Sunset tips...

[huntingnut]

These aren't sunset photos, but some sunrise photos I took this morning in Maui.
I realized after I took them that I left the date stamp on. It will make it hard to print these for the wall.

[billythekidrock]

What photo software are you familiar with? The bottom one can be salvaged but the other one will be harder to fix.



I do have the full sized version you posted.

[popeshawnpaul]

They can both be fixed.  Just send them to me or someone with photoshop skills.  Those are some really nice photos Huntingnut.  A perfect example of what I was trying to convey in this post.  Sunrise can be a great time for photos.  My photo of Bryce Canyon in this post is at sunrise...

Phool, there is an issue with depth of field in landscape shots.  Here's what invariably happens...on P or auto mode the camera selects a large aperture and the highest shutter speed it can to compensate for the dark exposure.  However, when it does this it compromises depth of field.  The most common error people make when shooting landscapes is they set their camera up and focus on the background or infinity.  Then the foreground appears blurry and out of focus.  If one were to focus on the foreground, you have much more depth of field behind the focus point and the background will usually be in focus if you are shooting at f16 or so.

When you can't tell if something is in focus because you are shooting at night I use my lens distance measurement on the actual lens.  You will see the glass window on the top of your lens with a scale in feet and usually meters to your distance and focus point depending on the positon of your lens with regard to the focus.  Essentially, when you set your camera up and your subject is 10 feet in front of your lens you don't have to focus...put it on manual and set 10 feet on your lens according to the scale.  It takes some confidence in your equipment but they have that on lenses for a reason...

In your kill photo, backing up and zooming in wouldn't have helped.  In fact, zooming out and shooting close to you would have helped your depth of field...  I would have definitely shot focus on manual as I have detailed in the paragraph previous.  Of course, I would have shot raw.  I would have set the camera to 2nd curtain sync flash and would have tried as many shots as possible without flash.  However, I do think flash was necessary.  I would have also set my aperture to f11 or so...the flash can make up for it.  I would have also set my flash to flash compensation -1 or -2...as I do most of the time anyways.  I hate the blinding in your face shot flash gives you.  Those tips would have brought more of your surrounding in the exposure and would have kept a decent depth of field.

It's easy to armchair quarterback now, but after you shoot a great deer and you have a great sunset the last thing you want to think of is camera settings.  I would be thinking it's time for a brew...  I can go back and nitpick all my photos as I see the flaws in them all.  Great photo once again.

Shawn

[huntnphool]

Once again Pope thanks for the tips. I am going to have to look up "flash compensation" never heard of it before.

We did take lots of pics but they all looked great on the camera LCD, you couldnt tell they were out of focus.

[smdave]

How is this huntnpool?

[huntnphool]

Very cool Smdave the sky looks much sharper

[huntingnut]

Billy unfortunately I am not familiar with any photo software. I have played with the one that came with my camera and computer but not much other than that. I was going to try to play with it when we get home. Thanks for the fix it does look a lot better without the date stamp. That picture was taken with a point and shoot. One of these days I will invest in a SLR and start playing around.
Shawn it was your tips that actually gave me that shot. We where waiting to get on the boat to go snorkeling and I saw that tree and the sun coming up. I knew it would make a great photo.
Thanks everyone,
Shawn

[popeshawnpaul]

I'm glad it helped.  That shot without the tree would have been interesting, but it is amazing with the tree.  That tree just has character that you don't see often.  I truly think that is one of the better tropical sunset pictures I've seen.  For me, it evokes emotion and that's what makes a picture for me. 

I would love it if you could send me the one with datestamp 10:01 on it full size and I will take out the date stamp, touch up a couple minor issues, and send it back to you.  Depending on the size it was shot at it could be blown up I think...  I got this feeling my wife would want me to print it out and put it on our wall...it is just her style.   

[huntingnut]

That would be great, that one was also my favorite of the two. How do you want me to send it to you?