Im looking for honest opinions

Stormchase · Oct 6, 2009

Just looking for some tips for me to learn off of. Plz give honest opinions of what you all think. I have seen some incredible shots from members on here and believe i can learn from them.
This is a peir close to my house. Its as is. I might have lightened it a little but i dont know how to use all the photoshop stuff so ... Let me know what you like and dont like plz ...

f/11
1/4000
ISO 1600 (if not good why?)
18mm
JPEG
1.

fiveoboy01 · Oct 6, 2009

I can't see the image but your settings look all wrong.

You could easily drop the ISO down to 200 and the result would be an image with much less noise(I don't know what camera you're using and without seeing the photo I'm betting it's noisy). If dropping the ISO that low doesn't get you enough light on the sensor, then open up the aperture a little bit, f/11 is stopped down pretty good. If your shutter is tripping at 1/4000 at such a high ISO(and f/11 nonetheless) then that tells me that you have plenty of light available here.

Always shoot at the lowest ISO possible while still maintaining a fast enough shutter speed for what you're trying to do.

inTempus · Oct 6, 2009

Stormchase said:
Just looking for some tips for me to learn off of. Plz give honest opinions of what you all think. I have seen some incredible shots from members on here and believe i can learn from them.
This is a peir close to my house. Its as is. I might have lightened it a little but i dont know how to use all the photoshop stuff so ... Let me know what you like and dont like plz ...

1) I don't find the angle and perspective of the subject particularly interesting. I've seen some interesting pier shots, they're pretty common though... almost as common as rail road track shots. They can be good, but you have to find something kind of original to do with the shot.

2) The subject is too dark and the light in the sky is too bland. If it were a really colorful sunset/rise shot it might be more interesting. The ominous clouds could be interesting if composed differently.

3) The choice of 18mm is causing the pier to curve upwards and makes the whole image look distorted. This is distracting and really is the first thing I noticed. Any flaw that draws that much attention ruins the shot IMHO.

Please don't let this seemingly negative feedback dissuade you. You're doing a fine job learning. Keep shooting, and most importantly keep trying different things. I never shoot something with one perspective and/or setting. Shoot it a bunch of different ways until you learn what makes an interesting shot. Sometimes I sit and study something before I shoot it... think about it. Envision it in your minds eye, then try to make it happen. Don't just shoot to be shooting and hope you catch something interesting.

syphlix · Oct 6, 2009

Hi there

You should shoot w/ lower ISO like prev. poster said... you've got plenty of light if you're shooting at 1/4000

also... you left a LOT of sky in there... the photo is like.. 90% sky... if your purpose was to showcase the sky then it's prob ok but it's still a lot... but i don't think it is...

your horizon is slightly slanted to the right... you can straighten that in any photo software..

as for the angle of the pier... try a couple different angles next time... you have the straight horizontal one, but you can try one where the pier cuts diagonally across the image, and can try one where it's more of a sharp angle... i.e. if you were 20 yds to the right of the mouth, and shot it angling into your image so it pulls your eye from bottom of the frame straight into where the end hut part is...

just some suggestions!

flyin-lowe · Oct 6, 2009

I too immediately noticed the distorted look of the pier. Others can give more of a technical analysis. from a newbie that is what caught my eye.

Stormchase · Oct 6, 2009

Great info! Thats why i joined. I did take many different angles and have it as a sunset as well with the peir about 40% of the way up the image but still straight across. I do agree with 18mm being a little to much. Thanks for the info on the ISO. Its been a long time since i have been thinking about ISO's lol. I was just trying to get used to the camera. I have a Canon EOS Rebel XS w/ 18mm 55mm and 75mm 300mm. a noob camera but im a noob