First time here! C&C?

KAikens318 · Jun 6, 2009

Hey guys, I am new here! I was in another photography forum, but they were straight out telling me "Your photos suck, you need a lot of work" and it was really disheartening. I am all for critique but let me know what I can do to improve, not just tell me I suck! Oy! Lol, so here are two of my favorites, let me know what you all think...

Samanax · Jun 6, 2009

I think I've seen both of these pictures before on another forum.

#1 - This image is really noisy. Exif says the popup flash did fire so I'm wondering why the ISO is at 1600? Way too high for flash work. When shooting with flash you can use ISO 100 (or 200, but lower is better). The colors are nice and bright but the composition isn't so good. If the pink flower was the main subject you should have filled the frame with it. If you wanted to show the other flowers as well, try not to cut them off at the edges. I think you could have shot with a higher f/stop setting (f/16, f/22 or higher) to get more DOF so that the main flower is entirely in focus. Not too crazy about the shadows from the flash.

#2 - I sort of like the idea behind this shot, but don't really care for the shot much. The exif says you used ISO 800 which is too high for this situation. When you have good light, use a lower ISO setting. When shooting with less available light then use higher ISO settings. With the supports of the ferris wheel giving you leading lines to work with, I think if you have stepped more to the right and placed the support junction a little more to the left and higher in the frame it would have given you a better composition.

Not sure how long you've been shooting but based on the exif information it seems you need to work on the basics of exposure. And looking at your pictures you need to work on your composition skills.

Digital Photography Tips For Beginners

Digital Photography Composition Tips

You might also want to pick up "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson and "The Photographer's Eye" by Michael Freeman. Both are available at Amazon.

LarryD · Jun 6, 2009

Welcome to the forum...

Nice bit of color in the first one...
I think that the flowers are a bit soft... perhaps some post sharp would help, however, it appears that your focus is right on the leading edge of the first flower.... Depth of field does not extend down into the center of the bloom.

The ferris wheel is fine...unusual perspective, but the sky above is captured nicely....

Take any critique you hear with a grain of salt and use the information to improve on your photography.... It doesn't really matter if it's what you wanted to hear or not...most aren't any better or worse than you are..