Some C&C for this photo

shakeydude

Hi,

I have been a long time lurker on this forum and I think I have figured out that C&C stands for Comment&Critque.

Anyway, I have found a nice spot with horses where there is a lovely sunset and I was snapping away and I was wondering if there is anyway to improve the quality of the picture that I am taking? I have a Canon point and shoot SD 750 and I was just wondering if I messed with the exposure, centre weight etc to get a better picture. Would there be any benefit in gettin a tripod for these pictures?

I just want to play with the camera until I happy with it and then maybe progress to photoshop.

Here is one of the better pictures I have taken to give you an idea (I didnt notice the swallows until afterwards)

All C&C welcomed:)

IMG_1091.jpg

sunny2004

Ok, firstly the tripod issue, the tripod would have minimal effect due to the horses. the horses would or could move.. a monopod is always a handy item to have if you are concerned about the exposure dropping below hand-held limits..

Regarding the image linked, firstly I like it a lot and you clearly have a good natural eye for composition. Or you were extremely lucky

the image is very grainy.. and lacking in a little punch regarding the colours. they seem to be washed out a bit.

Now the grain is mainly controled by ASA/DIN/ISO all 3 of them are the exact same thing.. the lower the number - the less grain. so 100 iso will normally be the lowest and the one with the least grain. Nothing wrong with grain, its just a matter of knowing when and where.

The colours and the general exposure could be tweaked in photoshop or the gimp.

I will stop now

you have an eye for composition, so you are half way there..

City-Exile

Yeah, I think the colours are washed out.
I think it's because the sun was setting to your left.

Ricky91t

Its a nice shot nicely laid out
but yeah the grain and the colours are a let down
Its also not very sharp on the horses but i think that from the sun and grain etc.
It has the potential to be a great image and all it needs is a touch up in lightroom

shakeydude

Thanks for the feedback.

I think I might have had the ISO set on high, looking at the picture properties it states that the ISO was 400. The exposure time was 1/400 and the lens set to f/4.9 (I really dont understand the exposure time of f/ stuff, but thats for another day).

Should I play around with the exposure settings or can I leave that to when I have the picture in photoshop????

I might tackle the same location later and see how I get on

Ricky91t

Well you're best off to go back and mess around with pictures its always a plus to get pictures which are perfect when taken from the camera.But its nice to know if you know get them right you can touch them up.
You're best off dropping your iso to 100 and getting around 1/100 for shutter
A tripod would be better for lanscapes with nothing moving (unless you want something to move)The problem is the horse will move so the tripod will make little difference


you're best off the foucs on the horse and set your exposure on them as they are the main subject
get them on your center point focus when the camera has move the camera round to get the horse out the center of the frame while holding the shutter down halfway try not to move away or closer to the horses as this will make them slightly out of focus and then shoot
Its all down to trial and error with the settings!Maybe get the shot you want on the mode you are happy with then change modes like exposue etc and see what works

rgiller

Noise has been mentioned already (you maybe could have dropped the ISO by two stops and shot at 1/100 s) but also I think a tighter crop on the horses would improve the composition. Something like zooming in on the bottom right quarter of that photo to get the horses in a bit more detail

CabanSail

Like others have said, the general composition is good. You have not made the some of the common errors & have postioned the subject & horizon well. The noise & sharpness issues can be improved a bit by post processing but probably not enough to really save this image totally. Still a very good effort.

If you get a better understanding of Exposure then you will be surprised at how much better your images can be. There are three camera settings which control Exposure & they all have secondary effects. These are ISO (Sensor Sensitivity or Film Speed), Shutter Speed (How long the Exposure is) & Aperture (How much available light is allowed through the Lens)

As I am at work, most of the sites that come up in Google are blocked as being "Hobbies" but THIS SITE did get through. It is a fairly simple explanation of Shutter Speed & Aperture.

You are on the right track & it's an enjoyable journey.

sheesh

the good:
nice shot. its well framed the land is approx 1/3 the there are 2 sections of sky also approx 1/3 each, rule of thirds: nice! good eye for a shot.

the bad: as everyone else said a bit noisey or maybe soft is it possible that the focus point in the camera was at the center and so is focused on the hill and not on the horses.

things to try:

on a nice picture like this try taking a couple of shots one of them is bound to better than the others.