Burnt Water

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squawk77

Senior Member
Hi Nikonites

I recently returned from a month long motorbike trip with my first SLR camera. I'm now sorting through the pics and toying with post-processing for the first time. I thought I'd post this one because it really needed to be adjusted and maybe I can learn some basics to help with the others. First, what settings would you adjust to shoot this landscape? The original colour was really washed out, could it be adjusted better?

10_Dolomites.jpg

I wanted to play with the shutter speed and the water, but this was probably shot on auto. EXIF says Aperture Priority and Auto Exposure, so I'm not sure if I had the dial on A or Landscape or Auto.. I tried to shoot some water scenes later with less success. In this case it blended the water on its own. Does the polarized filter hurt a photo like this (cloudy sky and no sun reflections) I left it on the entire trip for protection.

Camera: Nikon D3200
Lens: AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G
Filter: Circular Polarizer
Format: RAW
Exposure: 1/6 @ f/25
Focal length: 55mm
ISO: 1600
Flash: Did not fire
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Well you're shooting RAW which will be the biggest benefit. What software are you using to do your post processing and what have you done to the image file so far?

In looking at your posted shot, I'd say it's already a tiny bit over-saturated, but that's a matter of opinion. If you want deeper color you could try increasing the contrast a little, punching up the mid-tones or using the Clarity slider (in Photoshop) which, really, is just another way of punching up the mid-tones.

As for polarizing filters, most of my lenses wear one and they rarely come off... And before someone sparks the debate: It's not a protecting-the-lens-thing... It's that I like what a polarizing filter does for my shooting (even though I shoot RAW).
 
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FastGlass

Senior Member
Yes, I agree. I had to hunt for what the photo was. It seems too busy. Too much space around the small waterfall.
 
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squawk77

Senior Member
Horoscope Fish said:
In looking at your posted shot, I'd say it's already a tiny bit over-saturated, but that's a matter of opinion.
Click to expand...

Hmm it looks different on the laptop I adjusted it on than my desktop, but closer hosted on another site. I just haphazardly toyed with it in Aperture but I don't think I touched the mid-tones. I'll try another version

From another location for comparison

10_Dolomites-XL.jpg


pedroj said:
Hi I might have taken your image in portrait style and concentrate on the waterfall like this...
Click to expand...

Yea that does look interesting. I have a weird aversion to shooting in portrait because of how it looks on my screen, but for a waterfall it makes sense
 
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Rick M

Senior Member
The polarizer would or did help if it was rotated to reduce the reflection off the water, it also helped 1 stop or so in slowing down your shutter speed. At f25 you've probably got some diffraction making the image less sharp. A neutral density filter would have slowed down the shutter much more and allowed you to use a wider aperture.
 
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squawk77

Senior Member
That does pop out more :) Considering it was a dull cloudy day with the contrasting colours is why I toyed with it first. I heard the shutter slow down but I actually couldn't seem to repeat that again later.

How do you attach a picture to the forum and display big like that? (vs my first post w thumbnail)
 
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