Various beginner photos

[Mark.]

Hi everyone, thought i would post up some recent photos ive taken for comments and critisism

Camera used is a Canon SX700 HS, No tripod, All taken in manual JPEG, Very little editing using GIMP
















Hope everyone likes them, any tips or pointers using the camera or editing software would be appreciated, Thanks!

 

[Derrel]

THE ANIMAL HEADS are fascinating subjects! So unusual! As far as pointers on using the camera, one strategy I often try to employ when shooting a sunset is to located something rather large, something of good size, which can be shown silhouetted as a foreground object, against the sunset colored sky; a house, a church steeple, an oak tree, a fire tree, anything BIG, and with a strong outline, which can be used to reinforce the size of the sky. Most sunset pics have too much black, empty foreground in them.

The last animal head shot is an example: ther animal heads are a beautiful orange color, and are lighted up from internal lights; in the foreground you have the large tile squares!!! Crop off the unneeded sides of that image, and in the center is "a sunset-like" picture, with foreground interest from the tiles reflecting the orange colors!

Here's a quick crop, showing how increasing foreground interest adds to the background of a "sunset".

 

[The_Traveler]

Mark,

I guess you are either from Scotland or vacationing there.
Your photos are quite typical of someone sort of new to photography - silhouettes of sunset/sunrise, random picture of animal, in this case a duck, with no particular point of view and pictures of landmarks from different viewpoints.
What you really need to do is to stop being concerned about the subject of your pictures for a while and learn a bit about correct exposure and composition.

Look how underexposed the duck was.
As a general rule, shooting down at things like animals and people isn't as rewarding as shooting at their level.

Everything in this picture of the horses seems to be pointing up - and the horses are almost at the top margin.
Leave some room.
Remove stuff/space that doesn't contribute.

Photography skills are a long road, start learning the basics of correct exposure and decent composition and you'll eventually go further faster.

 

[Mark.]

Thank you for the replies

Yes i am from Scotland, i stay 10 mins outside of Edinburgh, The animal heads in question are in Falkirk in Scotland, theyre known as the kelpies, theyre mythical scottish creatures, the statues stand around 40-50ft tall.

I have been trying to use basic photography subjects to try figure out which settings i need for different situations, ive never before used a camera on manual so im just finding out how ISO, exposure and other setting affect the shot. Ive only just started using photo editing software within the last few weeks too. I will be in Edinburgh tonight for the end of the fringe festival fireworks display so im hoping to try get something good there

Thanks again for the input, much appreciated

 

[Derrel]

Well, keep at it. Learning to use photo editing software can appear daunting at first, and progress may be uneven, and then BOOM! Suddently you understand things like the curves tool, levels, and how to 'tweak' an image file so that it looks reallyt nice. I would say that if there is one,single tool that can help one edit faster, it is the curves tool. Very powerful, and so,so fast; a simple multi-point curves adjustment can be done in 20 seconds or so, and can take an average camera-set exposure and make it so much more appealing. The other tool with tremendous power is the cropping tool!

One thing about fireworks: MANY times, they tend to be greatly over-exposed by the camera's metering modes when shot in timed automatic metering modes. And also, many times well-seasoned shooters tend to over-expose fireworks by using too high of an ISO value, or too wide of a lens aperture. ALso, the closer you are, the brighter the fireworks are (inverse square law makes fireworks light dimmer at longer range, just as it does with studio lighting!).

For fireworks shot from a tripod in Manual exposure mode, one wants to use an ISO of around 100, and a lens opening of f/9,f/10, or f/11 for "most" commercial fireworks shows that are shot from 100 meters to 400 meters distance. The fireworks are themselves, the exposure, the subject, the flash-pop! The shutter speed is Bulb mode, or a slow speed, like say 10 seconds to 25 seconds....a black card may easily be held in front of the locked-open lens, and used as a "shutter" of sorts, but the issue is that the ISO value, and the lens opening size, are what determines the exposure of the bursts...and again, many people tend to over-expose with too high an ISO setting and/or too wide a lens opening, and this causes the bursts centers to be blown-out in color and pallid, instead of having rich color.

Remember a spare battery for fireworks shows. TURN OFF long exposure noise reduction too, before the show, in daylight! it will cause the camera to be inoperative while it does the L-E NR after each long exposure!

 

[Mark.]

Well i failed miserably at taking fireworks photos, i tried to use an auto mode and all the photos shot at ISO 3200, theres far too much distortion in all the photos, there was around 250000 people there tonight so finding space to capture the fireworks properly was nearly impossible. I dont currently have a tripod and im not good enough yet to quickly set up the camera in manual so i opted for auto.

Il get used to all the settings so that next year i can capture some good photos instead of taking 190 and having to delete them all..

With regards to the curves and levels tools, its mostly what ive been using so far. I did start off by just adding or removing colour but when i discovered the curves tool i found it much better at making the photo look more natural, i like how it can remove unnecessary brightness too.

Thanks for the advice so far everyone

 

[Mark.]

Been out taking more photos this weekend, tried to crop out unecessary foreground and use the levels tool a bit better. Still getting to grips with the camera settings and the software but i think these turned out ok.






C&C welcome

ps. if someone more skilled than me could edit out the yellow horns that can be seen on the grill of the car in the middle photo i would really appreciate it : )

 

[WesternGuy]

One thing that you can do, that will help anyone reviewing your images, is to number them. That way, a reviewer does not have to keep flipping back and forth to ensure that he/she has the right image for their comments.

As far as composition goes, good composition, or not, is one area that can make or break an image. Here is a URL that you might want to check out - Photography Composition Articles Library .

Hope this helps.

WesternGuy

 

[KmH]

Learn how to hold your camera level when you release the shutter, or use a leveled tripod.
In many of your shots the right side of the camera is lower than the left side.
I recommend cropping for content and being aware of composition guidelines - like the rule of thirds - when you crop.

A quick and dirty edit

 

[Mark.]

Thanks guys, i have noticed alot of my photos tend to be tilted toward the right and ive not yet bought a tripod, it is in the pipeline though, i do try rectify it with the editing software but it never fixes it completely.

Il make sure to check out that link and find some more tips, i have noticed that when i shoot something in the foreground i seem to lose the colour in the sky and vice versa. I try to shoot as low an ISO as possible to get the best quality image i can but between that and shutter speed ive noticed it can have a big impact on colour.

I also have a dilemma as to what should be my first beginner SLR, i was looking at the Canon 1200D but ive read reveiws with people opting for the Nikon 3200 instead, i imagine theres a seperate section for camera discussion on here but whilst i have peoples attention i wouldnt mind some input on that subject too.

Thanks again

 

[KmH]

The last 2 car photos you posted would have looked a lot better if you had used a flash, preferably off camera flash (OCF), to light the car.
When I shot cars at dusk I usually used several flash units and some of those with light modifiers.
Two or 3 flash units and umbrellas to light the side of the car facing the camera, a couple of bare flash units behind the car and pointing back at but hidden from the camera to provide 'rim' light. One or 2 in the car at low power to light the interior, and maybe another under the car.

Anytime a subject - a car, a person - is back lit we usually need to add light so the brighter background is less likely to grab the viewers eye.
A visual art truism says - Light advances, dark recedes.
In other words, brighter parts of a photo more visual weight and the human eye is naturally drawn to the brighter parts of an image.

Even in bright sunlight, the difference between a so, so photo and a great photo is the lighting, and often the great photo was made using supplemental light.

Study photographic lighting and visual art composition.