So I went on vacation and took about 900 or so shots. I shot in RAW, and I mostly shot in aperture priority programmed mode. Mostly I've learned a lot about what to shoot, composure, focal lengths, style of shot, etc.

Where I'm confused and really need to improve is understanding ev settings, D-lighting... Just about everything aside from iso, aperture, and shutter speed (i get that trio perfectly). I'm getting shots where I want a better dynamic range but i lose the cloud detail, or whatever (I'll post pictures when I get home to be specific).

Also, for panorama shots, i don't have built in panorama. What settings should I lock to get a fluent set of shots that will work into a panoram?

Here's one of my favorite pics I took on the vacation (needs more editing):



This post was edited by Canadian_Man on Aug 6 2013 02:43am

The settings I'm really confused about on my camera are:

- bracketing (and auto-bracketing with RAW files)
- ADL (I always have it on auto... bad?)
- White Balance (I always have it on auto as well, or I set it to 'sunlight' when I'm in sunlight... what should I do alternatively?)
- Exposure Compensation (EV?) - I rarely modify this unless if a photo I take looks under or over-exposed... I'm confused
- Metering - I switch between matrx and centre-weighted as my two metering options, however a lot of the time I find on the go I get metering issues (clouds are too bright & object is proper, or vice-versa... something gets out of whack and I can't get it right in the shot)

I understand ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and focal lengths... I realize how these go together and what I can do with the combination. I really need to progress with the above-mentioned things (and I also need to be aware of anything else I might not be thinking about) so that I can progress and work more-so on my composition... I ruined a lot of great opportunities by taking bad photos at bad angles and bad focal lengths... I should've utilized 16-24mm a lot more often.

One other question: I seem to get a fair number of shots that end up seeming to have image shake or blur that are shot at 1/200th or slower, and are at a focal length of 50mm or less. I can say with certainty that for a lot of those shots I wasn't moving, and my subject was relatively still. Lighting is quite good in most of these shots. Can a lens be inaccurate with its autofocus quite often, or could I still be doing something wrong? I always use single-point focus, and I switch between continuous servo and single servo depending on the situation.

Here's a couple other shots. My absolute best shots are portraits/etc (got some great ones at an old barn with the gf, they look professional to me which makes me happy) and I don't have permission to post them Really like some of them.

http://imageshack.us/a/img834/1555/amti.jpg
http://imageshack.us/a/img198/9145/iw56.jpg

The types of shots I need to improve on *a lot* are landscape. I want to do a lot more landscape shots, but I just don't have the settings down correctly for them. Help is appreciated a lot!!

This post was edited by Canadian_Man on Aug 6 2013 02:58am

Here's an image that I have in full resolution, it is sharp, but I feel like I keep butchering it when I try to make it interesting in lightroom.

This is also an example of a photo that looks really nice in lightroom, but as soon as I save it, there appears to be noise issues. In lightroom the noise issues aren't as apparent when the image is blown up or sized down... odd?



This post was edited by Canadian_Man on Aug 6 2013 03:24am

I realize this is a lot of information, questions, and reading. However, I hope someone has the time to help me out. I want to know how I could improve my shots (how I can improve composition-wise, technical settings, and post editing in lightroom/if there's other programs other than CS5/CS6 and lightroom that I should know about).

I'm doing my own research actively, but I find getting input always helps a ton.

10,000 hour rule

That's not helpful at all. I have specific questions.

thats awesome man props to you

If you shoot in raw dont worry about the extra settings. You can change those easily in whatever processing program you use. Make sure you do the adjusting BEFORE you export to whatever file type you use.

As for pano, either a tripod or steady hand.

And about the noise, I dont see any. It could be your monitor or the file type.