All Alone (Please review)

[jpbessey]

I am a beginner photographer who is looking to move up as quickly as possible. Any comments and opinions are greatly valued and appreciated.



This picture was taken in manual mode on a Nikon D80 and 24-70mm sigma lens. ISO 1600, f-stop of f20, and shutter speed of 1/80. I think the image is a little blurry and could probably have used a faster shutter speed, or tripod. Being new to photography, I try to keep it simple, but sometimes have problems with that. Like i said, any comments or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

 

[pixmedic6 5]

not sure what the aperture range is on your sigma, but i would go less ISO (way less) and larger aperture if you need it in the shade. will also let you use a faster shutter speed. did you manual focus as well or auto-focus? handheld of tripod? if your shooting handheld, faster shutter speed will help.

 

[amolitor]

It's quite contrasty and dark, was that by intention? I would say "this is underexposed" except that maybe you mean to do it this way, in which case the exposure is spot on.

f/20 seems really closed down. Generally you will experience some softness at f/20, although perhaps not as much we we're seeing? Softness does add up, and I see at least 3 major sources: High ISO, (slightly) low shutter speed, and f/20. Putting all those together is at least a credible guess at where your softness is coming from.

The composition is fairly nice. It's not "speaking" to me particularly, but it does not strike me as an ugly mess at all, and there are some pleasing lines and contrasts in it.

- The sandy foreground contrasting with the greenery behind, with the line between them placed not at the center
- the lines of the swing set contrasting with the tree trunks ("man's hand" against "nature" or something)
- a nice strong diagonal flow across the frame from upper left, along the edge of the lawn, carried through the swings, to the end of the leg lower right

The swings further back sort of vanish in the shadows, and I wish they did not. A slightly different angle of view might have placed them better. Not sure I like the placement of the nearest leg of the swing set. It looks like an accidental crop and anything that looks like an accident always detracts from the image.

I am not, personally, wild about the contrastiness. If you want that late afternoon early evening look, you might try warming the color up a little to give it more of a golden feel, which might make the contrastiness "sell" better.

It is a photograph that, at first glance, is pretty much a "nothing" image, but there are things in it that reward the patient observer. It is not a great work of art, but it is better than it looks at first glance.

 

[jwbryson1]

I am a beginner photographer who is looking to move up as quickly as possible. Any comments and opinions are greatly valued and appreciated.

View attachment 19326

This picture was taken in manual mode on a Nikon D80 and 24-70mm sigma lens. ISO 1600, f-stop of f20, and shutter speed of 1/80. I think the image is a little blurry and could probably have used a faster shutter speed, or tripod. Being new to photography, I try to keep it simple, but sometimes have problems with that. Like i said, any comments or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

If you are manually metering the scene, this is a tough one to nail because it appears to have a rather high dynamic range (the range from the darkest part of the photo to the lightest part of the photo exceeds what your camera can accomplish. The lens is not like the human eye). If you meter for the dark sections, you get a blown out (overexposed) light section, and if you properly expose for the light sections, your dark sections will be underexposed.

In this image, overall it is very much underexposed. There is no detail in the trees because the camera's sensor was likely metering for the brightly lit grass near the picnic bench or the sand under the swing set. What metering mode did you use?

In terms of composition, to me the image is not terribly exciting. There is not much that interests me in the scene, but that is just my opinion.

I agree with pixmedic that ISO 1600 is way too high for this image, and an aperture of f/20 is very small. If you want good depth of field and you need to shoot at 1/80 at f/20, then you will need a VERY steady hand or a tripod for the camera.

 

[jpbessey]

It's quite contrasty and dark, was that by intention? I would say "this is underexposed" except that maybe you mean to do it this way, in which case the exposure is spot on.

Yes, i purposely underexposed the image. I personally prefer a very contrasty image, but the more i look around, the more I find that the general public disagrees with me. This image is a bit too dark for my liking also, but only slightly.

 

[pixmedic6 5]

It's quite contrasty and dark, was that by intention? I would say "this is underexposed" except that maybe you mean to do it this way, in which case the exposure is spot on.

Yes, i purposely underexposed the image. I personally prefer a very contrasty image, but the more i look around, the more I find that the general public disagrees with me. This image is a bit too dark for my liking also, but only slightly.

well, if you knew enough to purposely underexpose the image, all you need to complete the set (no pun intended) is to get the aperture and shutter speed down. but I would still seriously drop that ISO. for still shots like this, tripods are our friends!