Some Photos I took

[TheBackFire]

These photos some photos I've taken and wonder if they're really all that good. Let me know what you guys think.

 

[weepete]

1. Is too underexposed for my liking, the big black mass of whatever the cat is laying on dominates the frame a bit much. Yes you should have some pure whites and blacks in a shot but thee should also be some detail in the shadows whee this looks clipped. The cat is centred which leads to a static composition, looking out of the frame which leads my eye out and I kinda want to know what its looking at.

2. Not sure what this is meant to be but as a viewer it lacks the context for me to make sense of it. It's also over simple compositionally IMO.

3. Colours are good and details in the shadows this time, but I'd have liked to see a closer shot making more use of the blue/orange colour play. It can be difficult to get over those ordinary angles that we are used to seeing ordinary subjects from.

4. Is a bit too hot on the highlights, but more importantly needs more DOF, as half the food is OOF. Big soft diffuse lighting tends to be better in this type of shot IMO.

5. The lighting looks pretty good on this one but it looks like your blacks are clipped. The frame of shadow around your subjects head gives a dis-embodied feel to the image and the weird expression and strange angle just don't work.

All in all I think these show potential, but need work on composition and lighting.

 

[soufiej]

These photos some photos I've taken and wonder if they're really all that good. Let me know what you guys think.

Are they "good"? They are not "bad". Meaning they are generally in focus and not terribly under/over exposed. That's not saying much.

The more important question is, IMO, are they interesting? And, to that, I would say no. Any one of those shots could have been taken with an inexpensive point and shoot camera or a smart phone. Not that the equipment makes the photograph, but there is nothing special about any of these images. As a group, they simply are.

Here's an example of photographs which have been taken with relatively inexpensive equipment; Emphoka

How well do you feel your photos stack up?

Why not take one photo and ask for C&C regarding one photo only?

We have all begun somewhere in this hobby. In that respect, your shots are not different than those many of us began taking. The trick is to move beyond those simple images.

 

[TheBackFire]

Thank you both for being honest and not just plain out rude. I've seen C&C's where they just tear you apart in the harshest ways. I figured they're not "all that great" and maybe even "boring" but I've not done anything with photography in 2 yrs so I just don't remember anything. It's sadly not like riding a bike. I lost my harddrive with about a years work of trial and error and finally getting good photos, and I was so annoyed I just said screw it and quit. My girlfriend is now taking classes and has a D5100, 50mm, 35mm, cheap flash(with a pop-up diffuser) and I just started playing with her camera trying to get back into doing photography. I do have one more image. I think it is better then that last ones I've done. Now that I'm looking at it, it doesn't seem to be following rule of thirds but I have a the frame filled with the subject rather then far back and just another photo of a basil bush. Opinions?

 

[soufiej]

Thank you both for being honest and not just plain out rude. I've seen C&C's where they just tear you apart in the harshest ways. I figured they're not "all that great" and maybe even "boring" but I've not done anything with photography in 2 yrs so I just don't remember anything. It's sadly not like riding a bike. I lost my harddrive with about a years work of trial and error and finally getting good photos, and I was so annoyed I just said screw it and quit. My girlfriend is now taking classes and has a D5100, 50mm, 35mm, cheap flash(with a pop-up diffuser) and I just started playing with her camera trying to get back into doing photography. I do have one more image. I think it is better then that last ones I've done. Now that I'm looking at it, it doesn't seem to be following rule of thirds but I have a the frame filled with the subject rather then far back and just another photo of a basil bush. Opinions?

I'd say we all have a few shots just like that. The use of natural/available lighting is good. Focus is on, more or less, "the subject". Placement of "the subject" is essentially centered in the shot.

Meh!

Maybe the issue is you have only used a trial and error approach. Your GF is taking a class.

 

[TheBackFire]

Yeah, I need to get into the habit of remembering rule of thirds.

 

[TheBackFire]

I finally found some of my older stuff online. Like from 2 - 3yrs ago.

ThatZombieGuy Wes - DeviantArt

 

[soufiej]

Yeah, I need to get into the habit of remembering rule of thirds.

Sometimes, the advice is to reach for the point you remember to forget the rule - particularly the rule of thirds.

Looking at your examples as a group, you depend on the rule too much IMO. When it becomes obvious you are using a rule, the rule becomes an obstruction. If virtually every image is using the exact same rule, - and as you look at your group of images, you even favor the rule to place all your subjects on one side of the image - then the rule means nothing because there's never a break from the rule. Conformity leads to uniformity which is, sorry to say, almost always boring to see one after the other. I know what your next shot is going to look like even before you've taken it.

If the shots were of subjects or concepts which showed us just how some subjects are tied up into uniformity, you could use a strict rule in a group setting to make that point. Take a generic subject and show multiples of that subject always at your rule of thirds intersections. By slightly changing the subject - a group of, say, uniformed soldiers and you show each soldier in the same pose but it's always a different soldier assuming an identical pose - then your rule of thirds becomes more powerful in a group of photos.

Then, if in one image you intentionally do not apply the rule of thirds and you center one soldier in your frame or show the soldier on the opposite side of the frame, then you hit us with a big "POW!" Think of the many ways in which you can use the rule to your advantage other than by simply taking every shot using the same rule to frame the same composition. Make us really look and see what you're showing us. If you can't do that, then we simply pass on over the next guy's shots.

In a diverse group setting such as you have given us, however, by never breaking a rule it becomes obvious you are trying to be unconventional simply by being more strictly - and, sorry to say, unimaginatively - conventional.

Give yourself some time to think and then rethink your image before you simply snap the shutter. Don't go for the easy shot we've seen hundreds of times before unless you can give us a reason for doing so.

 

[soufiej]

Yeah, I need to get into the habit of remembering rule of thirds.

Here's a rule of thirds to work with ...

Take your first composition ... throw it out.

Take your second composition ... throw it out too.

Take your third composition ... that's the one you probably want to use for your shot.