Morning Mist from Kitt Hill

[Rufus]

With this image I have attempted to make something out of an unpromising RAW file. Yes, I know… silk purses and pigs' ears; but I am sure there are other things I should learn from this.

I have debated with myself whether to crop more of the foreground – the yellow flowers add interest but are OOF despite using an F16 aperture. I should have checked the hyperfocal distance!

In fact, none of the image seemed very crisp even though the camera settings were, I thought, suitable for a considerable depth of field and avoidance of camera shake. The EXIF data says I used spot metering which was probably a poor choice, but I have not been able to find out how the image was focused (manual, auto), or where in the image I was focusing. If that is available somewhere in the data it may explain the lack of crispness. Or was it just the weather and inattention to the hyperfocal distance?

I am interested mainly in the camera technique here, but I will show the before and after:

Unedited file:


Processed image:


105mm – f16 – 1/200 – ISO 400

Any insight would be welcome.

David

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured and nice crop.

[DanK]

I don't know that I can help much. At this resolution, I can't see where the point of focus is because the image pixelates when I blow it up in photoshop. If sharpness is your concern, spot metering has essentially nothing to do with it; it just affects exposure. The histogram from the original shows that your exposure was a bit dark, but not greatly so.

I don't use DPP, but it's possible the DPP might show where the camera focused.

[Geoff F]

I would definitely crop the foreground and go to a more panoramic ratio.

Besides being out of focus, showing too much of that hump is distracting from the misty scene in the distance.

[Manfred M]

If you shot raw, then you need to sharpen the image and manage the contrast. This is something the camera will do for you if you shoot JPEG, but not raw. White balance and selecting the colour space are also things you need to do when you work with raw data.