Newbie shots on the beach

[mattyg1027]

Hi all,


I'm wondering what you guys think of these two pictures of surfers walking into the ocean. Specifically:


a) which do you like better with regard to composition? I like how in the first one there is space in the direction they are walking, but i wish surfer #2 was forward a step or two and surfer #3 (barely pictured) was a step or 2 back. Unfortunately I didn't know these people so they probably thought it weird enough that I was photographing them, let alone if I started directing them. []


b) are they properly exposed? I'm thinking they could have benefited from maybe 1/3 stop less light, to make the sky more vivid and the surfers more silhouetted. would you agree?





Picture 1: Canon xSI / Canon 50 mm f/1.4 - Settings: Av, f/8, 1/1000 s, ISO 200


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Picture 2: Canon xSI / Canon 50 mm f/1.4 - Settings: Av, f/8, 1/800 s, ISO 200


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.41.77/IMG_5F00_0907_5F00_small.JPG[/img]





Any other comments/feedback are welcome as well!





Cheers,


Matt





p.s. first time posting in this forum so please excuse me if I did not follow the rules and or I posted the pictures the wrong way!

[neuroanatomist]

Nice shots!


I prefer the second one from a composition sense (would be even better without the surfer on the left in the picture, though). In the first one, the truncation of the surfboard at the right edge of the frame, and the barely discernible 3rd board poking in bother me.


I agree that the exposure could be adjusted downward a little bit - but, not so much that the surfers become complete silhouettes, as I'd prefer to have enough brightness to distinguish them from their boards.

[mattyg1027]

Thanks for the feedback! I agree the guy getting cut off in the first picture bothers me too. Ah, well...


Here's a few more from the same day at the beach. I welcome any and all feedback!





Picture 1: A wall on the beach. There's not really a particular subject of interest, but I kind of like it as a desktop background type image. I also have a black and white crop of this in a 5"x5" frame that I think looks nice.


Canon xSi, Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro ; Settings: Av, f/4.5, 1/2000s, ISO 200


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.41.77/IMG_5F00_0861_5F00_small.jpg[/img]





Picture 2: Me sneaking up on an unsuspecting sea gull. I half like the picture and half just think it's funny (don't ask me why).


Canon xSi, Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro ; Settings: Av, f/4, 1/4000s, ISO 100


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.41.77/IMG_5F00_0871_5F00_small.jpg[/img]








Picture 3: One of those surfers lost his board in the ocean and I ran up and snapped a pic of it when it landed on the shore as quickly as possible. I wish it was a tad zoomed out, and again, could probably have used a little less light, but I didn't have much time to set up.


Canon xSi, Canon 50mm f/1.4 ; Settings: Av, f/8, 1/250s, ISO 200


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.41.77/IMG_5F00_0920_5F00_small.jpg[/img]





Thanks again for your feedback!


Matt

[neuroanatomist]

Like the first one, definitely better in B&W. Really like the second one, too. Bothered by the very non-level horizon line in #3, but really like the concept.

[mattyg1027]

Interesting point, I hadn't even noticed the steep slope of the horizon until you pointed it out. It should have a slight slant to it though, since I wasn't looking directly out at the ocean, but more like 45 degrees to the right, correct? I'm not disagreeing with you, but just trying to picture if I turned it a few degrees the board would almost be flat, but I recall it sloping downhill from me.


I did this on another shot (skyline), and didn't notice all the buildings were slightly slanted until someone pointed it out to me. Now I can't look at it without seeing it that way, so I tweaked it a bit in Photoshop and am going to reprint it. Maybe I'll post that one in a new thread since it's unrelated, but I should get additional feedback before I go for the $18 20x30 print again . It also has a line in the foreground that slants but I think it is natural, because again, I'm not facing it directly.

[neuroanatomist]

It looks like a bright day,so wouldnt the high ISO be a negative?

He used either ISO 100 or ISO 200 for all the shots. Those ISOs are low. ISO 100 is the lowest possible setting for any Canon dSLR except the 1-series bodies. Also, he was shooting scenes with some bright highlights, and thus may have had Highlight Tone Priority enabled - that function eliminates ISO 100 as an option, so ISO 200 would then be the lowest possible setting.


If I may suggest without offending, you might want to read some tutorials (books, internet) or take an introductory photo class to learn the basics of the 'exposure triangle' (aperture, shutter speed, ISO).

[mattyg1027]

Truth be told, I was probably using the "Auto ISO" setting. These shots were taken in my first 3-6 months using a DSLR, and I wasn't as "aware" of the ISO settings I was using at the time. I knew what it did, but I rarely played with it. If i were shooting this scenario again, I probably would lock it at ISO 100 (lowest on my xSi).


I'm not sure what the "highlight tone priority" setting is, so I can almost assure that I wasn't using that, at least not intentionally []. I remember that I discovered what the "asterisk" button did that day (what's that called, exposure lock?), so I was playing around a lot with that. Probably locking on the sky near the sun with spot metering in the center, and then reframing as needed. Very useful feature, glad I discovered that!

[neuroanatomist]

Auto ISO will choose the lowest ISO it can, while still maintaining adequately high shutter speed for your focal length (in Av mode), or a 'middle' aperture (in Tv mode).


Highlight Tone Priority is a C.Fn (custom function) which attempts to prevent blown highlights. It does that via underexposing by one stop, then increasing exposure during image processing to preserve highlights. That's why ISO 100 is unavailable with HTP enabled (i.e., when set to the minimum of ISO 200, the camera is actually exposing at ISO 100 then processing back up to ISO 200). Note that the 'cost' of highlight preservation is an increase in noise in the shadow regions.


Yes, AE Lock is a very useful feature!

[Dumien]

Totally love the second shot!! I played around a bit (just a tiny tiny bit) with it in DPP: I just edited the overall curve a bit. This should look something like "linear contrast"... I suggest you try using it on the other pictures. If you shot in RAW format you can click on the button right under "Constrast" in the RAW editing window in DPP








Andy

[Sheiky]

Hello, I apologize for the intrusion. I felt as if I must contribute to the theme of your post! I enjoyed your photos,and I wish you many days of luck,on your new hobby! Im still needing to explain my hobby, to the Mrs.! (8

And downsize your photos to 800pixels wide before posting them here [:P] Forum only supports 800 pixels wide.