Pacific - Late Afternoon from Seal Rock 2

Please view large.

Looking south.  As you can tell, the sun was very low, making the shot difficult. 

Comments and suggestions are welcome!

Hand held, VERY late afternoon. Without re-doing in post processing,

what could I have done better? I should have taken my polarizing filter

but didn't......

Comments and suggestions welcome!

Hello Diane - Just my humble opinion. I always use a tripod and level the shot. You can use a bubble level if there are none built into your tripod for horizontal shots. You'll need one anyway for vertical shots. Some people just go handheld and level later in Photoshop but they have less control when shooting telephoto or longer exposures.

Make sure your camera is set at the highest quality level and a 100 or less ISO setting. Then work on your composition. In this shot you might have wanted more of the bottom and less of the sky, placing your center of interest on the waves. A lens hood, and slightly different camera angle would have cut the glare on the right of frame.

Hope this has helped.

Regards - Joe Harrison

Joe,

Many thanks for the suggestions.  I was on vacation visiting my brother and didn't want to take a tripod. And, while I had planned on taking the lens hood, I neglected to put it back on when I changed the lens.  Believe me - it's a mistake I won't make again!

The lowest ISO my Sony gives is 200 (and I've been trying to figure out if there is some setting to lower it more) and I shot this at 1/500 at f11.  Would I have been better shooting at a higher f stop?

Diane - You should be able to look up the model of your camera online and there will be a manual there that can tell you how to change your ISO setting. The reason for using the highest possible quality settings is to give you the best possible shot you can get with the camera you're using, and pays off when post editing and making enlargements. I'm as guilty as anyone else when it comes to trying to salvage a garbage shot in a post editing program, when all I really want to do is a color correction, or B&W conversion, re-sizing, etc.

I shoot raw only as well. Of course this is all very subjective and there is a fine line between settings and opinions and how to get a good photo. That's why, as I'm trying to improve my work, my opinions are extremely "humble" and will remain so.

Shooting on manual only, I tend to depend more on the speed than the f-stops. In this shot I probably would have used 1/60 for a hand held that would maintain the depth of field. And since it's digital I'd bracket the shot. You can see what you're getting right away. Slightly overexposed always has less digital noise and can be adjusted in post edit.

I'm trying to get the best shot I can in camera and use Photoshop as a lab where I do slight adjustments only. Quite a challenge.

Regards.

The anonymous button is now turned off. It was never my intention to remain anonymous. In some ways I hate this technology :) Joe

Nice scene.  Beautiful.  I wonder if it would be a little different if the sky is to be cropped a little.  Best Regards,

Joe,

I'm not any near ready to just shoot manual!   Too much right now to remember on the ISO and apeture.  I've got to get those down before I move on to anything else... :)  Maybe one day!

Wanghan,

Thanks for the comments.  I'll play around with the crop of the sky and see what I can do.