Am I getting better? C&C please.

[KevinPutman]

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure everything out about the camera as well. The more I learn about the camera, the better my pictures seem to get. Something I really want to work on is PP. I'm great with Photoshop, but I just don't seem to know what to do to my pictures in there to make them better.

 

[subscuck]

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure everything out about the camera as well. The more I learn about the camera, the better my pictures seem to get. Something I really want to work on is PP. I'm great with Photoshop, but I just don't seem to know what to do to my pictures in there to make them better.

Assuming you're starting with a pic that's technically and compositionally good, the only things you'll need to do with PS are very basic. Sharpening (always done after cropping and resizing, usually the very last thing I do), color correction, contrast adjustment, maybe a little saturation or desaturation, straightening (done before any cropping), possibly some high light recovery and slight exposure correction and WB correction. Some of these are done in ACR, others in PS. The closer you are to proper exposure, and the better your glass and body, the more minor these corrections become, but with digital there will always be some PPing. I'd suggest getting Scott Kelby's book for whatever version of PS you have. It will be titled "The Adobe Photoshop CSx Book For Digital Photographers". It will give you the basics for editing in PS and ACR and will be money well spent. He doesn't get into advanced techniques, but you'll learn the basics for immediately improving your pics.

Others will tell you there's, like, a bazillion tutorials on line, but if you don't know what you need to know, tut's are worthless. Read a book first, then explore on line tut's.

 

[iNick]

hey man, i like the first one too its a cool perspective. iv'e been shooting for about a year now with my DSLR and when i first started i was kind of the same way. i think the problem for you is you're so hung up on taking "good" pictures its hindering your ability to grow. these shots are better than the first batch you posted so you know that you are growing, of this i am sure. Here is what i would suggest doing, read the book understanding exposure (idk if iv'e recommended it to you yet or not, if so sorry :/ but it is a really great book hehe) that will get your mind off the idea of taking a "good" shot and will make you focus on the technical aspects of what makes a good picture "good" once you get through that book (which you won't want to put down i promise, it has AMAZING photos in there that will keep you reading) you'll feel much more confident about where your'e going. Just yesterday i was looking back at some of the pictures i printed from when i first started, (shots i thought were good) and put them up on my wall in my room, i was going over each shot and finding every thing that was wrong with them, i started to take them down because i realized how bad they actually were hahah so you can see how your perspective changes as you learn. it was a good experience for me tho because it showed me how far i have come in just one year and it excited me for how much further ill be another year, or 5! or 10! -_- annyyywayyyyyyy keep at it, read understanding exposure, like Subscuck said, forget about tutorials till you learn what understanding exposure teaches you and you'll be set. :thumbup:

 

[The_Traveler]

I absolutely love the first one. I see nothing wrong with it, other than the top if the circle being cut off. Kind of kills it for me. =/

Second one I like as well, although it's just a jar laying in the sand. Nothing special. The lake-bed background is kind of distracting.

Sky is a bit overexposed on the 3rd one, and again another distracting background, not too interesting either.

Distracting background once again.

Subject is kind of boring, and the sand bar across the bottom of the picture kinda throws it off?

That's all I got.

First, why bother to post pictures before you think they're good? Post only what you think are good pictures, then you can learn from everything that is said.

Second, why do you 'love' the first one? What is in it that attracts you? What do you see? What does it mean to you? What feelings do you get from the picture? Why did you choose shoot at such a wide open f stop rather than a smaller opening with a greater DOF?

Am I getting better? C&C please -
It takes a long time and a lot of work before you can become a reasonably skilled photographer. That requires more than knowing your camera, knowing how to use it to maximize it's capabilities. It requires learning how to capture in a photo what you see in your mind's eye well enough that viewers can understand why you took that picture.

These pictures you've posted just seem to me to be pictures taken because you've seen other stuff that looks like this that was successful.
These pictures mean more to you because they may be the first time you've tried to be 'artistic', they resemble some others pictures that were great, they are in your estimation, cool because they aren't snaps but real attempts. All these thoughts and memories overlay the image in your mind and make it good. It is sort of like every parent thinks their baby is cute and every picture of it is wonderful because of the emotions and memories that baby picture carries along with it - to them.

