love some feedback



26mm
iso 500
f/32
5 sec

60D w/
17-50 Tamron

[EOBeav]

You might want to check out the forum rules and post your EXIF data. That helps us help you to the maximum extent possible.

[tolgademirel]

my bad...updated now

[milosh]

I think it's a nice photo, beautiful sky and an equally pleasing reflection. Regarding composition, I would like to see more of the lake, and those two trees in front of it annoy me, as they hide the lake and I perceive them as an obstacle. I think it would be better if you got closer, behind the trees and framed the shot including the shore next to you as a foreground, the lake, reflection of the tree on the other side, and the sky.

Regarding exposure, you should try to shoot at lowest ISO possible because of the noise. And, did you use f32 on purpose, to get everything in focus? With apertures smaller than f16, you start to loose image quality due to diffraction.

[SwissJon]

I think the f/32, 500 ISO combination is a mistake down to putting the camera in automatic mode. tolgademirel probably used f/32 to get the 6 second exposure, without realising his camera was trying to compensate by increasing the ISO. If you'd taken the camera out of Auto mode, and forced it to use 100 ISO, you'd have probably ended up at around f/14 for the same exposure length.

I like the idea of the composition, but like Milosh, I find the trees in the foreground a bit of a distraction. If I'd been taking this photo, I'd probably have gone down closer to the waters edge and tried to get a full height reflection of the tree and that gorgeous sky. Oops.. Just read that's what Milosh said.. Ah well, I guess that tells you something in itself.

[EOBeav]

Thanks for the EXIF, that helps out a lot. A few thoughts:

1. If you're using a tripod, lower your ISO as much as possible. I set mine to 100. This gives greatest noise reduction, which you need at higher exposure times.

2. When your aperture is smaller than about f/22, image quality suffers. For stuff like this, I keep it between f/11 and f/16. You should be able to get a sharp image throughout the frame in this image at those settings. Don't be afraid to start messing around in Manual mode, it's the best way to learn. Pixels are cheap.

3. You got a nice sky, but there is way, way too much magenta coloring overall. You can especially see it in the rocks. Were you using an ND filter of some kind? The darker filters tend to let that kind of color in.

There's lots of potential here, and you certainly picked a nice location to photograph. I would return with those things in mind and you'll be able to instantly see the difference, especially in image sharpness. Thanks for posting, and I look forward to seeing more of your shots.

[Krusty79]

Welcome to DPS. I love that reflection! I also agree about the two trees in front being a distraction. A graduated neutral density filter is made for situations like this where you want to decrease the brightness of the sky relative to the ground so your foreground won't be underexposed.

[tolgademirel]

Thanks for all the replies!

I actually shot this on Av and set it to 32 because i watched a video and thought that was the smallest so it would have everything in focus.

Boy do i know better now.

I also had the iso on auto which i do not do anymore!

I greatly appreciate the feedback and look forward to learning more on this forum!

[EOBeav]

We've all been there, so don't feel bad. I hope you don't mind, but I took your image and removed the magenta cast. It's not perfect, but I think you can see a difference here. Keep shooting!

PS, you do get extra points for shooting this during the golden hours.