Photos Straight "Out of the Box" - how would you correct?

[Octoruss]

Ok, so I gleefully received my P4P two days ago and was excited to see the image quality of the new camera and sensor. I'm still learning the nuances of photography and know there will be a steep learning curve with the P4P camera to get excellent shots.

I did, however, expect that the automatic settings out of the box would be better than they were. Without adjusting any of the shutter speeds, apertures or exposure, the auto settings took the attached photo...bleh.

The sky is overexposed. The colors are drab. Very little depth...

I know I have to learn proper settings, but I would have thought the auto settings would give me a better photo. That said, can anyone suggest how I should have set the camera settings in order to get a better result?

Thanks for your advice!

 

[Kman]

I use a P4. I have the over exposure setting turned on. I make small adjustments to the ev while I'm taking pics to get a brighter or darker picture. I shoot everything in DNG (raw) not JPEG and edit in Adobe Lightroom.

You can check some of my pics here, https://www.instagram.com/keithkman

The photo you took doesn't look bad at all for auto settings. Play around with different settings and figure out what you like best.

 

[skysense]

It actually looks nice and sharp!

Do not expect a lot from auto!
Search, and learn photography, there is a lot but basics are simple.
P4P is powerful machine/camera.
Use Lightroom, it is very simple for basics and very powerful tool for photo editing, specially if you shoot raw (always shoot raw if you want good results, it gives you a lot space to play with image).

Here is a quick graded image you uploaded. My friend tried how it will grade in Resolve.

If you want, make some .dng - raw images and upload them to try even better grading

 

[ricphoto]

The tip to turn on overexposure warning is a good one...as is adjusting the exposure compensation while shooting...biggest thing to remember: you can recover a lot of detail in the shadows (lighten the image) but you can never recover blown out skies/highlights...once they are gone they're gone...learn Lightroom...plenty of tutorials online.
The image was capture in flat light...could have been middle of the day or just overcast...you need shadows to create depth and dimension in an image...as much as possible shoot in the earlier or later parts of the day when the "cross lighting" will will help you create dramatic scene.
look at a lot of photos/videos and note which one evoke an emotional reaction in you...then dissect them...exposure, angle of light, time of day...what did you find so cool about them...practice replication until you get a better understanding of what makes a great photograph and soon you'll be creating your own masterpieces ;-)

 

[PhantomPhilip]

I think others have given good advice on your question "how would you correct?"
Sometimes photos can be beyond recovering by correction and a little playing around can produce something a little different. What do you think?

 

[Doctorcobani]

Learn and shoot in manual, there is a whole world of difference and with these skills you can take the picture as you like and not as the camera has been pre-programmed.

Aperture, depth of field, diffraction, expose to the right, highlights, ISO, noise, shutter speed, exposure compensation, rules of thirds, RAW format, dynamic range and so on... are concepts that you need to learn! Read a lot, internet has everything to make you a true enthusiast (or why not a professional) of photography. Autodidact rules

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[skysense]

Seen by me, this is a very good place to start:
my advice is read and try, read and try, read and try...

https://expertphotography.com/what-do-the-numbers-and-letters-on-lenses-mean/
https://expertphotography.com/how-to-understand-aperture-5-simple-steps/
https://expertphotography.com/category/tutorials/photography-basics/

 

[Octoruss]

Wow, thanks everybody for your very thoughtful replies! And for the edited images, those are all very cool!

I know I have a lot to learn about photography. I'm actually about a year into it but am mediocre at best. That said, it seems that my best bet is to keep the overexposure zebras on, but err on the side of underexposed and not overexposure. I don't have Lightroom, but given how often it's cited on this forum may be a worthwhile investment.

Thanks again very much for all the input mates!


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