Critique my noob shots..

[Evertking]

Canon rebel xt
50 mm 1.8

 

[Evertking]

Just looking for honest advice. This is my first camera. And I'm kinda lost but been reading non stop.
What should my next purchase be.. a speedlight? I'm really looking to get serious with this.

 

[tirediron]

Moved to 'People' for better exposure and since they didn't really seem to fit 'Alternative Techniques'.

Overall, I'd say these are three pretty decent images; there does seem to be a bit of noise in some areas as if you'd either used a high ISO, or recovered some shadows fairly aggressively. I very much like the rim lighting on her hair in #1. #3 unfortunately is quite soft; possibly as a result of missed focus.

As far as your next gear purchase, wait until YOU know what you need, that is, when you find something that you can't do with your current kit. That said, a speedlight is definitely a worthwhile purchase.

 

[Evertking]

The shots were taking in AV mode.. as I understand it, the camera sets the ISO or can I also change it in AV mode.
Could you tell me what ya mean by missed focus? What could I have done to got it "right"?
I really appreciate your input.

 

[tirediron]

"Av" or "Aperture Priority" mode is one where you set the aperture (f #) and the camera set's an appropriate shutter speed. This mode is generally used when you want to control the depth of field (DoF) or amount of the image that's in sharp focus. Most modern DSLRs can also have 'Auto ISO' enabled in almost any mode, so you could have had the camera setting both aperture and ISO.

With respect to the missed focus, if you look at the hair immediately above the lad's shoulder nearest the back, it's relatively sharp, while the face is quite soft or out of focus. This tells me that the camera chose to focus on the hair at the back of his head, for whatever reason, rendering the face unfocused; not generally desirable in portraits. My preference for shooting portraits of any sort (in fact for almost all photography really) is to use a single AF point and place it where I want the area of critical focus. Allowing the camera to decide without verifying what it's focused on will often lead to less than desirable results, as in this case.

 

[Trever1t]

well I've seen worse and for a new shooter, seriously, there are pretty good. Nice backlight in the first, needs a little more fill but nice use of available light for sure.

 

[FITBMX]

It is a very nice set, for someone new to photography. Tirediron has it all right. I always set my camera to only one focus point, and always manually set ISO. I have a Canon T3i. The entry level cameras very good at the auto stuff, every time I try using something like that, it messes up my photo.

To me just as important as gear, is learning how to use PhotoShop, and LightRoom well. They are very valuable tools.
Keep Shooting, and keep posting.

 

[Designer]

Compositionally, they're pretty good.
#1 cropped quite close to your subjects
#2 distracting background
#3 depth of field is a bit too thin, IMO

There are as many different approaches to photography as there are photographers, so it is difficult to say that one should simply move to owning a speedlight at some point in his photographic experience. If you are ready to learn that aspect of the craft, then sure, go for it.

 

[chuasam]

Much much better than the usual stuff here. Try brightening up the subject in the first image and use warmer tones in the next 2. I feel that generally your crops are too tight.
Keep working at it.

 

[Granddad]

I like these, especially the ones of the boy. You've got an eye for a good shot and that's more important than any piece of kit. Keep shooting, keep posting and keep looking for advice.
NB Looking for advice doesn't mean you have to take all the advice you're given.
Sometimes advice will be conflicting but you are the artist and keep your right to decide which to follow. If you keep posting here you'll soon see if ignoring a piece of advice was a good idea or not because you'll see a consistency of the criticism you get.

 

[The_Traveler]

Pretty much what they said^

plus:
#1 had the advantage of great lighting and nice depth of field.
you did clip the baby's toes and need more space there.

#3 - shooting from above means no face and thus an uninteresting image

#2 He is off to one side for no reason and looking into that short side
Overexposed, his skin is bleached and blown out so the white balance is way off.

All in all, damn nice starter set.

 

[The_Traveler]

One of the real problems inherent in learning by taking pictures of people you like or of attractive things - or both - is that your objectivity about the work itself is constantly being affected by your attachment to the subjects.
Learn exposure and compostion on subject/things you don't care about, then you can look at your results more objectively.