What is Wrong with this Picture?

[Flutterby]

We've all taken pics that we think are great, but no-one else seems to agree!

Post your pics here for feedback and advice from our fellow members!!

[Amoli]

Thanks FB - will do....

[Grumpy]

OK, so let me start. The image below was taken in Kruger around 09h00 and has had no post-processing. So what could have been done differently to have improved it? I like the ambiance that it portrays and don't know if I could have improved it with the equipment I had at my disposal. Any comments and suggestions to open a debate would be appreciated.

[Sprocky]

Just a quick point to start with...

A lens hood would help for the unwanted lens flare.

[Amoli]

May I ask - what part of the pic is the lens flare.

This is a beautiful picture - I will follow to see it improved.

[Dewi]

Hi Grumpy,

A difficult shot to get right due to the brightness of the sky making that section overexposed, but exposing for that would mean the trees etc being too dark and the vultures would not be as visible. I might have used the D-lighting option on my camera to try to inprove this if I took the pic, but it all depends on what gear you have when you take the pic. I like the light streaming through the trees and think that maybe dropping the lens a bit may have lessened the amount of bright sky in there, but then you get more grass, which could have been cropped out.

I like this image for the light effect on it. I would try to get the sky a bit darker or bluer, but that's as far as this pic needs. As for if I took the pic, I would have tried several different exposures to get the best pic out of a series. You can set your camera to take several with + or - exposure stops to varying degrees, but I usually do this manually.

Agree with Sprocky re the lense hood. but you may have had one fitted already, they sometimes still allow some flare through if taking directly into the light as you were here.

Amoli, you can see lens flare top left and bottom right - orange blobs of light on the pic, but not too distracting.

[PRWIN]

For the lense flare I normally place my hand in front of the lense to block the sun coming onto the lense if you can or move back in the car so as the lense is in the shade.

2ndly I would have under exposed it a tade by upping the f stop or the shutter speed, but normaly I do all that in the post pro a twitch would have given a slightly darker photo and also zoomed in a tade and cut out the tree on the left and also on top above the valture in the tree .but that can be done with cropping, As is a great shot with a lovely atmospher

[Amoli]

Thans Dewi and PR... :D

[Flutterby]

Tx guys...great to get tips like that!! Dewi, you mentioned taking several pics at different exposures....would this have made a good HDR pic?

Grumpy...lovely pic!

[Dewi]

Hi Fluts,

A HDR pic might have worked better in this instance, but I much prefer this shot the way it is rather than in HDR as it looks more natural.

I have a setting on my camera which will take up to 10 photos and then merge them together in camera to make the "perfect" exposure. It's not HDR, but it may have helped with this pic to keep the sky from blowing out as much. I've never used this setting to date, as I need to set up a tripod to use it and I'm a bit lazy in that respect. But will let you know if it works when I get around to it.