Need help with a new picture

[arnie]

Yeah, I definitely agree, the first comment below the second photo was a little blunt.

I just expressed my opinion. I could have written 10 sentences saying the same thing, but this would have been a waste of time (both writing and reading those sentences). I am sorry if I offended you.

[rohank4284]

Hello,

Thank you Paul, for all of the great advice. However, if you look at the original photo it really wasn't all that back lit, in the second photo I tried reducing the exposure to make the sky look normal, but that destroyed the quality of the plane. It's true, you really can't fix a bad shot. As for me using this DSLR, the major problem was that I had only bought the camera two days before this photo, and used landscape mode, which shot the photo at very low shutter speed and the camera was unsteady, leading to the blurry photo.

IMO, this photo could have worked if the quality was there in the original shot because the lighting while not great, wasn't terrible either. This shot was taken around 7:52 pm MST in late May, when the sun was getting lower in the sky but under the actual conditions, the plane really wasn't really or maybe slightly backlit, though it may appear backlit from this photo. The sun set around 8:35 pm. Maybe, it was too close to the sunset. Possibly had I taken this photo 10 minutes earlier it might have worked. Also, the photo has some window glare near the cockpit. According to most of the replies, I believe that the photo has an acceptable amount of clutter. Maybe, trying the manual modes or getting a better lens might help. Would the Canon EF 28-105 mm lens been better for these kinds of photos than the standard EF 18-55mm one?

Hopefully, next time I might get a chance to shoot this plane as it comes into the gate, which might yield a much better photo.

Just a quick question: supposing the quality had been a lot better and the photo representing the true lighting, could this photo have passed as dawn/dusk photo?

As for your settings I saw you had 1/50 shutter speed and f/5.6. Handheld you have to be extremely steady to get a somewhat clear shot. At those numbers you should be using a tripod. Try to venture into your camera's manual settings. Try TV or Av mode. Set ISO to 100. Set f/stop to somewhere around 8 in good lighting and open it up more when the light begins to fade. In Tv mode your shutter speed has to be atleast the focal length of the shot. So if you are taking a shot a 70mm your shutter speed has to be atleast 1/70, a shot at 100mm, 1/100, etc. The purpose of a DSLR is to use the manual modes. A DSLR in Auto mode is just as good as a P&S.

-Chris

Chris when you mean opening up the f/stop do you mean going from f/7.6 to f/9.0 or higher or did you mean going from say f/7.6 to f/5.6. According to my understanding you state if the shutter speed is around 1/70 it should correspond to f/7.6?

Arnie: When I first read your reply last night, I felt it to be a little blunt. However, I now understand that you were trying to get the point. It is my fault that I forgot to mention that the second photo wasn't meant for the queue, it was meant as digital photo processing practice. I didn't take any offense to your comments and I appreciate your help.

Thank you,

Rohan

[PMN]

"However, if you look at the original photo it really wasn't all that back lit, in the second photo I tried reducing the exposure to make the sky look normal, but that destroyed the quality of the plane."

It destroyed the quality of the plane because the backlighting ruined the overall contrast and look of the image, Rohan, so by the time you've burned the highlights in behind you end up with very unnatural looking light overall. Believe me, it really is quite backlit! The simple way to tell is that the sky behind is dramatically brighter than the white fuselage of the aircraft in front. White being very reflective, the reverse would generally be true if the light were coming from the opposite side.

One thing I would recommend if you're fairly new to the world of the DSLR is read the manual that came with your camera. Then read it again... And then again if necessary. The more knowledge you have of how your camera works, the more you can tell it what to do and the better your images will be. Unfortunately no exposure mode or technique can 'un-backlight' a backlit scene, but in most circumstances your images will benefit by using one of the semi-automatic modes and making adjustments to the exposure according to the conditions you're shooting in.

Paul

[rohank4284]

Hello Paul,

Thank you for explaining why the photo was backlit. True, I have pictures earlier in the evening of that plane and you're right, the fuselage was very reflective. Checking back on timeanddate.com the sunset in Denver on May 28th was at 8:15 pm and the photo was shot at 7:52 pm, my photos shot about 25 minutes earlier were much sharper and weren't backlit. I guess the circumstances at this time were against me as the photo was taken too close to the sunset. I probably could have gotten a much better photo at this angle if I had taken the photo about 10-15 minutes earlier when they moved practically away including the catering trucks and the baggage carts. After completely reading the manual, I now understand the manual modes pretty well, so thank you for the advice. Hopefully, next time I might be able to catch this one coming into the gate.

Here's a photo that I took earlier that evening, even though that staircase got in the way, kind of ruining the photo. Does this image have too much clutter?

NOTE: this image is not going into the JP.net queue. I just want some opinions on the shot.




Thank you,

Rohan

[wrxflyer]

Not bad at all.

If you crop a bit closer it might interesting enough for uploading.The cargo-truck isn't obstructing, because it's part of the loading -scene.
The cloudy sky gives it a nice contrast as well.

Personally, I like it, but.............I am not a photo-sceener

Freek

[rohank4284]

Hello

Not bad at all.

If you crop a bit closer it might interesting enough for uploading.The cargo-truck isn't obstructing, because it's part of the loading -scene.
The cloudy sky gives it a nice contrast as well.

Personally, I like it, but.............I am not a photo-sceener

Freek

Here's the new picture again:






Wow, that's really good. I know the resolution of the third photo is way too high for it to be uploaded. Where exactly should crop the photo. Should I crop the sky, maybe the remaining portion of the staircase, but if I do that will the nose of the plane get cutoff?

Thank you,

Rohan

[rohank4284]

Well,

After some time of cropping the image, this was the best I could do.




Could anyone suggest any more improvements?

Thank you,

Rohan

[magic48]

Sorry, but the airbridge is blocking the nose in this shot and this really kills it for me.

[rohank4284]

Sorry, but the airbridge is blocking the nose in this shot and this really kills it for me

True,

I know I should this from another gate further back (the last 2 shots on the first page were shot from between gate A33 and A35, this from between A35 and A37. Anyway, I'll stop boring you with the boring details. The plane was to depart from gate A37, which is why I accidentally got those stairs in the way. Overall, it's nice to see I'm getting better.

Thank you,

Rohan