Critique

[Andyd]

Just looking for some ideas on this from the experts. I still am playing around with the camera and working on taking better shots. Any comments on what could have been done with this one would be greatly appreciated. The only PSE done to this so far has been resizing. Any and all comments are welcome.

Thanks!

Andy


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Q9x2lFPQ4EGMBrA4CAK0sqMEId5hz1_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Q9x2lFPQ4EGMBrA4CAK0sqMEId5hz1)

Here is a shot of the EXIF data.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1PXPYhC56qsbTj5oA3cjWVNkHXNu0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1PXPYhC56qsbTj5oA3cjWVNkHXNu0)

[mrod]

Hi Andy-

Nice sunset! Where abouts did you take it?

Now, I'm certainly no photography expert but here's a couple thoughts:

1. It looks a little blurry. Did you use a tripod? In that amount of light, a tripod would be a must, I think. You might even be able to lower the ISO that way...

2. You did a nice job of putting the horizon line at the upper third of the image (as opposed to centering it). When you were there, what did you think was the most interesting, the water or the sky? If the water, your composition is right on. If the sky was more interesting than the water, consider moving the horizon line to the lower third, to include more of the sky in the shot. As I looked at it, I found myself wanting to see more of the sky. But not being there, maybe the water that you included is better?

Just a couple thoughts from an amateur trying to learn!:)

Mike

[cats4jan]

I'm stuck in the centering phase of my life - but the comments about which part of the photo was the focus was interesting. I found myself wanting more of the sky also - but then maybe the reflection on the water would've been lost.

Looking at that photo and hearing mrod's comments - I really need to start thinking out of the "box" or in my case - out of symmetry.

Janice
PSE4

[kevq]

Andy,
try the technique shown here (http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19458)

It may help.
Kev.

[Medic1210]

The main problem with your image is focus. This is the reason it's blurry, not because of camera movement since your shutter speed is 1/2000 of a second. That's fast enough to freeze any movement you could make. So, back to the focus issue. I would imagine that either the camera had trouble figuring out what to focus on, or you had the camera in manual focus and didn't realize it. Your exposure is good if you are looking for the silhouette effect you got. If you were wanting more of the foreground to be lighter, you would have to make two separate images... one exposed for the sky, and one exposed for the foreground and then blend them together with masks in PSE.

Another couple things to keep in mind when composing shots like this. Always try to keep the horizon level. If it's not completely level, you can fix this later in PSE, but you should always be aware of this as part of your enhancing process. A tilted horizon will hurt the quality of an otherwise good photograph.

Also, be aware of your foreground. I would suggest a generous crop of the lower part of the image as there is just too much dead space at the bottom. Just too much calm water with no real focal point to draw the eye into the image. This leads to a dull image also. Just some things to consider if you're looking to improve on your photography skills.

Hope this helps.

[Cmcburnett]

Kev, thanks for the link. I am going to give it a try.

[Russinator]

I like your sunset photo. Just to see how it would look with some more color in it I made a few changes. I hope you don't mind.

Russ

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r34/RussC_02/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.jpg

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r34/RussC_02/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzcopy.jpg

[mrod]

...I really need to start thinking out of the "box" or in my case - out of symmetry.

Janice
PSE4

Jan-

Check out The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby. I have found that very helpful (including the tip about the horizon line above). There are a bunch of 1-page tips on improving your photography.

I recommend it!

Mike

[Andyd]

Thanks everyone for all the comments!

Mike I did not use a tripod. I was walking on the ice with the kids and at the last minute decided to grab the camera. They all had fun running around on the ice and I saw some kids playing hockey and decided to play around with the sunset.

I too, have read the Scott Kelby book. That is where I got the horizon trick. I’ve put two others that I “favored” the sky.

Janice. Been there done that :) Scott Kelby’s book is a good read. I picked up quite a bit.

Thanks for the link Kev.

Medic1210 Thanks for the input. I’m not sure what the focus issue is. A bunch of my pictures get out of focus. I’m in auto focus. It maybe this one had nothing to “lock-in” on. I was in aperture priority.

Russ I don’t mind at all. It looks great with the color added.


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1AszHPAcRamsAXaDQjmJf3gyK43Ryo_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1AszHPAcRamsAXaDQjmJf3gyK43Ryo)

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/16H1HOS6j2gDnb7h3a6wzgKfolaF29_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=16H1HOS6j2gDnb7h3a6wzgKfolaF29)

[mrod]

Ah, very nice. I like all 3 you've got there, Andy. I must admit I couldn't distinguish the hockey players. But, now that you mention it, I can see what they are.

It's interesting how different the same sunset turns out with a different composition!

Mike

[Edmund]

Just a few thoughts! All of the above comments are all good sound advice. But Looking at your camera meta data...I usually would not shoot a sunset with my camera set on average metering. I would spot meter the sky way off to the right so as not to get the sun in the metering circle and most likely set the EV to -1(then check the histograhm to see if in the ball park) Make sure that you don't under-expose too much and don't lose your highlights. Next if using aperature priority mode I would use f16 as a minimum. That said You really need a tripod for these kinds of shots but you shot this at 1/2000 sec. So as previously said the camera had a rough time finding that focus sweet spot. If auto focus doesn't lock in then manually focus say where the hockey players were and come down another third and take the image (that will give you greater depth of field). I usually don't go as high on my ISO to keep any noise down as much as possible. I would have cropped the bottom third at time of exposure also. I'm not familiar with the Fuji so don't know what features the camera has. Hope I didn't confuse you with all of my comments.
Eddie

[TonyW]

Andy: Agree with the others and you did well with a tricky shot. Focus does look off and it is difficult to auto focus in that situation. I think I would have used manual exposure - set the lens wide open and the ISO down to say 100. Set the exposure for the scene as you have it with the command dial then point the camera at the trees along the horizon and see if you can get the auto focus to lock there - I usually found with that camera in similar situations that would get a lock. Then recompose (still holding the button half down) and shoot. You could also try manual focus - turn the focus ring clockwise until you can't hear it clicking and it will be set to infinity which would work fine for that shot. I always found manual focus using an EVF on anything except infinity is pretty tricky but with that camera you'll have more than enough depth of field at infinity for a shot like that.

Tony