Brean Sands

A new member Potaton, inspired me to drive out to the coast on Sunday. It was a beautiful day.

Three of my images for your C&C.

I was able to really concentrate and I was trying to get the exposure and DOF right. On the whole I am pleased with the results.

I have my doubts about all three. Compositinally I think the horizon on the shot with the "land yacht" (not sure what they are called) is too central but I like everything else.

The figures on the beach shot again maybe a bit central. Perhaps the shot of the sun is a bit too simple, not enough points of interest.

I think they are all verging on the side of being overexposed, the sun was extremely bright so hopefully this has been conveyed.

I find the coast is such an inspiring place for photography.

Thanks

Thankyou.

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I like these - especially the way you have captured the textures on the ground. The first two have that smoothed tide-out effect and the last has a much more rugged feel to it. Is the last one a mono shot with a light sepia tone, or is it a colour pic (maybe it's my eyes:shock - I rather like it either way...

Regards

Hi Matt, no mono sepia PP I just set the WB to the same temp as the other two and liked the result,+ the usual tweaks. The sun was bleaching a lot of colour which may explain the washed out feel.

I usually tinker with PP too much (especially as I dont really know what I am doing) but on these really quite minimal.

Thanks for your feedback

Lovely shots there Jaspers. It's great to know i've inspired someone!
Please tell me, how did you get such a great exposure? Whenever i try to get (as a dslr newb) the sun/reflections in my photos, they're always blown out.

Hi Potaton, thanks for your kind words.

I can tell you that there is a good deal of trial and error involved in getting the exposure correct (if indeed it is!).I certainly am no expert on this.

Having said that I use the histogram religiously to get the exposure in the right area, in these circumstances I was using aperture priority- to be honest it was so bright I would never have an issue with shutter speed. Then I would use exposure compensation to fine tune. These shots are meant to be on the bright side so I'm expecting the histogram to be generally shifted to the right but without too many clipped highlights.

This approach suits me anyhow

Trial & error indeed! There's a lot to get my head round...I'll get there in the end
Out of curiosity, do you use centre weighted or matrix metering. I'm asking because whenever i use centre weighted, my photos always come out underexposed.

There are people on this forum that are more highly qualified than me to help! But I tend to have the camera in matrix metering mode for landscape shots or when I am outside.

I think when you have lots of light on a large area this would produce the most consistent results. I tend to use centre weighted and even spot when I am photographing people or perhaps something in low light where there is a clear main subject that should be exposed properly at the expense of other areas.

Having said that I wouldnt take much notice as I may be talking claptrap!

Thanks for the tip japers, I'll give that a go.
I managed to retreive exposure & contrast in Xnview, thankfully. However, i don't really want to have to process 200+ photos every time I go on a shoot due to incorrect metering!

Hi Paul

Just a suggestion - but until you have become more familiar with your cameras - why not set the camera to auto bracket mode so you get one slightly under one that the camera thinks is correct and one slightly over exposed image? Many experienced photographers will use auto bracket when light conditions are varied or unpredictable - I often use this function.

Re metering - on landscape best to meter for the the most prevalent light in the shot I find - I tend to stick to centre weighted - but this is personal preference

Another tip for landscape - remember to focus about a 3rd in to the shot - this will give you the best chance of sharp focus all the way through the shot (apologies if I am stating stuff you already know)

Best advice I can give - is keep trying and adjusting and trying again - that's half the fun and never stop learning. Listen to advice for sure - but never take it as gospel - photography is what you make it

Most of all - Have fun!

Carl

Excellent advice from Carl above

For landscapes Neutral Density Graduated filters are very useful - whilst not perfect they can really help balance the exposure in a shot.

These do not have to be expensive - I bought a second set of Cokin 'A' filters, holder and adapter rings from my now defunct local camera shop for about £10 about 6 or 7 ish years ago (I can't recall exactly when).

I prefer the soft grads not the hard (ie the transformation in a soft grad is more gradual than in a hard grad) - it is easy to over do it with grads but they are very useful.

Hope this helps, although you may have alreay known this.



Cheers


stu

I almost forgot - nice shots - number 2 is my favourite