What would you have done?

[opus]

I wanted to capture the "rainforest" feel of our resort in Mexico, so I snapped away as we passed it in the boat. But the pictures came out so much hazier than I saw them. I was distressed that I couldn't get the shot the way I wanted.

What would you have done differently to capture this shot better?

Here are the settings I used:

Tv(Shutter Speed)
1/640
Av(Aperture Value)
7.1
ISO Speed
100
Lens
28.0 - 90.0mm
Focal Length
28.0mm
Image Quality
Fine

[opus]

now here I took it into ps and edited it, but I'm still not happy with it.

[gahspidy]

This is a great scene with such dramatic clouds over the mountains. I like the composition here as you sought to capture much more of the sky than water, and it worked well.
Is this a point and shoot type digicam fixed lens? What might have made the picture sharper would have been to come off the wide angle setting just a bit ( lots of lenses, especially inexpensive ones or the ones on point and shoots lose image quality as they get to the end of their range ). and shot it at 30mm or more. Increase aperture to 11 ( most lens are sharpest at between f8-f11) which would give you more dof as well, and you had plenty of shutter speed to assure sharpness with that wide angle. But this may only have helped a little. If there is any haze or high humidity in the air at all when shooting a large landscape like this, it will usually show up in the shot. A haze or polarizing filter can help with that.
You improved it in ps somewhat. Would you mind if I took a crack at it and post it ?
I like the scene here as you composed it and think it can be saved with some more editing.
keep posting. . .

[opus]

Feel free! Thanks!

I shot it with my DRebel, using the lens that came with my Rebel Ti. I've got a UV filter on it.

You're right though, it was (obviously) extremely humid down there. I guess that's what I was picking up...I was puzzled about that because I'm only familiar with "pollution" and there's not much of that down there.

~Kelly

[gahspidy]

Feel free! Thanks!

I shot it with my DRebel, using the lens that came with my Rebel Ti. I've got a UV filter on it.

You're right though, it was (obviously) extremely humid down there. I guess that's what I was picking up...I was puzzled about that because I'm only familiar with "pollution" and there's not much of that down there.

~Kelly

Kelly,
If I'm not mistaken, thats the "kit" lens that is usually offered with the camera at a good package price. But from the reviews I have read about that lens, not too many people happy with the overall image qualityt and sharpness.
I use Jasc paint shop pro 8, and am no expert at editing but think I may have improved upon it a bit. There are some members on this forum that are very good with image editing software and may even be able to help this further.

[opus]

what lens would you recommend?

[Sebastien B]

here what I got playing with 2 layers, one for the sky, one for the land, I changed contrast and lightness levels of RGB layers for each layer.

Tell me what you think?

Seb

[gahspidy]

This site has a product review section where you can look at different manufacturers and their lenses and see what kind of ratings were given by people who have actually used them. Personally, I am using three different Tamron lenses, and bought them after having read the favorable reviews. I also have a Sigma 170-500 that i bought on Ebay and is great. The reason for going with the Tamron is because they are an excellent lens for the money. I have been very happy with them to date.

[opus]

I like the contrast much better, especially where clouds meet land. But, something bothers me about the green. It's perhaps a bit TOO green.. And I really miss the blue of the water. I think the mood has been changed and it looks dryer.

I think maybe if the greens could be blued down just a tad it might bring back the jungle mood. The vegetation down there has a definite "sagey" tint.

I'll post another pic of the day, a bit earlier before the clouds got thick, and closer to land. I might be going for color a bit more like this.

But the definition has definitely improved!