Comments and suggestions please

[anghelgab]

Almost every morning I wake up very early to view the beautiful scene in the horizon. I already made several shots and this is my latest. I need comments that I will be able to improve myself in this new hobby of mine. This was taken before the sun showed up, settings f/5.6; 1/200 sec; ISO400; 28mm; Manual; camera is Rebel XTi and resized from Raw. The color of my photos does not come out like what I see with my eyes and my photos lack appeal to others. Maybe there is a way to get even closer to the color of the beautiful view or a suggestion to come up with a better photo. This is Gabby, a newbie in photography and a new member. Maybe I can get the information I need thru this forum. I have gone thru the entries in the forum and this forum is full of good people. Have a nice day to all.

[MiniChris]

Were the clouds moving so fast that 1/200 of a sec wouldn't hold them in pretty tight?
I don't see much movement in the tree, so suspect there isn't a lot of wind blowing which
leads me to think possibly some camera shake. You might want to get out your camera's
manual and see if you can reset some of your picture controls, perhaps desaturating them
a bit or toning down the color balance. Do you use in post production products like
PhotoShop or Light Room?
Also, in this scene, I think I would like to see a little less sky and perhaps a little more
foreground. It is hard to tell on this size image, but it almost appears there is beginnign
to be a little detail in the foreground. You might want to conside the pruchase of a Cokin
Graded Neutral Density filter. Also, give good thought to a solid tripod.

[anghelgab]

ChrisC, thank you for the help. By the way there was no wind at all and I don/t have any idea what post poroduction is all about. Here I am looking thru the manual to reset picture control. What does graded neutral density do?

[MiniChris]

It allows you to get highlights at one point while keeping the details and density in another point...with one, you could get some of the detail at ground level, making more sense of the foreground, but not over saturate the sky...sort of evens out the balance.

You probably will want to download a picture adjustment program. There are several that are free, GIMP being one that several members use. If money is not a problem, then you might want to invest in Photoshop (however, note that some versions of PS only work with certain operating systems).

[PopsPhotos]

Remember that wind at ground level has nothing to do with wind at cloud level. That said, it doesn't appear to me to be cloud movement. that is blurring the image.

I have foiund that using a fence post, window sill, monopod or tripod is almost essential for sunsets and sunrises. I often prefer having the foreground very dark, if the subject is the sky and colors. If the subject is the foreground, then you will have to increase your exposure and forego some of the color and impact of the sky.

If nothing else, at least download a copy of Picasa for simple adjustments of your photographs. You will soon want a more powerful program, but free is a pretty nice way to get started with your first fiddles. GimpShop is free, also, but I have found that it is too complicated to keep the interest of beginners. I start them on Picasa to give them a taste of PP and it sucks them in.

Pops

[anghelgab]

ChrisC and PopsPhotos, You just made my day. I knew I was joining a friendly group. I will follow your advices and the more I will try harder to learn to become a photographer. I am interested in photographing the clouds up in the sky I want to make a coffeetable book on this titled Painter in the Sky. Thank you again.. I will now try to learn how to download Picasa, I am still a computer Illiterate but trying hard to learn.

[PopsPhotos]

Just type Picasa into your search line and find the one that says download. From there the instructions are pretty straight forward.

Pops

[Peter Ryan]

The color of my photos does not come out like what I see with my eyes and my photos lack appeal to others. Maybe there is a way to get even closer to the color of the beautiful view or a suggestion to come up with a better photo.

Hi Gabby and welcome to CiC.

Can you explain more about this comment. Are the colours in your photos more vibrant than what you see or less so?

[anghelgab]

Hi Peter Ryan.

The view that I saw was reddish but my photo is yellowish or orange. Whenever I shoot this reddish color of the clouds this color you see in my photo is my product. My photo does not show what I saw. I was able to download Picasa but if my photos will show the color that I see I will not do any editing. Thank you for the reply.

[Peter Ryan]

Thanks for the information Gabby. I guess you have your White Balance set to Auto and when you shoot a sunset the camera often does not fully compensate for the reds it is trying to read (it adds a bit more blue which can desaturate the colours little). I shoot all my sunsets on the Cloudy white balance setting. Have a go and see if it improves your colours. You might be pleasantly surprised.

But you still need to do post production. All digital images need some contrast and sharpening done whether you do this in-camera or later on. I prefer to do it later as I have much more control and computing power than in-camera. Also in-camera they have standard settings but you might want to be a bit more subtle.

Good luck and let me know how you get on.

[anghelgab]

Thanks for the advice Peter Ryan, I will try this set up when the rainy days here end up. I viewed your General album and 3 photos can be abig help to me. I will try to shoot a very similar view here and hope to come up with a camera setting that will have a similar quality like photos numbers 26, 27, 42 and 47 of your General album. Thanks again.