Want some opinion and tips.......

[Abhimanyu]

Hello CIC ,

I am new photography. Can you ppl please provide some tips how to improve below photo. The camera used was bridge camera Canon SX50 HS.

[GiacomoD]

Hello Abhimanyu
welcome on CiC!
The shot is nice, if you want to improve it I would suggest the followings:
1) distortions introduced by the wide angle lens used are in my opinion too evident: if the processing software that you are using allows it, you could try to enable the lens correction option (RawTherapee allows it also on JPEG shots, I don't know if Adobe Camera Raw does it too).
2) Maybe I would try to crop a little bit the sky in the upper part, giving the shot an approximate 3:2 aspect ratio.

Giacomo

[tomdinning]

Giacoma is being nice, Ab. The photo is a dud, I'm afraid. Burn it. No amount of software is going to resue it. But don't slash your wrists yet. There is hope. Go back and have another go. Take a few shots and see if you can make each one a bit more thoughtful than the last. Steady your camera on a tripod or some such, meter for the sky, get your horizon reasonably level and play with its position (move it up and down). You will be surprised at how much better you can get when you put a little effort into thinking how you would like it to look.

[rpcrowe]

Hello Abhimanyu,

Although, I would not consider the shot as a keeper, there are several things that can be learned from it:

1. You need a tripod to stabilize your camera when shooting at slow shutter speeds. Despite the quite decent Image Stabilization of the camera, hand-holding a shot like this is usually asking for a less than sharp image. One way to tell you had camera movement during this shot is that the streetlights are elongated top to bottom...

2. I would suggest that you need to decide what is the main subject of the image: Is it the sky or the city. If it is the sky, you have chosen wrong because the upper part of the sky in this image is pretty bland. If it is the city, you need to show more of it...

3. Actually, I think that you have over exposed your image. When shooting night shots (or magic hour shots) I always suggest that the photographer use Aperture priority, Av in Canon terminology (and shoot at your widest aperture using as high an ISO that the camera than successfully capture) and use the Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB). Because the bane of night and late evening shots is usually over, not under exposure, I will quite often combine the 1-stop bracketing with a -1 stop exposure compensation. This will provide three exposures... One at what the meter reads, one at one stop less than the meter reading and one at two stops less. One of these three exposures will normally be just about dead-on. As an extra bonus, you can combine the three shots into an HDR image. I believe that the SX-50 has in-camera HDR capability. Refer to your user manual for more HDR information. I "think" that I would prefer to shoot the three individual images and then combine them into an HDR image later in post processing. However, I have never worked with in-camera HDR and that just might be provide decent results!

All Canon DSLR cameras have the capablity of shooting a three shot AEB burst and then stop shooting until the next time the shutter is tripped. This makes AEB shooting quite easy. I don't know if the SX-50 has that capability but, I suspect that it might. Either use a remote release or the self timer to trip the shutter. Refer to your manual.

As an aside: If your camera has the capability to shoot a three shot AEB burst and the stop shooting, it might have a default setting to exit AEB when the camera is turned off. All Canon DSLR cameras have this default setting and the user needs to go ino the menu to set up the camera to remain in AEB mode until the user commands it to revert back to standard exposure. This is the way I have my DSLR cameras set up when using AEB...

The problem with the tilting buildings can easily be corrected in most post processing programs.

[jcuknz]

The shot has potential and even though when looking at the whole frame it is a 'no-keeper' I suggest you keep it until you get the chance to repeat. With what you have the main problem is the unsteadiness of the camera which has caused what I think should be round lights to turn into little streaks. However I suggest you crop out the lower part of the shot to get rid of those problems and concentrate on the sky which after having sharpening applied in editing seems acceptable .... not world beating but acceptable.

Or if the building is a little distracting a simple copy, using a high degree of feather, of a bit of the town and sky from over to the right to cover out the building.

Technically not good but maybe a nice record of your time in the city?

[Brev00]

I am thinking that your main wish was to capture the pretty sky the way you saw it and include some of the city to ground the shot and provide some nice lighting, too. Unfortunately, I would advise against simply cropping large buildings that are in the way of your shot. What you choose to include in a shot must be limited to what contributes to the overall image. So, with this general scene, you probably had a few choices. You could shift to the right and exclude the tallest building. You could aim lower to include the base of the building. This would decrease the amount of sky which might be good. The best color of the sky is at the horizon. The rest is less interesting. You could decide to emphasize the one road to the left of the building, shooting vertically to either avoid the building or include more of it. You do need a tripod as others have noted. The low light is causing your camera to choose a slow shutter speed causing any movement to be recorded in the image as blur. My overall point is just to be very aware of everything in the frame. If stuff is in the way, move, change the angle, etc. until each edge and corner is framing only what you want. If it were me, I might have tried to put the top edge of my frame right above the horizon making the image more about the city than the sky.

[Abhimanyu]

Thanks to all for valuable suggestions. I will surely try out the tips in future work, i don't have a tripod and am planning to buy one soon.

