My first picture posting.

[markjass]

In Christchurch we are in the depths of winter. So far it has been mild and we have had a few nice evenings. Recently I have bought an adjustable ND filter and circular polariser filter to fit my canon powershot G16. This picture had a 40 second exposure, f 6.3 and ISO 80. Day light white balance and was taken 40 mins after sunset. I took pictures at different exposures. The sunset was directly behind me.

The original picture was very blue. As I took the picture as a RAW file I was able to photoshop it with out losing to much quality. I am very new to non point and shoot photography and had no idea how long to expose for, composition and what settings to use.

Questions
I have read about colo[u]r cast. Should I have used the cloudy white balance?
Please Comment about the photoshoping
Please comment on the exposure time
Please comment on the composition

Thank You

Mark

[John 2]

Mark the first has a colour cast but seascapes (and mountain scapes) generally do go a bit blue due to the presence of a lot of ultraviolet. A UV filter will help to cut this down. Composition really needs more of a focal point to take the eye through but it's OK. The horizon has a slight slope from left to right and you should correct that. Of the two I prefer the second. I like the colour balance better but for this sort of scene that's personal preference and you have cropped a slice from the bottom that wasn't adding anything to the comp. Keep them coming and welcome to the forum.

[bnnrcn]

Hello Mark, welcome

I like the composition in crop version and I like the colours in your original bluish version. In sunset shots you get a lot of different colors depending on the weather conditions and I actually like all of them including blue. If you shoot raw, WB is not a big issue, you can choose one of the WB options in photoshop or you can customize the WB by moving the sliders manually. There are also some camera profiles in ACR and you can choose whateverprofile you want. I usually use auto WB for shooting and later adjust it in PP.

I usually use the aperture priority mode in my camera for landscape shots, if I don't shoot with an ND filter by using bulb mode in which I have to control the exposure manually. If you use aperture priority mode, your camera will give you the correct exposure time anyway and you can always check your histogram for clipping highlights if there is any. If I want my exposure time longer or shorter than my camera gives, then I can adjust it with the exposure compensation function in my camera.

I would also suggest reading the tutorial about 'depth of field' in CIC . It helps you to decide which aperture you have to use for your shots. There is also a tutorial about 'depth of field calculator' which I find very informative and helpful.

Hoping to see more of your images.