A few for C&C

SNBniko · Apr 25, 2011

Okay, so I'm trying to figure out PP, so definitely critique on that, composition, crop... the works, if you guys don't mind! I've been shooting in manual, and really trying to pay attention to exposure. I think my meter was all sorts of confused when I took pictures of my sister kayaking... the glare off the water was a lot. I could have put my CPL on, but it was only intermittent sun, so... meh, danged if I do, danged if I don't. =/

Okay!

#1, first try at motion blur/panning:

#2, Bleeding Hearts:

#3, weeds:

THANK YOU! =)

SNBniko · Apr 25, 2011

Okay, so I can already see that my crop is cruddy for the first one, and I looked at the original... land was right above the paddle, and I wanted it to be all water. So... since it sucks compositionally, critique the panning? haha

dxqcanada · Apr 25, 2011

#1 - you need to get slower for panning ... the water should have motion blur.
In manual you have to anticipate when the camera meter will be wrong.
Looks under exposed also.
I am assuming you were working on panning ... so the composition was not considered ? [ah you already said that]

#2+3 - exposure looks good. Composition is OK ... though #3 could use some cropping.

Not sure what PP you did on these ... you did not mention it.

SNBniko · Apr 25, 2011

The panning was hard with any slower shutter speed, she was leaning back and forth with the boat, so her face kept getting blurry too. Maybe kayaking isn't a good sport to do panning on, or she needs to paddle the boat faster? And yeah, let's just say that composition doesn't count, because compositionally it sucks and I can see that, haha. According to the meter it isn't underexposed, but I don't know what it was exposing for. Maybe the bright yellow fooled it, I'm not sure. So next time, keep an eye on the histograph for exposure on the water, vs the meter in the viewfinder, yeah?

As far as PP, I used layer masks to do some spot-sharpening and lightening, and blurred the background on #2 a bit further. I set the composition on number 3 so that the most in-focus flower was at the bottom left third intersection... is this one of the times the rule of thirds gets broken? If you don't mind, could you crop it in a more appealing way? Thank you for the critique!

BlackSheep · Apr 25, 2011

I like your third shot, but cropped more. Hope you don't mind, but I played around with it a bit:

Something like that?

Edited to add - I see where you were going with your #2 photo, it may have worked better if when shooting you had stepped one step to the left, so as to get the foreground flower + the background one that mirrors it.

SNBniko · Apr 25, 2011

Oh, okay!! Thanks! =D

dxqcanada · Apr 25, 2011

Hmm, it could have been an interesting shot of just the kayak in focus while everything else is blurred ... that real sense of motion.

You really need to use your spot meter ... this will assist you in "placing" your exposure.
Remember, your internal light meter gives you an 18% grey exposure of what it is reading.

SNBniko · Apr 25, 2011

That is a good idea... I will try that. Or tell her to paddle that sucker really fast, then sit still when I yell to her. =)

I tried to change my metering mode to spot, but it for whatever reason wouldn't let me at the time (I was just messing with it, honestly, but got frustrated when it wouldn't allow me to change it). I will try again. Thanks for your reply!