@Brev00, you right about the concept of photo that wanted to capture.

Thanks,

Abhi

[SomedayMyPrintsWillCome]

Giacoma is being nice, Ab. The photo is a dud, I'm afraid. Burn it. No amount of software is going to resue it. But don't slash your wrists yet. There is hope. Go back and have another go. Take a few shots and see if you can make each one a bit more thoughtful than the last. Steady your camera on a tripod or some such, meter for the sky, get your horizon reasonably level and play with its position (move it up and down). You will be surprised at how much better you can get when you put a little effort into thinking how you would like it to look.

Im kind of digging your blunt style.

[SomedayMyPrintsWillCome]

Thanks to all for valuable suggestions. I will surely try out the tips in future work, i don't have a tripod and am planning to buy one soon.

@Brev00, you right about the concept of photo that wanted to capture.

Thanks,

Abhi

As a wedding photographer - I hate toting around a tripod with me. I have one - and bring on, but not everywhere. Its a pain.
A lot of times I find myself just resting my camera on a table top, and aiming it by bunching my strap under the lens or the front of the body... I've shot off church pews, the floor, a pile of books, tables, and banisters like this! You use whatever you can to get the shot!

Somtimes a ledge or a flat surface is good enough to just give you a little more stability.
I too agree with others, that you may also have been a little over exposed here - its a bit bright for my tastes - and this too, would limit your shake if you minimized the time the shutter was open to do it

[Andrew76]

Somtimes a ledge or a flat surface is good enough to just give you a little more stability.
I too agree with others, that you may also have been a little over exposed here - its a bit bright for my tastes - and this too, would limit your shake if you minimized the time the shutter was open to do it

I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say here, but minimizing the time the shutter is open will neither reduce camera shake, or correct the over brightness. In fact, it will do the opposite to both.

Maybe I'm just not understanding, but I've tried to read it several times.

[SomedayMyPrintsWillCome]

K Im entirely open to the fact that I am completely confused - But if the exposure is shorter - less time to accumulate light (thus a darker exposure)... And less time for image to be blurred by the movement of the camera?

Sorry I could be completely wrong - if so, I guess it will be a long time before I chime in again - because clearly I havent a clue...

[Andrew76]

Samantha, my mistake entirely - I totally mis-read your intentions. Ignore my post please. No wonder it took me a couple times to read it, and still didn't understand.

Sorry again!

[Dave Humphries]

The EXIF shows 1/30s, f/3.4 iso800 with the SX50HS at 4.3mm, which I think is as wide as it goes, equivalent to 24mm.

A shutter speed of 1/60 to 1/100s would have reduced the exposure by a stop or more and should have reduced camera shake.

However, shooting at 1/30s with the SX50 at 24mm should be easily possible, which suggests Abhimanyu needs to practice holding the camera steady and carefully squeezing the shutter button (not stabbing it).

Abhimanyu - There's more here; https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tu...mera-shake.htm


Could you do us a favour please?
Could you Edit your Profile and put your first name in the Real Name field and where you are (roughly) in the Location field? - thanks.

Welcome to the CiC forums from ...

[SomedayMyPrintsWillCome]

K Im entirely open to the fact that I am completely confused - But if the exposure is shorter - less time to accumulate light (thus a darker exposure)... And less time for image to be blurred by the movement of the camera?

Sorry I could be completely wrong - if so, I guess it will be a long time before I chime in again - because clearly I havent a clue...

No worries Andrew! I posted it kind of quickly and didn't read. It sounds a little like its written by a drunk person - Multi tasking.. trying to get out my idea plus occupy a 2 year old who wants to type her opinion as well! haha...
And I am new enough to never assume I know WTF I am talking about - so I you kind of made me go ..... Oh crap.. I have no idea what I am doing ... my poor clients! I'd better get studying! hhaha

Im very new. I picked up my first camera ever - in February (12 months ago)... and have pushed myself to learn every single thing I can since then...

I think I am coming along alright! but Im sure my explanations of the way I undertand Photography are very crude / basic and may not make a ton of sense. Im definately not classically taught.

www.samanthabauer.com

But feel free to give advice!

[Andrew76]

At my work, we give an award away each year to the person who makes the dumbest mistake, or makes a fool of themselves in someway. We call it the "Barnsey Award" named after the person who took the cake (so to speak), on the award's inaugural year.

I am hereby nominating myself this year.

I apparently can't read (or write for that matter), in English today... I'm blaming it on this incessant crappy weather, but really there's no excuse.

[SomedayMyPrintsWillCome]

LOL No .. I've reread my post... Its kind of jibber-jabbery.
I see you are near(ish) by! Where in Ontario if I can ask?
Is photography your profession? I am always looking for other people to network with!

I also have this little group on facebook for Ont.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/369412396470192/

[Abhimanyu]

Hey Dave,

I have updated my profile.