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Help for improving this picture

parotet

parotet

Member
Joined
12 Oct 2013
Messages
1,695
Location
Valencia, Spain
Hi all

I have just updated my journal with this picture

22431139656_1fdde05e9c_k.jpg

This time I have devoted more time to the shot: I have used black cardboard for covering the light and the sides of the tank, dark room, I have used all the light I had (2x24w + 11w led light), a DSRL camera on a tripod, a reflector to improve light in the background, 20 shots with different setups... I think I've done my best with what I had at home and my photography skills.

However (and I guess this is what usually happens), the layout looks much better than in the picture. This thread is for asking how to improve the edition of the picture (I know the shot could be improved as well as the composition, but I want to focus on picture editing). I use to have Photoshop but I have changed to Mac and I don't have it anymore. I use a very basic software... so, I would like very basic advice about exposure, contrast, temperature, sharpness, etc. I'm pretty sure that this, in experts' hands, is more than enough for improving any picture.

Things I don't like and I'd like to improve:
- the background looks sad and greyish, although it is more whitish (translucent paper attached to the back)
- the texture of the sand is lost
- the texture of mosses in the foreground is great but awful for the plants in the background (more light from above to improve depth? or, light in the background from the bottom? or both?

(if you want to play a few minutes with the picture to improve it, feel free to download it or ask for the original one... I would appreciate it very much!)


Cheers,
Jordi
 
background: can you add a light behind it? maybe even a color.
Lots of contrast in that pic, thats the hardest thing in digital photography ( maybe best to do 2 exposures, one for the light parts and one for the dark parts and merge them)
dont know excactly what you mean with the texture. I would improve sharpnes , especially for screenviewing i like the pics a crispy as possible

ps small apertures give the best overall sharpness, are you using a tripod? does the camera have a mirror lock?
 
Lower the water to 1-2cm above the tallest stem, there's too much empty space in an otherwise awesome scape. + increase the hairdryer adgitation

The sand line across the front needs to be level. In the pic some of the sand across the front disappears.
 
Edvet said:
background: can you add a light behind it? maybe even a color.
Lots of contrast in that pic, thats the hardest thing in digital photography ( maybe best to do 2 exposures, one for the light parts and one for the dark parts and merge them)
dont know excactly what you mean with the texture. I would improve sharpnes , especially for screenviewing i like the pics a crispy as possible

ps small apertures give the best overall sharpness, are you using a tripod? does the camera have a mirror lock?
Click to expand...
Thanks Edvet

The picture specs are:

ISO 800, speed 1/50 (using tripod and 5 sec delay to avoid vibration), f/8, focal length 27 mm. Should I use a smaller aperture? I would need quite a lot more light. Sharpness is increased nearly to the maximum during edition.

I have shot many pictures so I would be able to merge different ones... Any free software which can be used for doing it? Is it done by just overlapping two pictures?

Jordi
 
Jordi, please check your sand is not overexposed. Try to change exposure to darker side: either shorter shutter time - up to 1/100 - 1/200 and/or smaller aperture. Or you can try smaller iso down to 100-200.
 
I'm not such a photographer, but from my experience I think you can improve something.

firs of all you need to give more depth to your tank.
like I drew here:
depthce721.md.jpg

for that you have to shoot at a lower focal distance.
and I think that you can use a smaller aperture due to set a smaller iso too. in that way you will prevent noise
texture of sand is lost because of too much light.
your photo is burned out because of hight iso and/or small shutter speed. sand and the water surface are just "very white"
you can make a hdr image using exposure bracketing, and then later, merging them in a photo editor - most of dslr have exposure bracketing.

for the backgrund I often use an external flash placed above the tank, or as said a light behind

you can also try to shoot step by step darker ...
 
for example one of mine layout's at 3 focal distance:

at 70mm (tamron 70-300mm lens)
IMG_8440bdeb9.md.jpg

at 26mm (sigma 18-250mm lens)
IMG_8307a90f1.md.jpg

at 4.2mm (smartphone)
20150320_195523a625e.md.jpg


you can easily see that the background looks more far away.

but you have to be careful at the distortion of the lens. every lens have a distortion at a "x" focal length

pincushion or barrel distortion - look here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion_(optics) -
 
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