Oh man . as someone who discovered the demo a couple weeks ago and has been waiting to buy the full version , this is about as good as it gets ! <| sep |> I feel im missing a reference . <| sep |> Looks like you were going for a sunset shot , those have been giving me trouble as well . You have a fine camera , I think it is the Cannon equivalent to the Nikon D 3300 I use . Not a pro by any means , and am always learning . I agree with the others your ISO seems high . Higher ISO increases light sensitivity and tends to cause more noise that grainy look . Part of that look is also caused by the lack of a focus point . As a stand alone shot some people might find it boring but if it is part of a photo story it might be more meaningful . The understanding the exposure triangle is very helpful . One thing that has helped me learn a lot was after learning about the triangle was shooting something boring but familiar and taking a couple hundred shots each time changing one thing . So the first time I ' d get as close as I thought I could to the right settings . Then take a quick set or 23 shots then adjust the shutter speed or aperture and take another couple shots . By choosing something familiar to me I took the guess work out of does it look right ? In other words I knew the texture , color and shape it should have without it being in front of me .