Landscape pics of the beach
 

I went and gave my Tamron 11-18 a try
Also used the 50mm fixed and the 70-300 IS Canon

I learnt a couple of things...
1. I NEED to get my camera in for a clean pronto
2. Adobe Lightroom's spot removal feature rocks!

Let me know what you guys think, the Tripod was shaking like a leaf so most shots are blurry.

All 32 can be viewed [URL=http://members.westnet.com.au/daniel.bingham/Pictures/index.html]HERE[/URL]

[IMG]http://members.westnet.com.au/daniel.bingham/Pictures/Beach_files/_MG_4923.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://members.westnet.com.au/daniel.bingham/Pictures/Beach_files/_MG_4928.jpg[/IMG]

a few of my thoughts (don't take it harsh - just ways to get better)

1) u really need to get a GND if u want to take really good beach sunrise/set pics dan :)

2) i also think the borders are a bit overdone/annoying... keep them simple and don't let them take away from the picture.

3) there's too much of nothing in the skies, so it's probably better that the crop of the horizon is higher up (2/3 of the way up) to reveal more foreground

4) sky blown out in both pictures (see point 1)

5) sharpness, as you mentioned. if it's really blurry and u you don't have a good tripod, try using a larger aperture to keep shutter times lower. DOF is only really affected when there's a lot of foreground so you can re-frame with a larger ap.

6) try also to shoot to the left of the histogram (thereby underexposing a tad) and pulling it back using software. this allows u to control a bit of the noise and exposure at the same time.

EDIT
7) if you're going to have some foreground element, include it fully (stairs in pic 2) and make it a solid part of the picture. you will need to expose for it as well and set the aperture small to keep it in focus (back to a good head/tripod).

Thanks Hein,

I do have a GND and remembered I had it once I had finished... D'oh!
The borders was actually just me screwing around with my new best friend... automation feature in photoshop :p
I also agree about the sky, There was not a cloud in the sky!
I will work on Point 5
Point 6 can you explain more? How do I figure out this Histogram stuff? Is it a feature I can view in my camera or something?
7 Point taken.

Thanks for the feedback! :)

I like to use the "exposing to the right" method for a lot of landscapes.
[url]http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml[/url]

More on understanding histograms here.
[url]http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml[/url]

i agree, and thats what i do, but that's ONLY when i'm using manual exposure. there is a lot of debate on this subject but i think it comes down to how much u know your camere and its tendencies to expose.

when you're using the in-camera metering, it tends to blow out the highlights, especially with the cheaper end DSLR, and that would ruin the photo altogether. unfortunately metering in cameras will always calculate a fair chunk of the foreground which is dark and expose for that and not take into account the light from the sun and horizon. by underexposing.. say 0.7 ev, it would fix this.

exposing to the right as far as possible is ideal but if you know very little about exposure, histograms AND dont shoot in manual metering, it's something best left to learn later.

from an entry level point of view, it's always easier and better to expose to the left to correctly expose the sky and then correct it later. you can always 'fix' shadows but u can't correct for blown highlights as that is always lost forever.

Interesting read.. Thanks slappy.

If I had my ND filter on last night, the sky would have come out much better than a massive white mess right?

that's right, but then u will need to expose for longer to shift that histogram to the right, which also means that there would be more tripod shake.

edit - one other note. i'm not sure what camera u own, but be careful that u don't rely on the Histogram too much as cheaper cameras dont show independant R-G-B channels. i know for example the D70 only shows the green only (and pretends it's the entire RGB). this could screw it all up as the white channel could be blown out and u wouldn't realise it.

hence, either get a camera that shows all three channels, or expose a tad to the left to avoid this.

Ok. Cool.

So if you check out all the photos on the site, are any close to right?

How does this one go? is this a better photo?
[IMG]http://members.westnet.com.au/daniel.bingham/Pictures/Beach_files/_MG_4917.jpg[/IMG]

ideally dan, u want the top half of that photo joined to the bottom half of either photo 1 or 2. the GND will allow u to do this... or u can use HDR which will also do it. HDR is not good for moving water tho, so a GND is preferred.

saying that, i do like this one a lot better even tho the foreground shadow is too dark, the light reflecting off the surface water redeems it somewhat.