Not to be overly critical,
Not at all. Fire away!
I noticed some of these shots appear to be under exposed.
Agreed.
And I knew this when I was shooting the photos (the histogram is easily my best friend on this camera :D) -- but it was acceptable to me given the alternatives (see below).
Because of the high contrast while hiking in the woods, I do make heavy use of spot metering and exposure compensation/bracketing.
Unfortunately on this day, because of the heavy cloud cover, the woods were dark, very dark. The shots you see in the album were shot using the built-in flash, this is why the shots are darker in areas more distant from the camera.
The shot on top is with flash, the shot on bottom is without flash and while the shot on bottom is more evenly exposed, it isn't
accurate. The shot on top is almost exactly how things looked -- which is why I went with it. The bottom shot is definitely the "better" shot in terms of exposure, but it's not at all how things looked that day. It was nowhere near that bright. The top one better illustrates the true conditions of the hike. As it is, the levels on the top photo have been adjusted some (in Photoshop) to soften some of the shadows and bring out the highlights. Unfortunately, color information is lost if you take it too far.
The shot on the bottom was also one of the few non-flash shots that came out sharp. Where I'm not using a high end camera (like a DSLR) I have a limited number of aperture and shutter settings. On this day, even at the widest aperture, a shutter speed of 1/15 sec was the fastest speed I could manage (with 1/3-1/10 being more typical). Not an easy shutter speed to hand-stabilize. I got lucky on the non-stabilized, non-flash shot above -- most of my forest based non-flash shots came out like this one:
When I stop to take photos while on the trail I stop for a few seconds (literally -- my camera hangs at my chest in a quick-access bag) to snap a few shots and move on. It's there to document the hike, and I'm usually sucking wind when I stop and not really looking to stop long just to get everything "perfect". I just want a shot of the trail to show people back home (and here!). So I snap a few shots and continue on. I try to choose settings that get me descent shots, on this day the flash was the easiest (and most true-to-life option). Stabilizing a 1/5 sec shot while sucking wind on the trail isn't easy. :P And determining whether a hand-stabilized shot is "sharp" on the LCD review isn't easy (and is time consuming).
The first shot is half sky which is very bright. Consequently, the scene below is a bit murky. You can fix this in PhotoShop pretty easily (as I'm sure you know). But you can also do it in camera by metering the shot on the darker part of the scene.
Again, agreed.
The shot was a high contrast shot, too much range for any camera to capture without under-exposing or over-exposing at least part of the image. I've done shots where I've taken 2 photos, each exposed properly for one part of the scene, and then combined them in Photoshop. It looks nice, but it takes time.
This photo was just to show my destination (the properly exposed mound in the background), and to get a time-stamp for the start of my hike. Nothing more.
The area where I took this shot is the starting point for almost 1/3 of all of my hikes (lots of trailheads). So I have this same shot in just about every condition imaginable. I guess I've just stopped caring how it comes out (but include it for completeness). :D
I like your compositions. And the subject of your shots is pretty easy to identify. I would suggest, though, if you don't have to make snap shots, I'd take a little more time and try both landscape and portrait framing before snapping away. Or just take one of each (extra shots are free with digital cameras if you have the space).
Thanks,
I tend to take a lot of photos (for example, this hike has a total of 213 photos). I generally take 2-3 shots at each "stop" and pick my favorite when I get home. I usually take at least 1 landscape and 1 portrait, although on the trail itself I've gotten into the habit of favoring portrait since it allows me to cover as much of the trail as possible in a single shot.
If you don't have a mini tripod, I'd get one. In darker areas they come in very handy by allowing for longer exposures with no shake. This will let you take shots without the flash which can screw up landscape shots. It's tempting to open up the f stop to get a shorter exposure but that will result in loss of depth of field. A longer exposure will yield a better picture unless lower DoF is the desired effect.
I have one I bought exclusively for hiking. However, after a few hikes I realized it was mostly dead-weight in my bag (2 lbs feels great in the store, not so great in a full backpack). The places I'd really need it (in the woods, where it tends to be dark) are places where I really don't feel like taking the time to setup a tripod (and in many cases places where it wouldn't be possible to set one up).
I bring it in the fall and in the spring mostly, when I want to get photos of foliage and flowers. Also when I know there are waterfalls on the hike (so I can use a low shutter speed). Other than that it sits in my trunk.
As for camera settings...
Usually it's about getting the most information from the scene in as much detail as possible. So I generally go with a wide DoF. So the wide apeture and fast shutter speed combo is perfect for me. I usually only tighten the apeture on shots of flowers.
Of course, the above implies that you are actually trying to make dramatic shots with a lot of thought given to composition. If you're just chronicling the views on your walks then what you've done is certainly quite good and probably just fine for what you intend to do.
Bingo.
There are people I know who are photographers first and hikers second. They pick their hikes around shooting conditions and only go to "get the shot". That's not me. I go hiking, and bring the camera to show people I know where I went. Occasionally I get lucky with the shooting conditions and get some really great shots:
http://www.mcschell.com/gallery/albums/pierce2/img_0254_001.jpghttp://www.mcschell.com/gallery/albums/monroe/img_4880.jpgHowever, I keep telling myself that one of these days I'll plan a hike around shooting conditions, bring my tripod, and take my time shooting. But I'm always saying to myself "next time, today I just want to hike".
Anyway, sorry for the long post,
Weeeeeeeeeeeee!
~Mike
