Beginner Shots, Please C&C

[jwhphoto]

Here are a couple of the shots i took that i like.

The candle was shot against a black background, so its not edited out.

The footbridge is one close to where i live. Its in Folsom, CA

Thanks

 

[tekzero]

exposure looks good in both, just keep shooting, but composition-wise these are kinda boring, so just keep at it

 

[cosmonaut]

I big key is to catch your subject at the right time. The bridge shot would work better say on a foggy morning or at least some cloud detail. Composition is not hard but putting mood in your work is harder. Keep at it.

 

[jwhphoto]

exposure looks good in both, just keep shooting, but composition-wise these are kinda boring, so just keep at it

Thanks tekzero.

I need to learn more about composition, i know my photos lack that currently. Right now I'm more interested in making sure my exposure and colors are good. I'm brand new to photography and am trying to be able to take shots that will come out before i start with the composition ( if i should be trying all 3 at one, let me know. I just thought it better to focus on 1 thing at a time.)

Also, where would be a good place for a beginer to go to practice taking pics? I live in a small apartment and dont have a yard and the apartment complex isnt that appealing. Any Suggestions?

 

[tekzero]

maybe good practice would be a busy street or strip, a place with lots of people/shops/cars, stuff going on, u could prolly just walk around and shoot randomly, but starting out, you are going to probably get too much negative space, think about your subject a bit, get a bit creative, the more you practice the better, and the better you will get and the more evolved your work will be

 

[jwhphoto]

So heres one i took today down at a local park. My sky seems over exposed, yet the camera said it was about right, and the rest is somewhat underexposed i thought. I have edited it some to bring up the exposure. How do i keep the sky from overexposing? only a couple of the shots i took today had a blue sky, and those were taken with the sun directly behind me.

I tried for a little bit more interesting composition than i previously had, lemme know what you think of that as well please.

 

[tekzero]

a circular polarizer filter might help in preventing a blown out sky

 

[jwhphoto]

had one on and it did not seem to make much of a difference. What do neutral density filters do? I've heard them named but am not sure what their purpose is exactly.

 

[Resin42]

They're mainly used for allowing longer shutter speeds or wide apertures in bright conditions, they pretty much darken down the scene without distorting it. If you wanted to keep the same depth of field in the above shot then in would maybe have helped but probably a smaller aperture would have helped. If you're exposing for a foreground in the shade with your main subject or a lot of background in direct midday sun you're always going to have this problem.

A few things that would have improved this shot for me. Shoot it in early morning or late afternoon/evening when the light's softer. Pick a bench in direct sunlight. Make the bench the subject and choose a point of focus on it so you can see the DOF changing across it with the detail being picked out at some point.

Hope this helps, keep at it.

 

[cosmonaut]

I polarizer is fine to bring detail out of a sky and glare when shooting over water or even wet grass. But to be honest I rarely use one. If you are wanting to do landscapes the first thing I would get is a Cokin ND grad system. It tones down the sky but leaves detail in the foreground. Polarizers can cause unpleasent color shifts that will need to be corrected in PPing. But as I wrote, great for over water shots.