Some sunsets, advice welcome...

[Photo Hunter]

I do shoot in iso100, shooting in raw + jpeg. (Trying to see the difference)

Mainly i would lower the highlights, and higher the shadows. Like those photo i posted. Any advice on these?

Noted on sharpness and contrast!

Thks for all advices pal, will take note of it on my next outing!

Many thanks!

By the way, your sunsets looks really great!

The difference in RAW vs JPEG is that a RAW image will always need to be developed in the digital darkroom (LightRoom or equivalent) to get the most out of the image. A JPEG doesn't necessarily and will usually have any sort of in camera presets (sharpness, contrast, saturation, etc.) applied to the output image. You can also push the developing of a RAW file more than you can a JPEG without wrecking the image.

RE pulling down highlights and pushing up shadows: Remember that it is better to over expose the entire image by a little and pull the highlights down than it is to go the other way as increasing exposure in LightRoom amplifies noise in the image. If your sky looks good in your unedited RAW file, you are under exposing the shadows too much. With my M2P, I find that I can shoot at +2/3 - +1 exposure value and still not over expose the highlights so much that I can't get the sky looking good in post & that's the same way I approach shooting sunrise/set with my Nikon or Sony cameras.

And the best advise I can give you regarding the photos above is don't shoot the sun when it's that high in the sky. The first one is not bad at all, just needs some tweaking. Here is a quick edit of that image, done in LightRoom:

(ETA) A very wise photographer once told me "you are supposed to shoot what the sun's light does to a subject, not shoot the sun". Translated, if you shoot with the sun to your back, you will have an easier time creating nice images free from grain, etc. as long as you get your exposure right.

 

[Air_Joe]

The difference in RAW vs JPEG is that a RAW image will always need to be developed in the digital darkroom (LightRoom or equivalent) to get the most out of the image. A JPEG doesn't necessarily and will usually have any sort of in camera presets (sharpness, contrast, saturation, etc.) applied to the output image. You can also push the developing of a RAW file more than you can a JPEG without wrecking the image.

RE pulling down highlights and pushing up shadows: Remember that it is better to over expose the entire image by a little and pull the highlights down than it is to go the other way as increasing exposure in LightRoom amplifies noise in the image. If your sky looks good in your unedited RAW file, you are under exposing the shadows too much. With my M2P, I find that I can shoot at +2/3 - +1 exposure value and still not over expose the highlights so much that I can't get the sky looking good in post & that's the same way I approach shooting sunrise/set with my Nikon or Sony cameras.

And the best advise I can give you regarding the photos above is don't shoot the sun when it's that high in the sky. The first one is not bad at all, just needs some tweaking. Here is a quick edit of that image, done in LightRoom:

(ETA) A very wise photographer once told me "you are supposed to shoot what the sun's light does to a subject, not shoot the sun". Translated, if you shoot with the sun to your back, you will have an easier time creating nice images free from grain, etc. as long as you get your exposure right.

View attachment 79160

Thank you so much pal!
How can i ever thank you for your time for such detailed explaination...

Really appreciate it very very much!

Im just using photo editor on my mac, and snapseed on phone. Chked out LIghtroom, need to pay after the free trial. So im looking around for other free apps, tight budget guy here [emoji28]

Noted on your advice! Now on i will try to ‘focus’ more on subjects rather than the sun itself! Hope i will get better!

Thks again bro for your time! [emoji1374]

Just to add, im staying a country when most of the time is summer, except for some rainy days,
picture above was taken on a rare cloudy day, i thought it would be good exposure when the sun is behind the clouds. Still lousy [emoji23]

 

[gnirtS]

ND Filters

Will do absolutely nothing for still images and only make things worse.

 

[gnirtS]

A few problems - it looks like you're shooting in JPG so lots of lose image data.
Also because you're shooting into the sun the foreground is severely under exposed. The editing software has tried to boost the shadows which is massively increased the noise hence the grain.

Shoot in raw, take bracketed shots either by AEB or manual and then merge. And use proper editing software on a real computer.

 

[MavicDelight]

Try making a still photo facing the opposite direction with your bird. Taking captures of Sunsets is very demanding because of the limited dynamic range of digital cameras.
Here is an example of what I mean.