Mountain Sunset

ecapsecaps Registered Users Posts: 6 Beginner grinner
edited September 27, 2008 in Landscapes
Just joined today, with my 2nd post. There are so many good photographers here. I haven't commented yet on anyone's photographs, since I'm still such a noob at this. Still trying to learn, read and apply as much as I can.

This is a WV Mountain Sunset Pic I took a few weeks back comments and opinions welcomed.

Specs:
f/8, 2.5 shutter-speed, ISO-100.


Middle_Mountain_WV_Sunset.jpg

Comments

  • jeffmeyersjeffmeyers Registered Users Posts: 1,535 Major grins
    edited September 26, 2008
    Welcome to Dgrin! I hope you like the forum. Nice first image. The only nit I have is that it's a bit noisy and because of that the contrast and color are a bit flat. But you could work on that by processing it a bit differently.
    More Photography . . . Less Photoshop [. . . except when I do it]
    Jeff Meyers
  • JenGraceJenGrace Registered Users Posts: 1,229 Major grins
    edited September 27, 2008
    This could be a beautiful scene with the contrast between the layered hills and the vibrant sky. I agree about the noise though. Sometimes graininess works, but not for this one.
    Jen

    Gallery of mine...caution, it's under CONSTANT construction! | Photo Journal

    In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary. ~Aaron Rose
  • ecapsecaps Registered Users Posts: 6 Beginner grinner
    edited September 27, 2008
    Jeff/Jen (anyone else)...

    I noticed the noise/graininess some last night and now a little more after giving my eyes a break this morning...haha

    I have an earlier post, where I took a night-time bridge pic and I even thought parts of it were noisey, while others were very sharp and detailed.

    Picture #2 in this thread
    http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=106928

    Jeff mentioned this could be fixed perhaps by processing it differently.

    First, would someone be able to give me some pointers tips as to how to go about correcting this image.

    Below is the orginial image I shot. It was shot in RAW mode. I even noticed it was a little noisey then.

    Secondly, I noticed my camera has several settings in it, one which is a Noise Reduction option of (Low/Standard/High). I had noise reduction set to high, which according to the manual states: Noise reduction effect is enhanced. Picture resolution may deteriorate slightly. Should I change this to low or standard.

    Third, could it be my camera perhaps has a limitation since it isn't a true dSLR? (Hopefully, not too much, that can't be compensated for) It's a Lumix FZ8, which I guess would be classified as an advanced point and shoot.

    Image before any pp in CS3 Extended. Basically, the only things I did were decrease the exposure by -2, increase the saturation and make tone/curve adjustments. I was attempting to lighten up the foregroud for one & also make the evening sky a bit more dynamic.

    I think I have decent eye for photographing, but my pp leaves something to be desired.

    Thx in advanced for help....hopefully someday I will have some knowledge to repay and pass along.

    P1000445.jpg
  • jeffmeyersjeffmeyers Registered Users Posts: 1,535 Major grins
    edited September 27, 2008
    Ecaps,

    Did I read right that you had a 2.5 sec exposure on this? That's one of the reasons for the noise. The other is your camera. You have a small sensor in that point and shoot. Low light shots like this will inevitably be noisy, especially with longer shutter speeds.

    The in-camera noise reduction will help some, but it will not give the kind of quality reduction you will get with PS CS3 (or 4) or a dedicated noise-reduction plug in.

    I suspect that if you want to shoot scenes like this and get great quality, you'll need to get a camera that can handle these low light situations. Just my 2 cents.
    More Photography . . . Less Photoshop [. . . except when I do it]
    Jeff Meyers
  • ecapsecaps Registered Users Posts: 6 Beginner grinner
    edited September 27, 2008
    jeffmeyers wrote:
    Ecaps,

    Did I read right that you had a 2.5 sec exposure on this? That's one of the reasons for the noise. The other is your camera. You have a small sensor in that point and shoot. Low light shots like this will inevitably be noisy, especially with longer shutter speeds.

    The in-camera noise reduction will help some, but it will not give the kind of quality reduction you will get with PS CS3 (or 4) or a dedicated noise-reduction plug in.

    I suspect that if you want to shoot scenes like this and get great quality, you'll need to get a camera that can handle these low light situations. Just my 2 cents.
    Jeff,

    You are correct. I did have a 2.5 sec exposure on that shot. It was getting pretty dark when I took the pic and when I ran a test shoot, it was going to be way underexposed according to the histogram reading. So it was either up the slow down the shutter speed or give it a lower f-number to get it balanced. I wasn't sure what to do, open the aperture more or slow down the shutter speed. I decided that since I wanted max DOF I would slow the shutter down.

    I realilze that my camera isn't a D40 or some of that nature. As I mentioned I'm a total noob and I didn't want to drop a lot of coin at the moment, so I went somewhere in the middle?

    As a side note, assuming I can clean this up a little in CS3...would I be able to get an image like this printed so that it looks decent?

    I'm thinking 8x10, 5x7 size(s)? The camera so far does just about everything I need want it to do at this time.

    Thx
Sign In or Register to comment.