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08-20-2019, 03:45 PM   #1
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water fall
Lens: 18-55mm Camera: K-100D Photo Location: outdoor ISO: 1600 Shutter Speed: 1/6s Aperture: F4 

the set up was in auto pict 18-55mm with 2x teleconverter

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08-21-2019, 09:32 AM - 1 Like   #2
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I have found with nighttime shooting fully manual and trial and error is the way to go as the camera is basically trying to do some very poor guessing. I would have used this as a baseline image to start adjusting from. My issues are mostly technical with this image since I think this shot has the potential to be a nice night shot.

First this is underexposed even at ISO 1600. Something probably a little closer to correct would be to get 2 more stops of exposure and drop the ISO down to 100. This would put your exposure time at around 15 seconds but you would have an ultra smooth falls and a lot less noise. This would have also brightened up things a lot without blowing out the highlights giving you more to work with in post processing. The darks are really dark so adding 2 stops of exposure wouldn't make them like daylight.

The next thing is image sharpness and an image like this wants to be sharp across the frame. You mentioned that you were shooting auto, that the f-stop was f/4, and that you were using a 2x converter. I assume that this means that you were basically shooting wide open at something between 70mm and 100mm focal length? Either way you would have benefited from stopping the lens down to take the wide open softness out. A 2x converter is also magnifying that softness plus possibly adding in its own defects affecting the image quality. Also by stopping down the lens you would of had an increased depth of field providing more sharpness. However stopping down the lens would require additional exposure time. The use of the 2x converter here isn't doing you any favors as it basically meant that even though the lens was set at f/4 the light getting to the sensor was actually the equivalent of shooting at f/8 but without the benefit of actually stopping down the lens for greater depth of field and overall sharpness. You could stop the lens down an additional stop and that would provide a good benefit but that now would mean that your exposure time goes from 15s to 30s and stopping down more would require additional exposure time using bulb mode. The other option is to get a zoom that covers this range that is reasonably fast (an older f/4 zoom is a good choice) as you can ditch the converter and still stop it down. for example using this guy or this guy which would be some good options and shooting them at f/8 you would have a substantial increase in image quality compared to using that 2x converter with the 18mm-55mm wide open at f/4 while still shooting at 15s.

My non technical suggestion is that I want a little bit more to the left. On the right getting the buoy out of the frame would be acceptable as it doesn't add anything so you could just pan left a bit. Lower left just seems like it wants to have the top of the falls be right in the corner instead of as high in the frame and on the lift mid frame the start of the falls seems cramped.
08-21-2019, 11:34 AM   #3
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K100D is terrible camera for night time photos, especially long exposure and high ISO. Newer models with 16MP sony CMOS sensor are so much better.
I think this subject could have benefited from HDR stacking approach.
08-21-2019, 12:34 PM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by madphys Quote
K100D is terrible camera for night time photos, especially long exposure
I did not know that. Given that, stacking would have to be the approach to take and up the ISO enough so that a 4 second shot doesn't look too bad and then drive the noise down with averaging. Just make sure you have a sturdy tripod. I would still be going for longer shots than 1/6s though.

08-21-2019, 03:46 PM   #5
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not tripod use that's why I cant do longer exposure thanks for the comments
08-21-2019, 06:18 PM - 1 Like   #6
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Without a tripod then you really need to be stacking. You can stack handheld shots and with enough get pixel shift like results as well as drive down the noise. Since it looks like the max ISO is 3200 so you really don't have much for high ISO. So if you can shoot this again I would suggest upping the ISO to 3200, using a zoom that covers the range you want and not being at an effective f/8 but more like f/5.6, shooting at a higher shutter speed, shooting a huge pile hand held and then stack the entire pile using this method to get more resolution and drive the noise down. By a whole pile I mean like 60+ and stack them in groups of 15 or so and then stack the stacks without up-scaling again.
08-21-2019, 11:31 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by MossyRocks Quote
I did not know that.
Maybe I exaggerated it a bit too much - it is terrible only in comparison...

10-01-2019, 07:33 AM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by luis garcia Quote
the set up was in auto pict 18-55mm with 2x teleconverter
Spooky.
10-10-2019, 03:44 PM - 1 Like   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by luis garcia Quote
the set up was in auto pict 18-55mm with 2x teleconverter
Very smooth exposure!
10-11-2019, 04:52 PM - 1 Like   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by luis garcia Quote
not tripod
For no tripod, this is very good.
Looks like a location for many dramatic photos.
10-27-2019, 03:59 PM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by luis garcia Quote
the set up was in auto pict 18-55mm with 2x teleconverter
Definitely needs manual mode and maybe some bracketing. In it's own right, I can't fault this image, but the results would look much better if something in the image was actually in focus
10-28-2019, 09:54 AM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by luis garcia Quote
the set up was in auto pict 18-55mm with 2x teleconverter
Interesting idea but a tad dark and unsharp in my opinion.
10-28-2019, 09:56 AM   #13
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I think yuo did well with your limitations, but yes a tripod, smaller aperture, and longer exposure would have helped you here.
10-28-2019, 04:32 PM   #14
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A good effort, but agree with the others about trying some stacking here. Very challenging circumstances.
10-28-2019, 06:36 PM   #15
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Nice shot with what you had available. I guess if it was me (and you may well have tried anyway), I would shoot at a lower ISO and longer exposure IF you could brace the camera on something solid (or obviously a tripod). BUT that said 1/6 exposure can result in a more natural look as the water retains more detail so maybe a longer exposure wouldn't be better.
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