Maybe its partecipants won't take it good but i think im speaking the truth.
You know,after all that is not my problem,i am just trying to point a guy in the right direction and typing a couple of good words in front of a bad picture is the simplest thing a user can do.
I do read a couple of photographic forums,i know people which would always state a friend of their's picture is awesome,whatever the picture is.
I know that attitude and i reject it.
We're all friends,i know,but when i say that a picture lacks a bit of composition i think im just suggesting its photographer to reconsider that picture a bit.It's not offensive,it's not disrespectful,it's just me telling my opinion about something and you,reader and photographer,have the option to read and learn from it or simply ignore it.
That's your choice,i may be wrong but i felt like saying those things.
I could stop but since this thread in particular gathers such a different variety of people which share the same passion(at different levels) i think that any good suggestion can only be of help.
If not,just ignore me and continue straight with your things.
I do agree with you.
I just said that the picture isn't very interesting because those light spots aren't really catching the attention considering the environment isn't that well lit as well.
If it was me,i would have tried to gain access to the harbour and find some good and interesting point of views.There is more light down there and more things to photograph as well.
You know,a black sea and a black hill which occupies a good half of the frame isn't that interesting,but,again,that's just my opinion.
No one is telling Electric Eye not to try again,maybe he doesn't know certain things about photography or maybe,like many of us,he can't really judge a picture he took himself in an objective way.
One way around this would be to have people post "constructive criticisms welcomed" or something if they want a critique. Otherwise, critics can bite their tongues.
Only insanely big watermarks are a free ticket to hurt here...
Yeah, there were a lot of black in those frames but maybe give him couple of tips how to compose differently to avoid them? Drop the horizon to lower part of the frame and run long exposure to get fluid clouds going past in moonlight? Or post-crop? Or maybe try a HDR (actually compressed dynamic range but anyhow) approach with multiple exposures to keep the super bright highlights in check and having more detail in the clouds or ground?
It's no-ones interest to sugar coat but you were quick to dismiss and still haven't delivered much useful feedback.
I don't mind people saying whats wrong with it as long as the same time they can tell me how I could improve it or what I've done wrong instead of stating that their phone would've taken a better picture (tah for the info mate).
And as gay as the next sentence will sound... It's not what you said, it's the way you said it! Can't we all just be nice to each other, and I don't mean by that lying and not telling the truth, but there are different ways it can be told. Instead of just saying that you suck, you could instead mention that it ain't good and give some hints on how to make it better(Yes I used repetition in order to establish my point, I'm just that clever).
It's just a matter of time.
If you wait for the ambient light to drop to almost 0 and then you expose for the lights the only thing you will get is a black picture with coloured dots on it.
Instead,try to reach your position much earlier and start taking pictures as the sun goes lower into the sky.
Sun intensity and artificial light intensity must be pretty much the same in order to get a properly exposed pictures.
The only way to get a good picture is to have the stongest and the dimmest light source within your camera's dynamic range,otherwise some detail will get lost in either pure black or white.
Were those comments aimed at my photo's, or was it still regarding electric eye's pictures? If so, thanks for the tip. The thing is, it was already getting dark when i decided to take a walk and take some pictures.
That's why most of the pictures i made are too dark, and have a blue shade over them, somehow. I tried fixing it in PS, without much succes, unfortunately.
The fact is your camera's light meter likes to measure light onto an 18% gray surface.
So,the measurement is accurate only if you use a 18% gray surface as a model.
Pure white,like snow,reflects about 2 more stops of light to the meter so,in order to have a proper exposure,you must set a +2 bias inside your camera.
If,like me,you don't want to think about it too much just do it properly and learn a bit about each color reflection.
You will discover that purple reflects less light than,say,yellow...
I am getting used to shoot in manual,i just measure the light onto a medium tone surface,check that the light is consistent all over the frame and then i click the shutter button.
Also,don't try to get your White balance right at the scene.Just shoot raw and do it properly at home.
It will save you time and allow you to finer tune the color temperature of your image.
The first two images you posted look underexposed and blueish.
The third one is better,but it would have required just a bit more light.
It was aimed at yours, because except for the bench shot, they're noticeably under-exposed. As IlGuercio says, snow makes for a bright scene, but your camera doesn't know what it's looking at and tries to produce an image of "average" brightness, so you need to over-ride it and force it to produce a brighter image.
I wouldn't take +2 as gospel; if I dial in +2 Ev on my camera for a snowy scene, I'll get stacks of blown highlights. It's a question of each camera's metering system as to when you need to use exposure compensation, and by how much.
Thanks, that's some really helpful information.
Though, i had my doubts about using exposure bias as i thought it would only make the picture worse, instead of improving it.
Specially when making a snow picture, as the snow already is really bright, i thought increasing that value would only make the frame even brighter.
Unfortunately i didn't get the chance to experiment while at the scene, due to friends who wanted to move on. I will certainly give it another go on my own though. That is, if it's going to stay this cold. I believe the snow is already melting again..
I recently started a "Project 365" series, which I'm hoping will help keep me focused on photography this year and encourage me to seek out imagery in everyday life. Well, that's the plan anyway I strongly encourage anyone that's looking to push their photography a little harder to take part in a project like this. Mine is at http://projects.p365.org/simonh