New To Phtography, How Am I Doing So Far?

parsec · Jul 19, 2006

Hi everyone. I've been lurking here off and on ever since I bought my new FZ7 a couple months ago. I thought I would finally register and get some feedback from the experts here. These are some of the better photos I've taken over the last couple of months. The last of these are from a recent business trip to Montreal. Sadly I didn't get to spend as much time as I would like exploring the city and taking pictures, but I think I did ok with the time I did have.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

Thanks in advance for your input.

ShootHoops · Jul 19, 2006

These are nice. I like #4 and #7.

Boston® · Jul 19, 2006

#10 and 11 complement each other really nicely. Good work.

Cheyenne · Jul 19, 2006

Love number 9

Also love 3 but would have cropped a bit more of the sky out if it were me.

LaFoto · Jul 20, 2006

Hiya parsec, and welcome to ThePhotoForum (at last - we cannot welcome LURKERS, hm? We don't know they are there, so registering is an important step

).

In answer to your initial question of how you are doing: you are doing really well. You certainly have an eye for the motif and an feel for a pleasing composition. Technically I would suggest you explore your camera so you can deliberately underexpose your pics just a tad, you will find that brings out the colours more. Or if you don't want to do that, you might consider adjusting the curves or levels a bit later in whichever postprocessing software you use, so you get more out of your pics colour and contrastwise. All your nature-in-sunshine photos here have to potential to "pop" more.

I really like your POV (you might find this abbreviation more oven there, standing for "point of view") in Photo 3 but think there is a bit too much sky there. You cannot crop it out AND keep the standard size of a print, but I would consider cropping, anyway. Thus you'll also lose the twigs on the left (which otherwise I'd clone out if this were my pic).

I hope this helps and you don't get me wrong: all your photos here look GOOD.

parsec · Jul 21, 2006

Thanks for the encouraging input everyone.

LaFoto, I will definitely try adjusting the exposure some the next time I'm taking photos in the bright sun (which almost always here in Denver). Is there a general rule of thumb for doing this? Conversely, would photos 8-11 have benefited from increasing the exposure since it was a gloomy, rainy day?

LaFoto · Jul 21, 2006

I think that 10 and 11 would have benefitted from "less non-descript sky" inside the frame, i.e. closer to your subject, avoiding that grey (preferably overexposed here, which is what your camera does with lighting extremes such as in 10 and 11 - that bright, grey sky and the comparatively dark houses and trees), so avoiding such skies as much as possible would be my suggestion.

8 and 9 do well with the same sky, for there is not so much of it there ... and the statue comes out well against that white. I am wondering what it may have looked like if you had moved further to the right to get the tall building fully into your frame forming the background to this statue ... and I think the squares of the windows could have been distracting. You would have needed to put your camera to a very wide aperture (= smallest number of your f-stop) to blur out that background. While composition (because of distracting elements) could have become problematic, exposure would have been easier, though.

And I really like your Photo 9 here. The wet street and the reflections really help it.

parsec · Jul 21, 2006

Now that you point out the sky in the last two, I agree with you. The reason there is so much of it is because there were other cars in the street right in front of me that I didn't want to include. However, I will try some crops when I get home tonight.

As for number three, that's not far away at all and I can revisit the site whenever I want. I may go back this weekend and try your suggestions.

JTHphoto · Jul 21, 2006

nice shots, i like 3, 8, and 9... you've got an eye for composition... just keep doing what your doing - shoot a lot and talk to the people on here... you'll be amazed at the improvement in your photos :thumbup:

SteveEllis · Jul 21, 2006

I think no3 is fantastic, I would say dont crop the sky, it gives it a sense of hugeness.

D-50 · Jul 21, 2006

Good composition, try going out later in the day, the evening light will give you shots a deeper feel.

parsec · Jul 22, 2006

Number 3 is one of my favorites as well. I took that shot several times actually, so here's one where I metered off something darker. It's probably not the same as adjusting the exposure, but there is more color to the sky. I also cloned out the twig in Gimp.

xfloggingkylex · Jul 22, 2006

parsec said:
Number 3 is one of my favorites as well. I took that shot several times actually, so here's one where I metered off something darker. It's probably not the same as adjusting the exposure, but there is more color to the sky. I also cloned out the twig in Gimp.

I really like this. the colors look so bold, especially the roof. Still a lot of sky, but I dont think it hurts this picture.