Morning Valley

[DJPhotos]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dj808photos/5916119109/

Morning Valley In Hawaii
Canon 7D (gift from hubby)
24-70 lens
iso was 200 (i believe)
aperture was 19 (best i can recall)
camera chose the shutter speed (can't remember exactly what it was, probably around 100)

Hi, this is my first post... I hope I'm doing it right. I will take note of the settings more carefully next time.

New photo buff... any critique is appreciated and welcomed.

I'm struggling with depth of field issues... my aperture 19, I focused around 1/3 of the way in and was using a tripod. Not sure if you can see it here, but I'm not getting sharp images.

Also, I'm always fighting my photos being too dark. I can't seem to get nice bright colored photos with foreground (landscape) and sky both being well balanced. One is always overexposed or underexposed.

Lastly, how is the composition here? Any suggestions?

[milosh]

Hello there,

here is your exif data for this photo:

Camera Canon EOS 7D
Exposure 0.25 sec (1/4)
Aperture f/22.0
Focal Length 24 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV

I took that from Flickr, all you have to do is click on your camera model in the upper right corner of the page (above the map).
You have a great depth of field at f22 and 24mm with your camera, but I think that you just focused too close here. Here: Online Depth of Field Calculator you can see how big you depth of field is, and it tells me that even if you focused at two meters away from the camera, you would have infinite depth of field. Maybe you focused closer than that. Also, try to avoid apertures smaller than f16, because diffraction impairs your image quality.

I've only touched up one of the questions you asked, as I don't have enough time right now, but I'm sure others will fill in on me.

[DJPhotos]

Thank you SO much for all that information!! Boy was my memory off! Thank you for the depth of field details, I will definitely review all of that.

[Doug Sundseth]

First, all the information you need is recorded in the photo's Exif data, which you can see (as I did) by choosing Actions > View Exif Info on Flickr:

Camera Canon EOS 7D
Exposure 0.25 sec (1/4)
Aperture f/22.0
Focal Length 24 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

No memory necessary.

As you set up the shot, your hyperfocal distance is 4.47' (see Online Depth of Field Calculator), so it's unlikely that you have DoF issues. Any softness you're seeing here is more likely to be diffraction (lenses tend to be sharpest in the middle of their aperture ranges) or motion/vibration issues (1/4 second is short enough that mirror slap and shutter press vibration can be a problem and long enough to be hard to handhold and wind or IS jitter can be a problem).

When you're having problems holding a good exposure on bright and dark things at the same time, the most common problem is that the dynamic range of the subject is too wide for your camera to handle easily. You can fix this (to some extent) in post by pulling up the shadows and pulling down the highlights; this works best if you shoot in RAW. You can also work at times when the light is a bit less challenging or stack exposures to get a wider dynamic range.

Your composition is a really nice background. But for me, at least, it lacks a compelling subject. Big waves and surfer, a sailboat in the bay, somebody walking down the beach with a fishing rod, a seastack, something to focus on.

I'd also probably try to compose not to clip the beach at midway up on the left of the frame. The curve would work well as a design element in a final photo.

HTH

[Doug Sundseth]

D'oh, ninja-ed.

[DJPhotos]

Doug - I will read up on the diffraction thing and work on the vibration issue (never thought of this). RAW is new to me, but something I'm learning I will need to start using. Everything I'm reading says that's the way to go when editing. I don't think I ever edited this file. Your right about the beach - not having a wider angle lens - I had to pick the beach or some lead in of the ocean. I think the picking the curve of the beach would have made a better choice now that you mention it. And you right, the lack of "compelling subject" is probably why this was just a pretty pic and not the one I was hoping for Thank you!

[milosh]

I don't think there was any motion blur since you used a tripod and the foreground rocks are reasonably sharp, but it could be diffraction.

[DJPhotos]

Thank you, Milosh. I will be doing some research on that.

[navcom]

Milosh is right...I think there is a bit of diffraction going on here. Also, try researching hyperfocal distance focusing. That may help you a bit. Focusing 1/3 into the image is great but if you're like me, how can you really tell if it's 1/3 or 1/4 or 1/5 or 1/2... With HDF, it's pretty easy to get what you want. But don't study TOO much into HDF. It's really not as complicated as they make it out. Forget about measuring distances to anything. Just set your aperture to the depth of field you need and note the focal length of your lens (or where it's set if it's a zoom). Then plug these two settings into a hyperfocal chart and set your focus ring to what it says. That's all you really need to do.

Hope that helps!

[DJPhotos]

Thank you, Navcom. I'll check that out... I'm always wondering if I'm focusing on the right spot. This will be a huge help. My thanks to everyone for responding.