Just for Fun No C&C will be given: Any Helpfull Hints?

Hi Mindy, it would help if you told us a little about what you were trying to do/say/capture with these photos.

It's hard to guess at what you think needs improvement here.

I see sunset shots where the foreground is completely dark in order to correctly expose the sun lit sky. Is that not what you wanted?

It is very difficult, with DSLRs to capture a scene like this and have the foreground light enough to show details without the sky becoming over exposed. DSLRs simply don't have enough dynamic range to do so.

You can try a technique called HDR which uses multiple exposures combined to capture both sky and foreground, but it requires a tripod, and multiple exposures.

From the EXIF data, it looks as though your camera was on Auto, which causes the camera to try to correctly expose the sky, to the detriment of the foreground.

You could try shooting again, but try "locking the exposure" for the foreground with the AE Lock button. This will probably result in a blown out sky, but your foreground will be better exposed.

Good luck,

Minde, I've gone through exactly this same process. I learned a lot in this thread. Hope it helps!

Sorry I guess I should have explained what I was trying to get hints for. I'm Just starting out in photography and learning about composition. I was kind of wondering what you thought about that. The foreground actually is a little lighter than what I wanted cause I was trying to sillouette it. That is a cemetary in the foreground but its too far away to be interesting and too close to expose for it. At some point I may get closer and include it.

Thank you Rachel! That is so encouraging!!!

Minde, this is a great place to learn as long as you're willing to accept tough criticism. For my part, the tougher the better. I figure it's the only way I'll learn.

And welcome to OPF!

Hello Minde:
The recent thread that Rachel called-out contains just about all I have to say on the subject of photographing sunsets, sunrises, auroras, tornadoes, funky clouds, etc.

But given your remark in #4 I'll add this: Photography is all about making decisions. What should you include? Exclude? What are you trying to show? You're drawing a rectangle around a scene.

The hell with "composition". If you concentrate on "composition" by self-studying on the Internet you're virtually guaranteed to produce thousands of dull, lifeless, and uninspired photos. The overwhelming majority of stuff you'll find online is utter crap offering little to see and nothing of thought.

Instead, concentrate on using a camera to show people what you see. If you can just stop trying to mimic what you think a good photograph should look like and just devote your mind's eye towards using a camera to show us what you see you'll be surprised as how satisfying photography will become for you. This is precisely the dimension that most amateurs with no art training miss entirely. And, no, this is not a skill solely useful for producing artsy photography. It's fundamental for being consistently successful with all types photography.

Loosen up, pitch the golden triangles, the rules of thirds, etc., at least for next few years. Show us what you see and how you see it.

BTW, a scene like the first image has some strong graphic possibilities. Undulating tree tops, mottled clouds, saturated sky. Perhaps that's what you saw? Work on your camera skills (focus, exposure) and use a tripod for that type of scene.

Listen to Ken... That's my advice.

Minde,

Let me share with you that a favorite picture of mine is one Ken made showing an undulating silhouette of bare trees with birds. Look at post #3 and # 6 here, that's what he saw.

Your picture has a little of that. Being able to cleanly get that to a concept you want to execute as a photograph, your vision does not require a camera to start with! At least, that's my view of things. For my boys, we would go out walking the streets taking photographs. I've told it before but it might be worth repeating. The "camera" each child had was just a frame of the thumb and forefinger of each hand made into a framing rectangle. With that, we'd go about finding things to photograph. Each time we'd stop somewhere interesting, each person would crouch, climb, come close or just show no interest or may walk around and find their own persepective.

After a lot of these walks, I lent the children my camera and several of them became accomplished photographers, one shooting for Elite.

The most obviously beautiful things like a sunset are difficult to photograph and get one's own novel view. Either it's boring and doesn't have the power and majesty one felt or else it is a pretty postcard picture that one will not remember from all the other like images that crowd our brains every day.

So the thing to do is to find something that really is interesting and work on photographing just that for a while with one lens. Do the best you can. Make a print of something special and draw on it what you'd like to change. Then go back and shoot some more. After you are drained, go and watch an old movie, go to the museum or watch folk in the park. Find another subject.

This way, you will be working to express what you see and feel. You then can be constantly asking yourself how you can show these personal things better.

Unfortunately the modern camera is built to make getting images easy. So folk take a lot of pictures with no compass and goal. Photography, at it's best requires lining up things. From inside one's head to the subject and then to how it might appear when delivered. I cannot get into my frame what I want most of the time. So it's a constant struggle. Often I discover things by accident on the way when I look at the image on the screen. However, one can't just rely on accidents.

I find that the best photography comes from mental preparation from focusing on what energizes you and you find compelling. You might have to work on ideas and come back to a place many times at the right time to really get to know how to make that photograph work the way you feel.

I'm glad you chose this first picture. It does have the edge of beauty in it as Ken noted too. That's the beginning. Maybe don't just think of the sunset as the sky but rather that light on the things that catch your interest. Then you are doing something much more personal.

Of course, Ken already said much of this and more succinctly, but mine is a slightly different perspective with a prescription for just one way way to approach this effort.

Asher

Thank you guys so much for you input! That definately gives me things to think about and changes things a bit. I've been so worried about "good composition" That I forgot to just be free and shoot what I really see and what I want other people to see.

An unrelated ... but not really unrelated ... anecdote.

I recall seeing, several years ago, a news story about a photographer who had donated her time and money toward a Make-A-Wish type program to give cameras to terminally ill children. The images these children recorded -- specifically the subject selections and framings -- were absolutely breathtaking particularly given the context. For starters, since most of the kids were in wheelchairs the points of view were nearly universally lower than normal. According to the photographer nearly every participant produced some sit-you-right-down images, and looking at some samples I could well believe it. (Sadly, I cannot relocate online references to this program.)

Like swimming, perhaps photographic seeing is actually something we un-learn with age and "wisdom".

It's interesting to consider what photographs you might take if you had, say, a month to live.

What a great thought Ken. We would really have a different idea about what we photograph. It would be more about what we want to leave behind of ourselves and how we want to be remembered, rather than things we want to remember ourselves. I wil ponder this line of thinking before the time I go out to shoot.

Minde Grantham said:

What a great thought Ken. We would really have a different idea about what we photograph. It would be more about what we want to leave behind of ourselves and how we want to be remembered, rather than things we want to remember ourselves. I will ponder this line of thinking before the time I go out to shoot.

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Minde,

Yes, one should value one's life and not squander time. I don't think it's necessary nor desirable to imagine one has the tragedy of life cut short. That's around us anyway. I'd rather celebrate life's vitality. One way or another death is always there. I just don't want to give the guy with a sickle too much ego!

I have often thought that one of the objects of art, besides earning a living and expressing oneself in a creative way is to become immortal. We try to make ourselves relevant while we live and hopefully worth remembering. Often the most anti-social traders wind up being philanthropic in their later years, LOL! We know we cannot overcome death, not yet, but at least we prolong, improve and even lionize people's memory of us, by connecting ourselves with the public good.

For us, we'd better to art worthy of our values. I really believe that expressing oneself is the best route to any of these possible purposes of art. To do that simplify things starting with your own way of looking. Walk around. Imagine. Return. Frame and reframe. Consider what seems important and fascinating to you. How are things pleasing and how can you show this. It should be of you.

Maybe a start to doing sunsets is not to do them at all! Look at as many pictures of sunsets until you can take no more! Then put that theme aside and do something else. Afterwards, you will come back to these moving skies but you will be armed with your own views on things.

Asher