amateur photography criticism

EricaRie · May 20, 2010

I recently purchased a Nikon D3000 to take good photos of my now one year old daughter. I LOVE taking pictures and have had a couple of friends/relatives ask me to take some for them. Free of charge of course as this is just a fun hobby for me, but hobby or not I would still love to improve my skills. Here are some of the pictures I've taken, please throw in your two cents worth! :thumbup:

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EricaRie · May 20, 2010

Oops, the pictures don't show. What did I do wrong?

Sharpiks · May 20, 2010

You didn't post the full image code.

Take the direct URL of the image, and put

at the end.

FattyMcJ · May 20, 2010

EricaRie said:
Oops, the pictures don't show. What did I do wrong?

Take the "/" out of the first IMG tag.

Should be [IMG*] URL [/IMG*] ... minus the *

Boomn4x4 · May 20, 2010

Geaux · May 20, 2010

Harsh lighting to be shooting at. Best to shoot around sundown, so you don't get harsh shadows.

I'm not a huge fan of the composition of the subjects. In both shots, their feet are missing.

EricaRie · May 20, 2010

ababysean · May 20, 2010

Are these your children
I'm jealous you were able to get so many shots of them together, usually I can maybe get a shot or two but then they start going crazy on each other.

EricaRie · May 20, 2010

The picture with the four kids heads together, the baby girl at the bottom kicking her feet up is my 1year old daughter. The other three belong to my oldest sister.

I snapped MANY MANY pictures of them in different poses because my daughter did not want to sit still, until I laid them down like this. She thought this was just so much fun and started kicking, smiling, laughing, which caused my niece and nephews to smile and laugh.

EricaRie · May 20, 2010

The older people are my cousins. These were shots they wanted for a mother's day present

EricaRie · May 20, 2010

Excuse me... the set of 3 older people are my cousins. The 3rd picture in that last set, with the single girl on the rail road tracks... that is me! :sexywink:

PerfectlyFlawed · May 20, 2010

Why is everyone wearing white shirts... kinda creeping me out a bit

lol Jk

Ok, first ... You should always Number your pictures, it makes it easier for us to Critique them

Especially when there are so many.
Second... Your off to a good start,IMO. However, I am noticing that most of your 'subjects' are missing limbs ( feet more specifically ).
You should really watch *when* your taking the pictures if your using natural light.. the sun can be harsh and overexpose pictures.. or cause unwanted glaring and squinting. Early morning? Evening, and over cast/cloudy days I think are best times to shoot.
Also you may want to do some reading up on composition, as well as "Rule of thirds"
theyll help you out a little.

Here are some links for you just googled a bunch.. im sure some on here will help you.

Rules of photo composition
Photography: The Rules of Composition – PictureCorrect
Rule of thirds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hope any of that helped.

PerfectlyFlawed · May 20, 2010

This is too cute, but the babies hands are blurred. Some of their eyes are closed.. and all the white kind of kills it. too bright.

This is a good start, imo. But i wouldnt center all of your images. or crop it

I think this is one of the better ones... maybe play around with it , adjust it in photoshop or something?? would clean up nicely.

Over exposed, squinty, possibly fixable with some post processing.

good shot though.

EricaRie · May 20, 2010

the baby's blurry hands were because she was waving them around, we tried by there was no way to hold her still, haha.

And the white shirts was my cousin's idea. She wanted these pictures for mother's day so she orchestrated the outfits. I wondered if something w/ color (i.e. blues and greens) might do better in that lighting (4:00 pm)

PerfectlyFlawed · May 20, 2010

EricaRie said:
the baby's blurry hands were because she was waving them around, we tried by there was no way to hold her still, haha.

And the white shirts was my cousin's idea. She wanted these pictures for mother's day so she orchestrated the outfits. I wondered if something w/ color (i.e. blues and greens) might do better in that lighting (4:00 pm)

Probably so, or even the white just a different, perhaps later in the evening.