a day at Santa Monica

shaunly · Mar 24, 2009

Just upgrade from D40 to my new D90, so I took this baby out for the weekend.

C&C?

Samanax · Mar 24, 2009

#1 - Doesn't really do anything for me...looks like a random shot.

#2 - It's an interesting shot. Tricky exposure. The little thing on the right edge is bothersome.

#3 - The horizon is almost in the middle of the image and is tilting a bit to the left. Image may have worked better if you shot it from the eye level of the girl on the right, placed the horizon lower in the frame and watched the background for distractions (the tree right in front of the girl's face).

#4 & #5 - The colors are nice but the horizons are almost in the middle of the frame and both are tilting to the right. Sun is almost right in the middle of the frame too. Composition Tips.

artcodesign · Mar 24, 2009

Have to go to Santa Monica myself one day and compete with your photos

Sherman Banks · Mar 24, 2009

How do you like the new camera? It looks like it takes some good quality photos, although larger versions would be better for detail. Did you push the saturation on the color of the first? I'd agree with most of Sam's critique, but the central composition of the sun in the photos isn't always a bad thing. However, I would limit the amount of underexposed area in those shots. Keep shooting, I'd like to see more of what your camera can do.

shaunly · Mar 25, 2009

Samanax said:
#3 - The horizon is almost in the middle of the image and is tilting a bit to the left. Image may have worked better if you shot it from the eye level of the girl on the right, placed the horizon lower in the frame and watched the background for distractions (the tree right in front of the girl's face).

#4 & #5 - The colors are nice but the horizons are almost in the middle of the frame and both are tilting to the right. Sun is almost right in the middle of the frame too. Composition Tips.

thanks for the tip. I'll make sure I keep that in mind the next time I shoot.

artcodesign said:
Have to go to Santa Monica myself one day and compete with your photos

yes! a little friendly competition =P

Sherman Banks said:
How do you like the new camera? It looks like it takes some good quality photos, although larger versions would be better for detail. Did you push the saturation on the color of the first? I'd agree with most of Sam's critique, but the central composition of the sun in the photos isn't always a bad thing. However, I would limit the amount of underexposed area in those shots. Keep shooting, I'd like to see more of what your camera can do.

Loving it so far, although I took some shots @ 300mm in pretty low lighting and I thought it could be better, but I guess for the price can't complain. Here's the link to my flickr for higher resolution pictures. Flickr: shaunly517's Photostream some of the pictures on there are from my D40.

FrankLamont · Mar 25, 2009

You don't have to follow rules all the time.

I'll take an excerpt from what Ken Duncan says;

BREAK THE RULES
The bottom line is: There are no rules. If an image works, it works; if it doesn't, it doesn't.
At one of my exhibitions, a person with a doctorate in photography was looking at one of my shots and I could see she was puzzled. I asked if I could help. "I can't believe this!" she replied. "This guy has the horizon in the middle. It should be one-third sky, two-thirds foreground. But this really works!" That person didn't know I was the photographer, so I simply replied, "Isn't it lucky he doesn't know the rules, or this shot may never have happened."
There's only one essential rule: Make sure you have film in your camera! Although I once met a photographer who sometimes left the film out because he wanted to enjoy the privileged position of being a photographer without being disappointed with the results!

Samanax · Mar 25, 2009

FriedChicken said:
You don't have to follow rules all the time.

True, the 'rules' are actually only suggested compositional ideas that are meant to help people take better pictures and they don't always work in every kind of shot. But in order to break the rules I think it's important that the shooter knows what the rules are in the first place and has some idea of what good composition is. Then if the shooter chooses to center the horizon and the rising/setting sun it's because the shooter made the conscience choice to do so and not because that's just the way he/she shoot everything.