Sunset Pics

I took a few pics of the sunset last night over the Lake were I was Fishing. Does anyone have any tips on how to improve these photos? I'd like to see some more Definition of the trees and the clouds where the sun was highlighting the edges. They seem to be too dark. I'm using a Canon EOS Rebel XTi in AUTO Mode.

Nice pictures! I dont think you can improve on the pictures....With it being dark (sunset) and your subject (trees) that far away.

I am no expert...not even a noobie newbie.

Those are some good shots!

Oddly enough Sounds Good and I were just discussing different photo editing software... There is a free program called GIMP that you could use to edit those pics. There are other paid programs you can use as well depending on if you are using a PC or a MAC. Programs such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements for PC and iPhoto, Pixelmator or Apertature for MAC. Whichever one you choose, you'll have to tinker with the different aspects such as Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and other settings... keep in mind though that there is no guarantee you will be able to improve them and if you are able to do so, the changes maybe extremely subtle. Jim's right... it's not an easy thing to do and for a lot of photos it cant be done at all.

B-
The images you have recorded are pretty much what you are going to get shooting sunsets. the thing here is that the eye sees somewhere around 11 stops of light and the camera sees around 5. To complicate matters more the trees are backlit which basically means you are shooting from the shadow side of the trees. Even if you were to use Photoshop you would only be able to lighten the shadows so much before the trees went grey or became very noisy. the camera you have is very nice and there is nothing wrong with it or you for that matter!! keep working on it - maybe look up "shooting sunsets" online I'll bet you will learn a few things that would take me hours to type. good luck!!

Next time try taking a shot with the flash on. The flash should slow down your shutter speed just a hair and give you a slightly brighter picture. Also if someone would be in the foreground it would brighten their faces against a colorful backdrop. Give it a try and see what you think.

Hey, bcritch.

I did a quick edit on the 4 of these for you so you could see the types of things that can be done. I spent around a minute on each one, just cleaning it up and bringing some color and details out. I used the free program, GIMP, that G3-Guy mentioned. It's a great program and will do pretty much anything that the other programs you pay for will do.

Nice editing work!

Try playing aroudn with all the settings on that camera - you can do some really neat stuff. Are you using a tripod? If so, take the photo using the delay so you do not touch the camera at all - reduces blurred edges and allows you to use a longer shutter speed

That is one of the best things about digital cameras - you can screw around without burning film

here are some of my best sunset pics

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think I'm going to get out of the Auto mode and mess around with the settings a little more on the camera. I rely on the Auto because I'm usually fishing and I don't want to spend too much time screwing around with the camera.

I do have the GIMP program. That's what I used to resize these pics so i could post them. I guess I'll have to messa round that some more as well.

Just downloaded GIMP and seems like a very powerful tool for the pix. Thanks!! =D>