mazyare

Alright, here I am, thanks to beansbaxter for getting me started.

These are a few of the pictures I shot when visiting a beautiful neighborhood in Issaquah. I'll be happy to get comments/critics about them.

The camera is a Sony DSC-S85 digital camera. Focal Length=7mm


Aperture=2.8
Exposure=1/80
ISO-100


I had a challenge on this next one. I wanted to capture the fluffiness of the clouds and the depth of it if you know what I mean, and at the same time have the mountain details (trees, ...) visible. I wasn't successful, the mountains are too dark.


Aperture=6.3
Exposure=1/500
ISO-100

When I increased the total amount of light coming in the camera by changing to Ap=8 and Exposure=1/40 I got the following:


A little bit over exposed I suppose. The mountain has (more than) enough light now, but I lost that quality in the clouds.

(I have moved between taking the two shots, so it is not the ideal case for comparison, but let's use it as a starter).

What am I missing? Would a setting of Ap=7.1, Exp=1/125 (or 1/250) give me a better result? Do I need a different lens/filter to do this?

Thank you,
Mazyar

jezterr

... can you get a different lens for your camera?

if you have the option, i'd get a gradient filter. what it'll do is darken the upper portion of your field of view, evening out the exposure between the sky and the landscape. since the camera is a point and shoot, i would just resort to taking two images, at exactly the same position, but with different exposures, metering for the sky and land, and then combining them into one image.

__________________

JayT

for the cloud and mountains, auto-bracket to try to get the correct exposure. Merge via HDR if you still can't get what you want.

__________________
JayTPhotos.com

mazyare

Thanks for the feedback. That was fast, I'm impressed. The camera has a full manual mode which I use. The Ap. and Ex. and other settings can be set manually. Given that, would you think a different setting (like the ones I mentioned above) would give a better result?

I'm thinking of getting an SLR. I'm thinking between Canon and Nikon. So far Canon EOS 40D is on my list for the body. I will start a new thread for that topic.

Thank you,
Mazyar

beansbaxter

Hey Mazyar, glad to see you on here!

__________________
“The camera’s only job is to get out of the way of making photographs.”
-- Ken Rockwell

beansbaxter.com is my blog.

mazyare

I'm new to the lingo, what does auto-bracket mean? Having the camera select one of the settings (Ap or Ex) and myself selecting the other one?

And again, what does merging and HDR mean in this context?

BTW, Am I using the correct terms/abbreviations when I say Ap. and Ex. (for shutter time?)

Thank you,
Mazyar

mazyare

Good to hear from you. Thanks for the invitation!

jezterr

auto bracketing, if your camera has the feature, allows you to take 3 images (sometimes 5) at different exposures - underexposed, correctly exposed, and over exposed. often, if it's available to you, it gives you the option of how much you want the under and over exposed pictures to be, whether it's one stop or 2, or something in between. doing this allows you to choose which exposure you prefer between the several images generated of that one scene.

you can also do this manually, as you did with the two images, only you may have benefited from taking a third shot with the settings in between the first two.

concerning the terms, hdr is a method of combining several differently exposed images of the same scene to create an overall properly exposed image.

aperture and shutter speed (time) all contribute to your exposure. aperture and shutter speed are what you can control, and the exposure is the result. each controls a different element of the image, and the combination of the two affect how the image looks.

__________________