Help Making Photos 'Pop'

Lead_Head

Lead_Head

Lead_Head

Soldato
Joined
26 Jan 2003
Posts
3,704
Location
Nottm
Hello all,

I've been browsing my collection of photographs and realise none of them really have any pop from the camera. I'd like to be able to shoot subjects with vibrant colours straight from the camera.

What tips has anyone got to help with this? I know I can post process it but that's not the point.

My kit is a
Canon 30D
Sigma f2.8 17-55mm
Canon f4 L 70-200,
Canon speedlite EX580 mk2

Cheers
 
Correct exposure and I find having a smaller aperture (so higher number) really helps bring colours through, decent lighting also helps.
 
the camera has some settings you can change

saturation, sharpening, etc etc

go in to your menu and adjust them
 
i need to get beter on this. I can get some nice shots in daylight, with a bit of sun popping through, but i went for a walk round a local reservoir, and shooting the water/scenery when it was overcast produced terribly grey/dull looking shots. Is exposure something one can imprive with standard kit (DSLR, no meters etc?). i reckon i need to grab the book.
 
I'm sorry I think a couple of people here are being a bit harsh, abrupt, and a bit rude :)

The guy is asking for advice, so one word/one sentance answers is appropriate? it's making you sound big headed.

If I was in his position and was told to 'learn a better technique' and in a patronising tone be told to go and read a book I probably wouldn't want to browse the forum again :)

To the OP: Post some pictures you'd like help with and we can reprocess them and tell you how we went about it to help make them 'pop' :) - But yeh, when it comes to taking the original photo, try a higher F number if you have the light, this works quite well for me (obviously other stuff comes into it but I don't know how much you do and don't know!) :)

EDIT: I'd actually just like to redirect the above at D.P. - rather than a couple of others.
 
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Cheers Phate, the original answers did come across as a bit elitist.

I'll dig some images out and post them for critique. I'm in a similar position to the poster above who can get bright colours, but it's more chance rather than intention.

If I increase the aperture, that will effect my shutter speed. I tend to shoot in aperture priority, rather than shutter priority when I'm walking about with the camera.
 
Yep, you'll need a lower shutter speed but if the lighting is good (nice bright sunny day with the sun behind you) shooting at f/8.0 or f/10.0 with a 1/200 ish shutter speed should be fine and give you nice colours from the word go. Do you shoot in RAW?
 
you can also use exposure compensation, if you take a shot and review it and think it need a bit more exposure, you can turn the wheel and the camera will compensate and let more light in by adjusting the shutter speed for you
 
Yes I shoot raw. I think my main fault is having the aperture at too low a number (large??).

I've got better and more recent examples on my home PC but I've just scanned my FlickR for some examples,

Good exposure?:
4026622847_63d5fdfcea.jpg


4027386626_293ec1700d.jpg


DULL:
4071881840_f673eaae91.jpg


3608012823_b2a48b73d4.jpg
 
Phate said:
I'm sorry I think a couple of people here are being a bit harsh, abrupt, and a bit rude :)

The guy is asking for advice, so one word/one sentance answers is appropriate? it's making you sound big headed.

If I was in his position and was told to 'learn a better technique' and in a patronising tone be told to go and read a book I probably wouldn't want to browse the forum again :)

To the OP: Post some pictures you'd like help with and we can reprocess them and tell you how we went about it to help make them 'pop' :) - But yeh, when it comes to taking the original photo, try a higher F number if you have the light, this works quite well for me (obviously other stuff comes into it but I don't know how much you do and don't know!) :)

EDIT: I'd actually just like to redirect the above at D.P. - rather than a couple of others.
Click to expand...

Excuse me.
The OP wanted to know how to improve the exposure. No better way to learn than from a very good book, combined with practice.
 
D.P. said:
Excuse me.
The OP wanted to know how to improve the exposure. No better way to learn than from a very good book, combined with practice.
Click to expand...

Oh sod off dude.

I've refrained from replying to your posts for a while but frankly you just annoy me now :)

If you went to the CAB asking for legal advice regarding an ex-employer and outstanding wages and they just said 'get a solicitor' and slammed the door in your face would you not be annoyed?

Exactly. Abrupt, patronizing posts are exactly that, and annoying. Telling someone to learn a better technique and to go and read a book is not what a forum is for. He could've found that out from anywhere. A public discussion forum is for...oddly enough, discussion. Not a single sentence stating....nothing useful what so ever.

HOWEVER, I agree with plenty of practice, it's entirely how I've learned, keep shooting, and experimenting, (and heres the kicker) asking on a forum to learn more from people who know more than you do.




Man I feel better now.
 
Lead_Head said:
Yes I shoot raw. I think my main fault is having the aperture at too low a number (large??).

I've got better and more recent examples on my home PC but I've just scanned my FlickR for some examples,

Good exposure?:
4026622847_63d5fdfcea.jpg


4027386626_293ec1700d.jpg
Click to expand...

Yes, exposure is pretty good. Composition is another question.
DULL:
4071881840_f673eaae91.jpg


3608012823_b2a48b73d4.jpg
Click to expand...

The problem with the 1st one is you have under exposed the foreground by a stop ore so.

For the 2nd one it looks like it was taken in the middle of a day with an overcast sky, hence a fairly boring light and sky. An ND-Grad to bring detail in the sky would help. The problem is also the composition, you have a large area of sky which is dull (not so much you can do about that). I think a different composition and a different location would have helped a lot.
 
Thanks for taking the time to reply, however I'm unsure how you expose for the foreground and the background.

The subject I want to shoot is the foreground, how do I set up the camera to cater for the lighter background?

This bit of knowledge is lacking in my head. I want to take a picture of the people in front of me, why is it so dark? The camera should focus on the foreground as that is the subject I want!

[EDIT]: I understand composition is poor, these are just examples from my flickr account, not my best from a selection of pictures.
 
also, you are asking for the images to POP straight from the camera, but you are shooting RAW

RAW does not keep any of the presets that the camera applies to JPG's (contrast, saturation, sharpening etc)

so you will need to post process your RAW files to get the best out of them

as part of your learning to be a better photographer i would also invest some time in learning to post process as somethings it can make all the difference.
 
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I understand what you are saying Paul1, but processing an image that starts off with nice colours and is not dull will result in an image with less noise.

I've never shot with jpg, only raw, as I want to learn how to get the colours right by using the right settings, rather than a digital camera applying it for me.
 
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