A few of my images, C&C please

The first two were taken with my old PowerShot A590IS, so I'm looking more for input on composition technique rather than camera settings on these as the input is quite limited... (click images for bigger size)
<p style="text-align: center;"][url="http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs35/f/2008/307/3/f/Don__t_get_the_camera_wet_by_dplax.jpg]http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs35/f/20...t_by_dplax.jpg[/url]
<p style="text-align: center;"]Canon Powershot A590IS F/4.0, 1/400s, 6mm (about 36-37mm in full format terms), ISO80
<p style="text-align: center;"]I think I was holding the camera about 2-3 cm from the water...
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<p style="text-align: center;"][i][url="http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs46/f/2009/224/f/3/Grasshopper_by_dplax.jpg]http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs46/f/20...r_by_dplax.jpg[/url][/i]
<p style="text-align: center;"]Canon Powershot A590IS F/5.5, 1/251s, 23mm (about 130mm in full format terms), ISO80
<p style="text-align: center;"]I really wasn't sure how to crop this picture, crop here is minimal
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<p style="text-align: left;"]This last one was taken with an EOS500D, and I tried playing a lot with settings, but ended up unhappy with the picture. Ideally, since flash was not allowed, I should have set up the tripod, taken another picture at a slower shutter speed to grab the details on the cross and surrounding walls and then do an HDR merge. But due to time constraints that was not possible and my hands aren't steady enough for hand holding the camera for that long... So I'm really interested in tips on making similar shots better.
<p style="text-align: center;"][url="http://th06.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2010/236/6/1/Votive_Church_by_dplax.jpg]http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/20...h_by_dplax.jpg[/url]
<p style="text-align: center;"]Canon EOS500D, Sigma AF 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG macro at 48mm, f/2.8, 1/640s, ISO3200
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<p style="text-align: left;"]Thanks for any tips!
<p style="text-align: left;"]Patrick

Hi Patrick,


Interesting shots! Here are some specific comments:


#1) The horizon isn't level, needs a few degrees of clockwise rotation. Might have been nice if you could have pulled back just a little so the reflection of the top of the building wasn't cut off.


#2) I'd compose/crop tight enough for just wood and insect, so the subject is the only green in the image and you get a better view of the interesting texture of the wood as well. Also, I think a vertical composition would be better for the shot.


#3) Scenes like this are a challenge! First off, if you were not shooting RAW you should be especially for a shot like this, since RAW allows you to recover the image much, much better than JPG. The first thing I notice is about the image as shot - you're at ISO 3200 which is fairly noisy on the 500D, but you're also at 1/640 s shutter speed and a focal length of 48mm. Even with a reasonable safety margin (say, 1/160 s shutter speed which is double the 1/focal length approximation for handholding), you could have achieved an equivalent exposure with much lower noise at ISO 800.


While HDR would have been an excellent choice, it's not always possible to set up a tripod in a church, either. The highlights are well-protected - perhaps a little too well, since the white areas of the glass clip in blue or green, but usually not both and not all three. Generally, clipping in the white part of a stained glass window is tolerable, although you want to preserve the highlight detail in the faces. So, with only a single shot to take, I'd have pushed the exposure a bit to the right (2/3 - 1 stop) to open up the shadows, then done some highlight recovery in post processing. One related option would have been to take several exposures (+0.5 EC, +1 EC, +1.5 EC), not for HDR (although I've done that successfully with the 8 fps on a 7D) but to select the exposure that allows you to recover the shadows best while preserving the highlights. Some programs (e.g. DxO) allow a pseudo-HDR from a single RAW image, or you can process your single RAW image with different exposures (and noise reduction settings) in your favorite RAW converter, then fuse those in something like Photomatix. If you'd care to make the RAW image available (e.g. with yousendit.com, which allows you to share large files for free), I'd be happy to have a go...


Hope that helps...


--John

Hi John,


First of all thanks for your very helpful comments!


#1) Unfortunately going further back wasn

I agree with John on most of his points and I will add one for pic #3. I think if the cross were lowered slightly so the circle with the adult and child were unobstructed, and had the cross just below them, would improve this photo. That may not have been possible though. As you would have to move back and/or get higher.


Braden

John, regarding #3, the original RAW file is available here: patrickdurham.net/.../339.CR2

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Originally Posted by patham

John, regarding #3, the original RAW file is available here

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Ok, Patrick, here's my attempt at recovery from the RAW file:


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer-Components-UserFiles/00-00-00-35-15/StainedGlassRecovery.jpg[/img]

Wow...that

Quote:

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Originally Posted by patham

Any chance you could explain the workflow on this so I can learn?

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Certainly. Would have done so earlier, but I ran out of time between meetings. It was not much of a workflow, to be honest. I used DxO Optics Pro, and first I downloaded the necessary module (500D + Sigma 24-70 f/2.8), added +0.67 EV exposure adjustment, set the DxO Lighting (HDR) parameter to Auto - High, and processed the image.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by patham

Now I also understand better your previous comment on the ISO...while the grainyness wasn't as readily visible on the stained glass, the cross in front of it looks very grainy...

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Yep. Noise is always more evident in the shadows (where there is less signal), and bumping up the EV to open up the shadows increases the visibility of the noise. I find ISO 3200 on my 7D to be a bit too noisy for my taste (and it's a little better there than the T1i/500D I started with). ISO 1600 is tolerable, but I prefer to keep the ISO at 800 or less when possible. ISO 3200 on my 5DII is much better, but I still stay under 1600. Also, I've found that DxO does a better job at noise reduction than DPP.


--John

The third photo is beautiful, Patrick and very nice editing, John! I don

Would it be possible to do the same single image pseudo HDR with Lightroom?


Patrick

Quote:

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Originally Posted by patham

Would it be possible to do the same single image pseudo HDR with Lightroom?

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I don't know if I'd call it 'the same' but a Google search for Lightroom HDR gives many hits, and the first one (Creating an HDR-like Image From a Single RAW File in Lightroom) seems to be what you're looking for, although it's a lot more work than I went through. There's also a Photomatix plugin for LR.


FWIW, one of the reasons that I got DxO was for better NR and lens-specific corrections (LR has them now, too, but DxO's are better for a variety of reasons). But, I've never used LR (and I'd likely go with Aperture for that type of application). DxO is really just a RAW converter, without the other features of image management that LR offers; but, DxO is really good at what it does. I previously posted a comparison with DPP.

My comment would be for the third shot. You

Let's call this one #4. =) This is the unedited RAW file, just converted to JPEG and resized for web via Lightroom. No other editing has been done.
<p style="text-align: center;"][url="http://patrickdurham.net/img/cigarette.jpg]http://patrickdurham.net/img/cigarette.jpg[/url]
<p style="text-align: center;"](click for bigger size)
<p style="text-align: center;"]Canon EOS 500D, Sigma 24-70mm EX DG Macro @ 70mm, f/6.3, 1/400s, ISO100 (no flash)





I'm quite interested in critique/editing tips for this shot as it is one of the more artistic shots that I've attempted. I'm not sure how much empty space to leave on the right of the shot when cropping and I'm also not sure whether the shot would work better as black and white or as a colour picture (with some post-processing).





Any and all suggestions are very much welcome!

Hi patham,


Great shot! Does the 500D have spot metering? Your face is a little underexposed. Nice and sharp though. Personally I

Damian,


The subject is actually not me, but a friend of mine. ;) The 500D does indeed have spot metering. As for the exposure, since the image was shot in RAW that would be quite easy to correct.


Thanks for your comments!


Patrick

As a scientist, I can't condone smoking. But in a shot like this, I find myself wanting to see the smoke...