Critique - Hot Afternoon In a Samll Texas Town

[oldphot]

Please...oldphot picks up photography again. I am learning.



Canon 20D, 50mm, f9.0, 1/500s, iso100

[ShutteredEye]

I like the composition alot, and the exposure seems pretty good.

I'm not sure I like the woman in the shot. :D

[CaptainTom]

I'll be tough... Sky is washed out. woman is distracting, but does give size perspective.... lamp post coming out of sign......
Ok snapshot, and subject is interesting... just needs a different perspective.

Keep throwing them at us. It is good to look at photos and think "how could this be better". It helps us all...

[oldphot]

Thanks! montainlander and CaptainTom.

Yes, it's a snapshot in a hot Sunday afternoon, sky is of course washout. How can I correct this? Actually I thought of getting rid of the lamppost also before I post but I hesitate. The woman...just happened to be there. I don't know her and I didn't pay too much attention to her...how can you say she is distracting? j/k.

Thanks again. Your comments help me think more.

[Abel]

a circular polarizer will help make the washed out sky a bit more blue...

often times the bright sky will cause a camera metering system to compensate for it etc.. a circular polarizer will help deepen the color of the sky..

[Bill Huber]

I agree with all above.

The polarizer would have made all the difference in the world on this shot.

Here is a link to show just what a polarizer can do.

http://www.pbase.com/otfchallenge/use_of_polarizer_lens

[oldphot]

Thanks Abel and Bill, I'll try CP next time shooting in the high noon. BTW Abel, THIS FORUM IS GREAT! Thanks for running it.

[oldphot]

Questions:

Do I have to set the exposure compensation a stop over when I use the CP? It looks darker with the CP. Also, in the old days when using films it was saying over expose by 1 stop makes pictures look more vivid looking. Does this apply to the digital SLR too? Of course one could post process later but is there any advantage by doing so fo DSLR?

[Bill Huber]

Originally Posted by oldphot

Questions:

Do I have to set the exposure compensation a stop over when I use the CP? It looks darker with the CP. Also, in the old days when using films it was saying over expose by 1 stop makes pictures look more vivid looking. Does this apply to the digital SLR too? Of course one could post process later but is there any advantage by doing so fo DSLR?

Not if you are using the on camera meter, the meter in the camera will take care of all of that for you, it is measuring the light though the filter and the lens.

Now if you are using an off camera meter then yes you will have to adjust the f stop to compensate for the CP.

My thoughts on exposure. You can underexpose and save and image, but if you over expose the data is lost for ever. So never overexpose if you can keep from it.

[CaptainTom]

I'm an old film photog also just getting used to digital.
One of the "problems" with DSLR is that the photo is not finished in the camera. The cameral captures the data, but it is up to you to process the data and come up with what you want in the end. Not dissimilar to film processing and printing, except no chemicals or time delay. I am constantly explaining this to my clients, who expect because it is DSLR that I can pop the compact flash card into their computer and voila, there are the award winning photos.... I wish....
I am shooting a corporate event at Daytona Raceway next week, and the client wants prints of execs and celebs the day after they were shot. Their solution was to "just take them to Walgreens" and have the prints made right from the camera. I may shoot film, and have that processed over night.... talk about going back in time.
Anyway, I think you obviously have the experience to shoot whatever you want. I would suggest some time invested in Photshop techniques, etc.
Digital is really wonderful... l learn something everyday.

[texaswolflady]

Hope you don't mind but I tweaked this pic some to give you an idea of what can be done... :) I am by no means an expert on this but like to play around with pics.........I adjusted the contrast, increased the color, removed some of the wires/lines, cropped it some............

I have Adobe photoshop element 3 and find it a fairly easy program to use...I am still learning what all this program can do but really enjoy it.....

[blonboy]

Hey all, I just wanted to comment on the sky with respect to using a Circular Polarizer.......

Sure, its the best thing to use - especially in this scenario, but for those times when we didnt get the chance to use one I have a solution.

I just posted a thread in the 'Tips' section on how to post-process the Circular Polarizing effect for your photos....

Instead of being redundant, here's a link to the thread.

http://www.texasphotoforum.com/viewt...?p=42923#42923
~blon

[Erin Kathleen]

Do I have to set the exposure compensation a stop over when I use the CP? It looks darker with the CP. Also, in the old days when using films it was saying over expose by 1 stop makes pictures look more vivid looking. Does this apply to the digital SLR too? Of course one could post process later but is there any advantage by doing so fo DSLR?

As a part-time film photographer/transistioning photographer, I can tell you that with film I always expose my portrait work at least 1/2 a stop to 1 stop. It does make the colors pop a bit more and adds more contrast (which should help you in most portraiture work). With digital, I'm hesitant to do this because, as Bill said, you can usually correct for under exposure after the fact, but rarely correct for over exposure. Of course, this means that I end up doing quite a bit of touch ups to get the over exposed, contrasty feel... I guess my point is that this is one of those things that I'm still trying to work out between digital and film. Just my input...

[jeffkohn]

Isn't the advice to overexpose with film only relevant with print film? Print film has plenty of dynamic range and moderately blown highlights can be recovered in developing/printing, that's why it's generally better to overexpose than underxpose.

Things are a little different with slide film; it has considerably less dynamic range and when highlights are blown, there's no recovering them. Also, overexposure will tend to decrease saturation. A lot of the slide shooters recommend underexposing 1/2 stop or so to increase saturation and prevent blown highlights. (Bracketing exposures is also recommended).

Digital has a bit more dynamic range than slide film, but still has similar characteristics as far as the way it responds to overexposure. So you want to avoid blown highlights with digital. You may hear reference to "exposing to the right" with digital to improve signal/noise ratio and that's a good idea, but only as long as you don't blow your highlights.