Ever had one of those days where you feel certain things just "click" into place?

[rickabobaloey]

'Cause I did today. Mainly composition wise, I still for some reason always feel I need to shoot with a wide open aperture. The more I shoot, and shoot, and shoot, the more I can look back over my first couple of photos and say "Yep, I'm improving". Thanks to everyone here for honest critiques and advice and I look forward to learning more! Here's a couple from today that I really like. Let me know what you think!

1)

2)

3)

 

[ferguson911]

Number 3 really gets me..kind of view i'd have if i were going to pick up that knife

 

[shrutebucks]

Number 3 really gets me..kind of view i'd have if i were going to pick up that knife

haha i agree...i love #3!

 

[misstwinklytoes]

Oooh, you're using the same cam and lens as me... be my learnin' buddy! What settings did you use? Do you use back button focus?

 

[SecondShot]

they're a little on the small side for me to get a more proper view, but here goes.

#1 It's ok. The right half of the photo is a little distracting - namely the person in the background. Lack of lighting (esp. when you can see sunlight in the far background) is detrimental to the photo, in my opinion.

#2 I like this one a lot. Love the composition, love the theme thats going with this as well. Old, dilapidated, dying shacks surrounded by dying and dead trees. Love the rust coloration. I think the lighting works nice, but could be better perhaps if you came back at an earlier time, so that you get a little more sunlight on the sheds (not full sunlight, just a few degrees more of light would be perfect, IMO)

#3 I like it, interesting angle. I think a knife with a more visually interesting handle would work better, but that's just my mind going. Good detail.

 

[PerfectlyFlawed]

#3 is great! Very appealing...

 

[rickabobaloey]

Number 3 really gets me..kind of view i'd have if i were going to pick up that knife

haha i agree...i love #3!

Thanks, both of you!

Oooh, you're using the same cam and lens as me... be my learnin' buddy! What settings did you use? Do you use back button focus?

Never knew of a back button focus! I just read about it and I'm going to start using that I think. Right now I focus by pressing the shutter button halfway and then most often having to recompose.

Setttings were;

#1) 18mm, f/5, 1/100 sec., ISO 400
#2) 42mm, f/14, 1/40 sec., ISO 100
#3) 28mm, f/5, 1/25 sec., ISO 400

they're a little on the small side for me to get a more proper view, but here goes.

#1 It's ok. The right half of the photo is a little distracting - namely the person in the background. Lack of lighting (esp. when you can see sunlight in the far background) is detrimental to the photo, in my opinion.

#2 I like this one a lot. Love the composition, love the theme thats going with this as well. Old, dilapidated, dying shacks surrounded by dying and dead trees. Love the rust coloration. I think the lighting works nice, but could be better perhaps if you came back at an earlier time, so that you get a little more sunlight on the sheds (not full sunlight, just a few degrees more of light would be perfect, IMO)

#3 I like it, interesting angle. I think a knife with a more visually interesting handle would work better, but that's just my mind going. Good detail.

Thanks for ideas SecondShot! The direction I was facing in photo #1 was east and the sun was behind me setting in the west (around 8:30 or 9:00 PM). I'll try this shot again at other times of the day but I'm not really sure what time of day will give the best lighting for it.

One of the things I love about that knife is that the makers of it really pride themselves on a very durable knife capable of a lot of tasks. They were'nt really interested in making a "fashion" knife. As you can see it has taken a bt of abuse!

#3 is great! Very appealing...

Thanks! #3 definitely seems to be the favorite out of these three!

 

[misstwinklytoes]

See, maybe I'm just nuts.... or slow... but I don't know what everyone means by focus and then recompose. When you recompose do you just move the camera or do you have to refocus? I know... total n00b question..

 

[rickabobaloey]

You just move the camera, no need to refocus, unless you accidentally let the shutter go or press it and take a shot too early! Which I've done quite a bit. :lmao:

However everytime you fully press the shutter button you have to refocus by pressing the shutter button halfway down. Which is time consuming and doesn't seem very practical in certain situations.

 

[Morpheuss]

wow they are all really awesome

 

[rickabobaloey]

Thanks Morpeuss! I like them too. The first two do have a bit of edting done to them, but not much. Pretty much just did the GIMP auto color enhance and played with the contrast a tad.

Is it possible with the equipment I have to make the colors (like in the first shot) as vivid without PP editing?

 

[misstwinklytoes]

So I have the BBF on my camera now, I'm just working on actually using it.

 

[Ryan L]

I think #2 could be a good canidate for HDR if you want to give it a try.

 

[rickabobaloey]

What's BBF, misstwinklytoes?

Don't know much about HDR, Ryan. Is GIMP capable of producing them? Also, I kick myself but I don't shoot in RAW as I have a very small SD card at the moment and when I switched the file type to RAW it says I can only get 30-something captures with it! :er: