Following the Advice of Bryan Peterson, C&C Please!!

[smackitsakic]

Over the course of the past few months I have been reading Bryan Peterson's books 'Understanding Exposure' and 'Understanding Photography'.

Both books are really good reads and are very informative. I am trying to use some of the skills he teaches his readers and have some of these to show...please give your C&C on how these could be better! Each pic has a bit of a description at the top:

1 - With this pic I was trying to get the picnic table as a silhouette as best as possible...playing around with different types of metering eventually got me to this shot:



2 - Some friends were playing Bocce ball in the park and I wanted to capture them in the background, but not be the centre of attention in the picture. I wanted the weight of the photo to be on the bright red ball:



3 - Action shot #1 - I opened up the lens to f5.6 for this pic, but could only get my shutter speed to around 1/60 at ISO 100. I increased my ISO to 400 and was able to get the shutter speed to 1/200. Not as fast as I wanted, but the pics turned out ok I think? This was in the evening, about 1.5 hours before sunset:



4 - Acton shot #2 - See description above:



5 - Supper time! Had a tough time getting the yellow peppers to be as crsip as the others...anything I could do better next time for this?



6 - This is one of my first attempts at a night shot. This was with a tripod and remote shutter release with a shutter speed of 30 seconds. The 'orange' is from a light on the path that I couldn't seem to get far enough away from. Any feedback on this image?

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[dak1b]

#5 and #6 r good. the others arent doin much for me.

[smackitsakic]

Thanks - any suggestions for improvements?

Any others with feedback?

[rufus5150]

Had a tough time getting the yellow peppers to be as crsip as the others...anything I could do better next time for this?

More light from the side (directional) will bring out the edges of the yellow peppers. Bright saturated yellows like that will often blend into one another so you have to use the texture created by the 3D arrangement of the objects in order to delineate distinct lines and provide separation based on the way the shadows fall.

[pbelarge]

The photos where you are shooting into the sun both have flare spots in them.
Most of the other shots are overexposed. Try adjusting your exposure down. If you are unsure, bracket those types of shots and it may help you to be able to better determine the exposure necessary for that particular shot.

Also, as Rufus mentioned, change the angle you are shooting from.

[Fraginator3000]

#5 and #6 r good. the others arent doin much for me.

Same here, number six is the best one...

[white]

I think #2 would be improved if you brought the group of people closer around the ball, and then shoot it with a narrow depth of field. As it is, they are too far away and do not stand out much alongside the cars and trees. Make it a portrait about their shoes and the ball.

The ball will still be the center of attention because it is bright red and for some reason red things catch our eye.