A Little Help Please :P

prodigy · Feb 3, 2009

Hey all, I'm new to the forum and somewhat new to photography and I just wanted to see what others thought of a few photos I've taken recently.

chrisburke · Feb 3, 2009

well they are all pretty blurry.... to saturated for my liking.... and really harsh shadows in the first one

Samanax · Feb 3, 2009

What kind of camera did you use for these pictures?

Did you want #2 to come out blurry like that?

prodigy · Feb 3, 2009

yeah I absolutely agree w.the blurryness... I was planning on retouching all the photos tomorrow on photoshop, but I had originally intended #2 to be blurry anyways.

i have a custom pentax and a nikonP80 for a more comfortable and smaller camera, but these were taken with the pentax if i remember correctly..

you don't like the shadows on the first photo? I thought the look was somewhat becoming?

thanks for the input

chrisburke · Feb 3, 2009

i'm going to assume your joking when you say you like the shadows

prodigy · Feb 3, 2009

nope, on the first one I do like the shadow... but maybe a few of the other ones i definitely see what you're talking about..

and you might wanna know that im pretty much still just a kid.. i don't have the excess money kicking around to supplement my photography interests so I'm doing what I can with what i got for the time being... right now I'm focusing on mainly on the composition of the photos.. i know shadows, focus, coloration, etc. is somewhat key in all of this

, but that's why I'm here asking for help and feedback so I can fix em up and produce the best photos I'm capable of producing. so please bear with me.

Arch · Feb 3, 2009

chrisburke said:
i'm going to assume your joking when you say you like the shadows

whats wrong with liking shadows?.. not all shadows mean 'bad photo'.

I think the contrast is a little high on these but i can see you have some enthusiasm.... keep going i say

prodigy · Feb 3, 2009

thanks for the support and encouragment arch... i've decided to include a few.. more clean cut? photos.. a little bland in my opinion but without all the messiness these other ones have...

these are much more straightforward.. contrast minimal, except for the last one

chrisburke · Feb 3, 2009

i'd just like to say.. i've found an all time low today on TPF... I received an infraction (i think that means a strike) for my last comment, which wasnt meant in a rude way at all.... boot me, i really don't care, that has created the LAST time i recommend someone to this site, and a lot of people have joined due to my recommendation.. if you people cant take simple humor (because thats all it was) i'm obviously in the wrong place.. i will go join a GOOD Forum, where people are allowed to speak their minds, and are allowed to joke with people

prodigy said:
nope, on the first one I do like the shadow... but maybe a few of the other ones i definitely see what you're talking about..

and you might wanna know that im pretty much still just a kid.. i don't have the excess money kicking around to supplement my photography interests so I'm doing what I can with what i got for the time being... right now I'm focusing on mainly on the composition of the photos.. i know shadows, focus, coloration, etc. is somewhat key in all of this , but that's why I'm here asking for help and feedback so I can fix em up and produce the best photos I'm capable of producing. so please bear with me.

i didnt ask if you had piles of money for gear.. you ask for CC on the photos I gave it to you... harsh shadows like that in photos, are generally frown upon, unless something has changed in the last day or so.

grow up, if you cant take comments, dont ask for them.. and certainly dont report someone when they give you HONEST feed back.. i hope you enjoy people giving you comments that arent going to help you improve... arch, your a good man, and you seem to know your photo stuff, how can you say that shadow looks good...yes, some photos shadows look good.. not portrait type... if i went to a pet photographer, and got them to take a picture of my cat, and they gave me this.. i would laugh in their face.

prodigy · Feb 3, 2009

i didnt take it in a rude way whatsoever... and im sorry you got a strike for it, but you're kind of setting this thread on a new topic of conversation, which i understand and sympathize for you, but its really just taking away from the massive amounts of constructive criticism i could be receiving... hell take the chance to speak your mind. give me something substantial to work with.

but i hope things end up working for you whatever you choose to do.

chrisburke · Feb 3, 2009

ok...

#1 has some pretty harsh shadows, which yes, in some instances are ok, but in portrait style photos, such as this one, they arent a good thing to have... to combat that, move your subject further away from the wall. also the white balance seems off to me, but maybe thats the color of your wall.

#2 seems pretty blurry... the photo would be cool if the background was out of focus but at least the cats face in focus.. to combat this, use your auto focus, and dont move the camera when you take the photo/

#3 again the white balance seems off and the subject (assuming its the cat) is not in focus.

4 and 5 dont really do much for me, so i'll leave those for someone who likes them

prodigy · Feb 3, 2009

haha alright thanks man, the background isn't white is almost a pale yellow, but definitely a yellow, so that may be whats throwing you and others off on that.. I wasn't really aiming for any particular genre with any of the photos... really just havin fun and dickin around... but thanks for the tip.. i tried a couple of times to coax the little bugger into a more workable position, but shes not too keen on staying still for too long so I just did what i could with where she was headin... for the second one with the blurryness thing, i was movin around a lot tryin to "herd" her around while she's believing im playing so not keeping my camera completely steady in these photos proved to be more of a problem, but I see now that sacrificing the clarity of a shot for the content isn't exactly the right thing to do.

thanks for all in help so far.

Mgw189 · Feb 3, 2009

You say your are pretty much still a kid? How old are you? Not that it really matters more of a curiosity. Your photos need help but that is why you are hear. When asking for C&C post three or four pics max and number them. As for the original photos you posted. Here is my thoughts on them.

1. Your white balance is off. White balance is how your camera sees colors. Different lights cast different colors on your photos. You did not have the right white balance set here. Your kittens fur should be white not yellowish. It also appears that you were using on camera flash. The problem with on camera flash is that it will cast hard shadows like them or not you dont have control over them to much.

2. I dont care for much at all. The blur does nothing for the image.

3 has the same issues as 1.

4 and 5 dont do much for me at all. They have issues with focus or camera shake or something and the flash is to strong again.

To resolve the flash issue you could try taping a piece of wax paper over the flash. Not sure how it is built into the camera but a piece of wax paper and some scotch transparent tape would help to diffuse the flash for you.

chrisburke · Feb 3, 2009

prodigy said:
]i tried a couple of times to coax the little bugger into a more workable position

another way to combat hard shadows like that, when you cannot move the subject or backdrop is to not use your on camera flash, which obviously is use in this... if you had an external flash, you could point it up at the ceiling, and it would get rid of SOME of the shadows..

prodigy · Feb 3, 2009

thanks everyone for the input... its really been helpful. MGW im almost 17.

but so basically what im getting out of this is need to work on fixing lighting to reduce and/or facilitate shadows.. use of external flash, moving the subject away from the backdrop, wax paper over camera flash, etc. focus on keeping my camera steady to fix the focus problem. maybe ease up on the high contrast editing and high contrast photos such as the card ones. and fix the white balance on my camera settings and in my editing..

a decent starting point eh? I mean i'm just truely getting into a lot of the technicallity involved with photography.. i mean i have to if i want to become a better photographer..

im positive that im gunna be making major upgrades and changes with the cameras and related equipment im gunna be using within the year, so improving and developing my technical and all-around abilities right now will soon amount to something... hopefully

anything else?