help a n00b

[Inevitability]

hello community. i'm a total n00b at photography. I've read a few articles/tutorials on exposure, but that's about it.
I was lucky enough to witness this awesome sight yesterday as i got home, so i whipped out my SGS2 and took the pic, but i don't have the skill to properly capture it. I do have a Fuji S1800, which apparently has a good feature set (which i could've run in and fetched had i known how to set it up for a better shot )

My question is... What should i have done to make this a super pic? (i.e. what to set ISO, aperture, anything else)

(this is the resized version below. The original is 8MP, 1/184s, F/2.6, ISO-32,
and can be found here )

 

[Quantum Theory]

If you see that the sunset might turn into something like this... find a nice foreground!

I manually blend multiple exposures, shot at different shutter speeds, to get the correct exposure everywhere in conditions like these...

Something like this:

 

[Edduck]

If you see that the sunset might turn into something like this. Find a nice foreground!

I manually blend multiple exposures, shot at different shutter speeds, to get the correct exposure everywhere in conditions like these...

Something like this:

QT, are you using luminosity masks to select the sky or what method are you using? I really dislike the HDR look but its just soooo much easier to do blending with it. What do you do? Time for a tutorial...?

 

[undesign]

What do you do? Time for a tutorial...?

+1 would also like to learn

 

[Quantum Theory]

:twisted:

It took me years to perfect...

I'll explain my method later.

 

[Inevitability]

Find a nice foreground!

Hehehe... ok ... ya
Thing is, it's not so easy in the middle of Jhb. But ya... I get it.

Something like this:

/falls off chair

It took me years to perfect...

Gonna take me alot longer to take pics like yours!!

 

[bwana]

hello community. i'm a total n00b at photography. I've read a few articles/tutorials on exposure, but that's about it.
I was lucky enough to witness this awesome sight yesterday as i got home, so i whipped out my SGS2 and took the pic, but i don't have the skill to properly capture it. I do have a Fuji S1800, which apparently has a good feature set (which i could've run in and fetched had i known how to set it up for a better shot )

My question is... What should i have done to make this a super pic? (i.e. what to set ISO, aperture, anything else)

(this is the resized version below. The original is 8MP, 1/184s, F/2.6, ISO-32,
and can be found here )

There's plenty you can do in post to bring out the colour in this. If you add some saturation to the blues and reds and then darken the shadows you should see a difference.

 

[Quantum Theory]

So, these are the photos used to create the image above:

- Exposed for the sky image @ ISO 200, f/13, 1/30s
- One exposure for the foreground, with the same settings.
- Two more 3 stops apart (without moving the tripod!), with shutter speeds of 1/15s and 1/8s.

I then used the darkest foreground image (1/30s) as my background layer and added the 1/15s image on top of that as another layer. I used soft brushes (various sizes) to erase the overexposed parts of the top layer (1/15s). Then I added the 1/8s layer on top off that and erased its overexposed areas. Merge the 3 layers for the bottom image and then stitch the sky and foreground images together. The top part of your foreground image will be at the same exposure as the sky image, so stitching it through there is very easy.

 

[undesign]

Clever, thanks!