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Sometimes you just have bad luck, sometimes you have bad days and sometimes you have both. Last Saturday night I had one chance to get dusk shots in Canberra (since I was only there for 2 days) and I'm not really happy with any of the shots I got. The problem here is the photographer, not the location. These have been heavily worked to even look half decent









This is a HDR merge of 3 images and probably the best of this average bunch

Try cropping number 3 with the curve if you know what I mean.

#1, the elements are mispositioned - tree is cut off and that boat should be a couple of metres to the right

#2 is very decent, try losing some sky?

I really like the purple tone in #4

These are my gut reactions, not an in-depth critique...

The first doesn't work for me, its all just a little off.

2 - I like it, the reflections and the color make the shot, justin might be right about loosing a bit of the sky perhaps

3 I like this has it has lots of elements when you look at it. The bridge, the people, the curves the colours on the water in the sky.. I like it alot

4 Love the colour in the sky and another nice reflection shot, which lens did you use for these... or need I not ask ?

Thanks Justin & Craig. Just to give an idea of what I was up against - here is the before and after on #3

Clever and creative PP work there Peter!
The 3rd image (directly above) re-worked is my favourite of this group.

Peter
The first two "look" like they've been saved, but saved well (especially from the comparison photo you posted). The 3rd (dusk @ regatta pt) I like the most, however there seems to be a bit too much sky IMO, but I love the curved lines....really nice indeed.

Can I ask what you feel you did wrong on the evening, to produce such dark, underexposed images ?

I think there might be valuable lessons behind this thread. Posting great looking images is always good, but one never knows how much different the PP'd photo is from the original....and I'm sure we've all arrived home after a shoot, only to upload underexposed and disheartening images.

Interesting Peter, My first thoughts were that the 3rd shot had the most natural colours - before knowing how much PP you had put in.

IMHO the first shot has too much going against it - as has already been said and I also found the brighter spot on the right under the bridge distracting as well.

2nd shot as has been said and IMHO lose some sky.

3rd shot also lose a little sky

4th shot I think is my fav of these - but i think this would look much better cropped top and a little at the bottom.

Sure have got to get me some PP skills

Cheers, Mick

stubbsy wrote:Thanks Justin & Craig. Just to give an idea of what I was up against - here is the before and after on #3

WOW!

ANd that is why I don't delete my images, one day I migth have the PP power to bring back photos like that, thats an impressive recovery Peter.

Number 3 is the pick for me.

Lovely curves for the eyes to follow. Gotta love Canberra hey

Peter,
While these images aren't at the same level as your other shots at The House, I think you might be a little over critical on yourself here.

#1 - I can see what you were chasing, the idea is there but not quite right in execution

#2,3,4 - they get a thumbs up

Guess who also fouled up their exposure settings under Commonwealth Bridge...

Aussie Dave wrote:
Can I ask what you feel you did wrong on the evening, to produce such dark, underexposed images ?

....and I'm sure we've all arrived home after a shoot, only to upload underexposed and disheartening images.

I arrived home after the same shoot to find we had a bit of a problem - someone (that'd be me) forgot to reset their +/- EV after spot metering on a white tulip earlier in the day at Floriade

daniel_r wrote:

Aussie Dave wrote:
Can I ask what you feel you did wrong on the evening, to produce such dark, underexposed images ?

....and I'm sure we've all arrived home after a shoot, only to upload underexposed and disheartening images.

I arrived home after the same shoot to find we had a bit of a problem - someone (that'd be me) forgot to reset their +/- EV after spot metering on a white tulip earlier in the day at Floriade

...and what a nice feeling that is. The ol' EV settings problem

Can I assume from this that you don't chimp ?!?

Aussie Dave wrote:
...and what a nice feeling that is. The ol' EV settings problem

Can I assume from this that you don't chimp ?!?

I think I didn't chimp hard enough

I think I had no more than a cursory glance at the display/histogram for highlight preservation (for the shot I was trying to do)... shame I missed the whole shadow detail thing

whoops. I've actually got some ideas for a reshoot, so I'm putting the outing down as a recon mission!

Thank you all for your comments. I may have a little more of a play with these.

AussieDave wrote:Can I ask what you feel you did wrong on the evening, to produce such dark, underexposed images ?

I was using an ND4 filter and bracketing my exposures. I've used ND4 successfully previously with dusk shots, but I've never bracketed before and have a little to learn I think. I either got very dark or very light images and the middle shot of the bracket was a little flat. I found the darker one of the bracket actually was more rescuable. I also had my EV set wrong (yes me too!)

Thanks Peter. I can imagine the ND filter causing such grief....along with the incorrect EV setting