How do i make my photos better

Not the selective color - it pulls attention away from the child, implying the pumpkins are more important.
Agree to disagree. I found the exposure-blown sky to be a real bummer, and switching to straight b/w just wasn't doing it for me. I liked the selective pumpkins and thought the kiddo was clearly not going to be ignored (he looks like a happy little handful!). You disagree- no worries. Your point makes a lot of sense, but I still like the pumpkins.

PS- hate that disagree button. Most of us take and even encourage C&C, but the big red X kinda yells "You stink" (which wasn't what you meant) rather than "I would have made a different choice there, friend" (which what you said in your well-reasoned post).

Selective color can be used to draw attention.
Why would the photographer want to draw attention to the pumpkins?
Selective color is rarely appropriate, attractive or useful.

Why not stop trying to beat this poor picture with edits to get something good out of it?
This picture has such real, disqualifying defects that no amount of PSing will make it a good representative of a photographers work.
I'm always happy to post photographic ideas up here because I am confident that those with more experience and training and artistic vision will be quick to point out when I am off-base. Such as now. If you're asking me to defend the sketch idea that I threw up, I cannot, Beyond what I've already said. It simply makes me happy. Is it in artistically poor choice? Apparently. The OP certainly is free to disregard it. Since I put it up, the OP has received sage counsel to disregard it, which is certainly fair. I recognize that selective colorization is cliché. I recognize that it might tend to draw the eye away from the subject for some. I still liked it.
 
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I agree that cropping off the building on the right hand side made the image much,much better, turning it in to what it is: a for-the-record-shot of a little boy's trip to a pumpkin patch place. That big aluminum sided farm building on the right hand side was just really hurting the overall feel of the shot, and getting rid of that really tightened the photo up down to the essentials: very small boy, plus pumpkins.

As far as improving the shot...his eye direction out of the frame is very much a net minus. There's not a lot that can be done after the fact on a shot like this (an over-exposed, already processed, screen-sized .JPG files) except to crop it down to its most essential elements, and then just be satisfied.
 
I'm always happy to post photographic ideas up here because I am confident that those with more experience and training and artistic vision will be quick to point out when I am off-base. Such as now. If you're asking me to defend the sketch idea that I threw up, I cannot, Beyond what I've already said. It simply makes me happy. Is it in artistically poor choice? Apparently. The OP certainly is free to disregard it. Since I put it up, the OP has received sage counsel to disregard it, which is certainly fair. I recognize that selective colorization is cliché. I recognize that it might tend to draw the eye away from the subject for some. I still liked it.

No worries. Everything is opinion and we may like different things - that's what makes the world tolerable. :1247:

Hopefully ganafbbyx will try a few of the suggestions and see what works for them, and keep shooting.
 
I'm don't know how to blur the back ground or fix the blown out shirt with a jpg but just a simple crop focuses the photo where you want it to go.
n3opqx.jpg



Wow i actually see a difference ! Thanks.
 
You kidding? If my kid was that cute he'd be all over FB no matter how crappy the shot!

Perhaps that's the point.
Why should we be caring about whether the 'kid is cute' and making a splash with one's friends on Facebook?
Isn't helping a photographer to get better at practicing a craft a better goal than making yet one more FB wonder?

Very good point and why she posted in the first place. I sort of forgot about that...
 
I'm don't know how to blur the back ground or fix the blown out shirt with a jpg but just a simple crop focuses the photo where you want it to go.
n3opqx.jpg

In GIMP (free photoshop alternative that has all the same tools) you'd select the outline of the thing you don't want blurred, here it's the child, and apply a filter to the rest of it. A slight Gaussian blur will look like this:
kid.jpeg



This is a really quick and dirty edit. Really quick and dirty...eesh. You can see where I missed some background around the hands. I've used this method to 'save' iffy but cute cellphone pictures of small kids for family members. I also spent more than 4-5 minutes on them.
 
If you "want to get better", the easiest way to do that is to buy an instructional manual that covers many dozen of the basic aspects of picture-making. In my opinion, the John Hedgecoe photography books are some of the best instructional manuals in photography. Hedgecoe was the first-ever full professor of photography at London's Royal College. His instruction is geared toward adults. His books have many,many,many small illustrations and diagrams that illustrate each teaching point. There have been very few books that are done with an many illustrations and diagrams as his many books.

One problem with learning from YouTube videos or the web sites and blogs is that the "teaching" found in those formats is often scattershot, half-baked, and in many cases, just flat-out lousy. Learning from a book designed by an accomplished instructor and author means that your course is layed out for you, in a book, with a chapter list, and an index, and over 1,000 illustrations with what to do and also some what not to do photos, and plenty of simple, clear, proven advice in how to find light, how to see light, how to position your subjects in relation to the light, how to compose photos, and how to use the camera to make good, solid photos.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Digital-Photography-John-Hedgecoe/dp/0756623545/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=51K5rgBvF7L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR133,160_&refRID=0A1J9H31JKY94S8RRJ9D
I received mine on Friday. I paid a little over $4.00 including shipping. OMG, it is so worth it. Thanks for sharing the link. There is over 1000 pictures in it. Everyone picks it up off the coffee table and comments about something in it. Great advice Derrel.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
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jcdeboever said:
I received mine on Friday. I paid a little over $4.00 including shipping. OMG, it is so worth it. Thanks for sharing the link. There is over 1000 pictures in it. Everyone picks it up off the coffee table and comments about something in it. Great advice Derrel.

Hey, good to hear that you've picked up a book by one of my favorite photography instructional book authors! YES--1,000-plus illustrations, and always something interesting diagrammed out, illustrated, made into a concise lesson. I LOVE the Hedgecoe books!
 
I started by posting photos here and getting critique on composition. That helped me start composing some better shots. And I worked on that and getting comfy with my camera and 1 lens first. If you can adjust your focus points (check the camera manual), that can help you. And I second the comment earlier about using a non installed flash. The first photo could benefit from some fill light to brighten his face and even out the shadows. I'm definitely still learning, but I just keep practicing. Learning from these folks, and trying again. I typically don't post a lot. I post, get some input and go work on it for a while, then come back when I'm stuck again. Your 2 shared photos work well as family remembering photos. A little adjusting, and you can get there.

I've found that with each new lens, I have to get used to the focus points again. Some lens are more sensitive to movement, some like different appetures, some work best for me with just one focus point to work with while others are just fine with all the focus points active.
 
I like both photos. I take a lot of photos of kids, and sometimes you just get what you get! It's easy to pose adults, but kids are more difficult, especially toddlers! Photography is subjective. You can show two people two separate photos and one will hate them and the other love them. To me, if it looks good to you, and you are the photographer, then you are golden. But, in this case you know something is off and you are looking for help.

Having said that, in the first photo with the leaves, I like it, but think you could be closer to the subject and more centered. Focus is more on the leaves, but I'm ok with a softer focused subject...maybe others aren't.

Second image is good in the composition department, but it needs a tad bit more darks and contrast. Maybe even a bit more color?

Full disclosure, I'm no professional lol
 

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