C&C for a noob.

[AJ 1]

So as you can see from my introduction I'm new to the forum. Like i said, I've been kind of lurking around here trying to learn new things about photography. You've all been really informative and I appreciate it, even if it was indirectly. So, I thought I would post a couple of my favorite shots that I've taken so far to try and get some feedback. So here goes.


Crested Butte, CO. This was taken about ten minutes from where I live.

Taken in town last week. We got 5 feet of snow last week, and two more this week. I know this isn't a spectacular shot with all the things going on, but I just liked it for some reason.

Had to stand in the water to get this one how I wanted.

Mountain Ridge.
Seems to me this one may be a little overexposed. Am I right about that?

A couple of my parent's dog.
For some reason I feel this should be much sharper. I'm not sure what I did wrong here. I think it could have come out a lot better.

Yeah, I know, doggie is outta focus.

So anyway. Let me have it.

 

[jwsciontc]

the first dog one is underexposed. #2 doesn't really do anything for me. But i love 1 3 and 4

 

[Ins3rtNam3H3r3]

#2 - The green tree on the left is distracting (Crop it out maybe?)
#3 - The horizon seems to be tilted to the left a little
#5 - A little out of focus

I love #1, you live in a beautiful area.

 

[LaFoto]

The first of the two dog photos was taken in too little light, so your camera had to expose for longer than you could hold still with it in your hands, so what you get here is camera shake. That's the reason for the blurriness.

And in the last, the camera chose a very wide aperture in answer to the little light inside the car, which decreases your DOF quite a bit and thus through the dog out of focus.

The first photo is definitely the nicest and best exposed.

The flash used against the snow flakes and (worse) the flower in the top left is something I would advise against, although I must say that the flashed flakes could have looked a lot worse .... that brightly green flower must go, though, I say (or tree or door decoration or so). A simple crop can do the trick. Other than that I must say: those amounts of snow are simply INCREDIBLE to me!

 

[a1157814a]

hey i love the first picture. do you know what settings you used when you took that photo?

 

[AJ 1]

hey i love the first picture. do you know what settings you used when you took that photo?

Unfortunately I do not. This was one of the very first pictures I ever took with this camera and I was fooling around with many different setttings. I was using aperature mode, that's all I know.


Thanks to everyone for your input so far. I was sure people wouldn't like the left side of the snow photo, and I was gonna crop it out before I posted it, but decided against it at the last minute.

On the snow photo, if I would have used a slower shutter speed instead of the flash do you guys think it would have come out better. It was pretty late in the afternoon and starting to get dark (It gets dark there around 4:15 because of the mountains) I assume the slower shutter speed would have let more light in instead of the harsh flash nailing the snowflakes and the street signs?

 

[AJ 1]

Thought I'd just add another photo of mine to the thread. For some reason I just really love this photo, it seems that it came out exactly how I wanted it to. It was a year in the making because I had to wait for the tree to grow out from when I carved it.

 

[LaFoto]

In the snow flake pic, if you had used a tripod as camera support (or something else that would have been firm enough), the flakes would have come out as streaks! You'd have needed to expose for much longer than your hands could have held the camera steady, and since the flakes were moving, that motion would have shown. It depends on what you really like better. Without the lefthand-side reflecting too much of the flash, this photo with the highlighted and "frozen" (in their movement) flakes and the background in dusk looks good, too!

 

[Atlas77]

The snow and the dog shots could use improvement but i love the mountains and such!

 

[WDodd]

First of all, welcome!

You are totally lucky to have such a beautiful landscape right out your back door.

1 and 4 are good in my opinion. The dog might be a little underexposed because of the environment you were taking the picture. I think #2 might've been a little bit more effective if you had not used your flash and had a tripod handy.