sunset

[ricerdude69]

Was just messing around with the camera at sunset, here's some of what I got. They are kind of dark but I like the color I got with the sky. Any suggestions?

[eyeguy 54]

Nice color. Maybe 15 minutes earlier would help. More sky and less ground.

[OutlawTorn]

I agree, crop out some of the ground. Looks like you're also not getting great depth of field, either. Your camera probably picked a larger aperture to let as much light in as it could in the dark scene, and as a result, the skyline in the distance is fuzzy. Try selecting a smaller aperture and setting the camera on a tripod (because your shutter will slow down when you do this) next time to get objects deeper into the picture in focus.

Beautiful colors though.

[ricerdude69]

Yeah thats kind of what I was thinking. I'll give em both a try next time I get a shot, whenever the sun decides to come back. Seems like its hardly around lately

[eyeguy 54]

Maybe it will be around more in November!

[ricerdude69]

I hope so, tho its so much less satisfying november through say february lol

[Dbl]

I do agree with the comments on using more sky and less ground. If I could make a good guess on the softness issue. Your settings were f5.6, 1/1000s and ISO 100, good enough to get a very sharp photo. Keep in mind at the distance the tree line was from you that depth of field was a very minor issue. The depth of field calculater shows that at your setting and you being about 600' from the tree line (I'm guessing you were much further) that everything from 68' in front of you out to infinity would be in focus. Another words changing your aperture had little to no impact on depth of field, only light gathering ability.

More than likely what happened was your autofocus in the very low light conditions had nothing to compare constrast, which is how a modern autofocus system works. So you are left with an out of focus photo. Camera shake was not an issue at 1/1000s, dof was not an issue, focus was the issue.

I've noticed a number of shots where a focus point is in a dark silhouette area (your photo is divided in half) that there just plain is not enough light for autofocus to work properly. So what you need to do is focus on the tree line and the horizon, or the clouds in the sky, something to give you contrast. Or just plain use manual focus.

Good work and keep shooting!

[ricerdude69]

Thanks a lot, thats exactly the kind of info I'm looking for. I wish i could have gotten to a spot where I could see the sunset earlier, I didn't have much time to play much with settings and even think about focus. Every place I stopped had people in the way, by the time I was in position I only had about 10 minutes to work with. I have quite a few more shots, these were just my favorites, the others are much more zoomed out and boring in my opinion, lots of whitish blue sky in the frame. And if I had to guess, the tree line was more like a mile away.

[bassNspear]

thats is a awesome shot!

[ricerdude69]

thanks!