How Can I Improve This Pic?

[Ben M]

Hi, I have been trying to get a good picture of the church in my village, but I can't seem to get it right. All of the pictures i take appear too dark, and i can't seem to get great detail. The camera I am using is a Canon EOS 1000D, and the lens is a Canon zoom lens EF-S 18-55mm. Could you give me some tips to help me get it right please?

Here is an attempt:

I'd really appreciate some help with this before the snow melts lol.

 

[Tom]

From a composition point of view, I would try to get more of the ground in the shot, and a little bit less open space at the top. Or you could always chop some off the top. Then if you can, clean your sensor or remove the dust marks (black spots) in photoshop or GIMP or something with a healing tool, but it's not too bad at the moment.

When you're shooting against a bright sky, it will tend to underexpose the ground automatically. If you get more ground in the shot, it may shift the metering and brighten up the image.

Alternatively if not shooting in manual, you can bump up the exposure control by pressing the AV button and turning the dial on top (from memory!!). You'd have to balance the highlights though so it doesn't go too bright.

Orrrr.... you could get a graduated neutral density filter (you'd need 58mm diameter) which effectively darkens one half of the image (sky in this case), so you could brighten up the ground without blowing the highlights in the sky.

That may or may not work depending on where the sun is - it will be much easier with the sun behind you. I'm guessing it's just to the left here?

Tom