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Hi,

there was a beautiful sunrise a few days ago and I had my camera with me. I took a number of shots. The colours came out very nice in the sky and reflecting on the sand, but they look a bit dark to me. I still like them, but I was hoping to make them better with a bit of PP.

I tried to brigthen them up with PP, but couldn't really get it right. When this is the case, do I play with saturation, brightness, colour levels, curves



D70s
Kit Lens
1/30 shutter
3.5 aperture
18mm focal length
200 ISO



D70s
Kit Lens
1/200 shutter
10.0 aperture
70mm focal length
200 ISO

Looking at the exif data, the first image probably should have a different aperture, would make the beach sharper, but I guess then I would probably a tripod then, or increase ISO.

Any help and pointers appreciated,

André

Hi Andre

beautiful shots

I would suggest a tripod that way you can use longer shutter speed like 2 secs, this will will give you a brighter image and it will make the water look more silky, a nice effect.

there isn't much you can do in photoshop woth curves if the original image has many flat tones(the sand)

Andre - the second shot is very nice - rich in colour. Just one suggestion would be to straighten the pic otherwise the ship might slip behind the headland

Nice pics Andre... They don't look too dark to me...

One thing that might imprive the first one is to crop off the bottom 40% and turn it into a Panorama format... That would present the best part of the photo in the best light in my view...

radar wrote:Hi,

I tried to brigthen them up with PP, but couldn't really get it right. When this is the case, do I play with saturation, brightness, colour levels, curves

Looking at the exif data, the first image probably should have a different aperture, would make the beach sharper, but I guess then I would probably a tripod then, or increase ISO.

André

Hi Andre,

Here's a quickie that I did on your first image. I upped the gamma, used a slight S curve and boosted saturation, resharpened.



When shooting landscapes, I try to use the hyperfocal focus method. For example, at 18mm, f/11 with focus at 3.5ft, would have almost the whole frame in focus. For sunsets, I usually underexpose by about .6EV, but it really depends on the scene and prolly would have been too much on this particular shot.

I like this shot a great deal. I'd have also shot several different angles of it and one of them would have been to move closer to the very wet sand area, about 1/4 up from the bottom of the frame and then got down low to the ground to emphasize the lovely reflections in the wet sand.

Of course, you'd need a tripod or something to steady the camera. Upping the ISO on underexposed shots usually results in too much noise.

Thanks for all the great feedback,

followed some of your recommendations, and tried my hand again at PP.



Much better result

I'll try it again with a tripod, next time I get a nice sunrise and I'm getting one of those bubble level spirit at the AW to stop those coal ships from sliding in the cliff

Thanks again to all,

Radar.