Howdy, need some critiques

supertruck97 · Apr 5, 2010

Hello all. I am new to the forum. I have recently gotten into Photography and have been experimenting during my travels with both my DSLR and my old PnS. Would love some critiques, especially as it relates to composition and lighting, as I am still trying to get my feet wet and understand how to get the best shots I can.

Thanks for your input.

A windmill in my in-laws backyard in San Antonio:

The Bluebonnets in bloom in San Antonio:

Paradise @ Mount Rainier in March:

Jaguar Temple in Belize:

My wife's cooking:

gunghorjc · Apr 5, 2010

Love the photos! Especially the angle of looking up at the windmill.

The picture of the flowers is nice, but I find the big pole in the middle of the photo distracts from the view. Also the background could be in focus a little more. Or de-focused (not sure on technical term) to really emphasize the flowers/foreground.

The 3rd picture of Mount Rainier is gorgeous! Love the scenic view you captured.

sauce839 · Apr 5, 2010

Quickly...
1. Tilt does nothing for me. Sorry, but straighten it out
2. The horizon isn't straight... always make sure the horizon is staight.
3. This one is ok, but the sky is kinda boring. I would crop in closer to the mountains/ building and loose some of the sky and the right side of the photo. It will help keep the viewer focused on the subject. Also, part of the sky is blown out (all white... no detail left). Lower you exposure by 1/2 stop or so and it will bring some detail back.
4. The clutter in the foreground is distracting. If you crop it out, I think more attention would be drawn to the temple.
5. White Balance is way off... this is why the photo looks so yellow. What could be onion, also looks like it could be pineapple. Also, if you used a smaller aperature, more of the photo would be in focus.. not just the tomatoes.

Hope that helps.

S

LaFoto · Apr 5, 2010

Starting with the last: too true about white balance. The natural lamp light made this become too yellow, but there are ways to make this one cooler (colour temperaturewise, that is) in post processing software, even if you didn't take a RAW-file first. I myself like the wide open aperture that lead to the fact that only the tomatoes are in focus.

The Jaguar Temple looks like you took that one with you P&S and didn't subject it any post processing? Also I think it'd be better focused on the subject (not as in "to focus on something making it sharp" but as in "to concentrate on") without the rubble in the foreground, so a crop to a 2:3 version might have helped things. Just a thought. This one looks a light situation that is not easy for a P&S to handle: bright sky and subject in the shadows.

The middle one is just nice. Maybe a tad too much sky. Maybe you could have pointed the camera downward just a bit more to move the horizon line further up?

Bluebonnets in bloom. A VERY Texan thing. And they so often are on the side of roads, is what I saw when I was over 15 years ago (what? That long ago it was? Oh dear, but I'm afraid that's right... oops). So I'd suggest you try to exclude as much of the surroundings as you can, mostly so if there's light poles there or something like that. Focus on the flowers as such is nice, they a very vibrant and near, as if they could give off a fragrance out of my screen.

I'm not too keen on the first...

supertruck97 · Apr 5, 2010

Just some reactions to the thoughts:

Yes, the Jaguar Temple is from a PnS and I have not touched it up at all. I have another shot with the clutter out of the way, but there is a dude standing near the top, so it kinda ruined the shot. I may try some editing with the full size photo when I get a chance to see if I can clean up that shot a bit.

The last pic (the food) was my very 1st picture with a DSLR, so I'm not surprised that the white balance was off. And again, I did not touch it up at all.

The first two (The windmill & the bluebonnets) were also taken with the PnS. The bluebonnets are on a highway median (Thus the light pole in the middle of the shot). I wasn't focused on the horizon in the shot. Next time I'm out that way I'll try to pay more attention to the background. I was just trying to get the right focus on the flowers (and trying to not get clipped by traffic) that I wasn't paying attention to the rest.

Thanks for the critiques! Please, keep them coming!