Other people don't have the memories, they only have the pictures.
One of the hardest skills in photography is learning to be objective about your own work.

Look at pictures that are considered 'good' by a lot of people. Try to understand why they appeal and how the composition, the color treatment, etc create the feeling that you get. Those are manifestations of the 'rules' of photography, which aren't really rules but descriptions of the characteristics that people respond positively to in photos. .


Keep trying

Lew

 

[photocist]

One of the hardest skills in photography is learning to be objective about your own work.

Quoted for truth.

 

[KevinPutman]

I'm just massively confused by that post.
Not sure how to explain my confusion,
I understand what you're saying, but just finding it hard to comprehend certain parts.

 

[The_Traveler]

I'm just massively confused by that post.
Not sure how to explain my confusion,
I understand what you're saying, but just finding it hard to comprehend certain parts.

Perhaps you could single out the specific ideas or statements and ask questions about those particular things rather than hope I will rewrite my answers until you understand.

Lew

 

[KevinPutman]

"These pictures you've posted just seem to me to be pictures taken because you've seen other stuff that looks like this that was successful.
These pictures mean more to you because they may be the first time you've tried to be 'artistic', they resemble some others pictures that were great, they are in your estimation, cool because they aren't snaps but real attempts."

That part mostly,
I went out and took the pictures, not because I'd seen something similar, but because I took what I had available for me to shoot, in whatever way I could find to shoot it.

 

[The_Traveler]

I went out and took the pictures, not because I'd seen something similar, but because I took what I had available for me to shoot, in whatever way I could find to shoot it.

It seems to me that you don't have any idea what makes a good photograph and so your problems stem from that.
The way you get to be a good photographer is by learning, deciding what you want to shoot, understanding why and how to shoot it and knowing when what you shoot is crap - and why.

Why do you 'love' the first one? What is in it that attracts you? What do you see? What does it mean to you? What feelings do you get from the picture? Why did you choose shoot at such a wide open f stop rather than a smaller opening with a greater DOF?

 

[KevinPutman]

Hmmm..I see now.


And I chose the smaller dof because I felt it would be more aesthetically appealing that way. I wanted the bottle to be the main subject in the picture.

 

[Derrel]

Kevin,
Photography can be a life-long pursuit. Photography is more than just one, single type of activity,and by that I mean it involves art, science, and craft aspects. If one's craft skills are not high enough, it is very difficult, or even impossible, to express one's artistic intentions. To be able to express one's artistic intentions, one must know how to use the camera, and the lens, well enough to translate artistic vision into an actual photographic recording, on either film, or a digital sensor. Artistic skills, such as composition, and the use of light and color, as well as the utilization of the elements and principles of design, come into play very much at the higher levels of photographic work. For the most part, younger photographers such as yourself are, these days, skipping over the "artistic" education part of photography, and are ignoring centuries' worth of artistic endeavors, and are largely self-taught and unstudied. So, when asking a simple question, "Am I getting better?", it is necessary to realize that the question itself is somewhat incomplete; what is the answer supposed to encompass? Are we judging your technical abilities as becoming better? Are we evaluating your command of the craft aspect of photography, like your ability to prepare a file for inkjet printing, and then to print it out, matte it, and then frame it? or are we evaluating your artistic abilities?

 

[KevinPutman]

I'd have to say a combination of all those things together.
Take the pictures from the first thread I posted, and compare those to the ones in this thread.
What has changed/improved about them? I guess that's what I was asking by "Am I getting better?"

Have I improved any from the time I first joined this forums, until now.
Which would show that I'm learning something.

 

[iNick]

Kevin,
Photography can be a life-long pursuit. Photography is more than just one, single type of activity,and by that I mean it involves art, science, and craft aspects. If one's craft skills are not high enough, it is very difficult, or even impossible, to express one's artistic intentions. To be able to express one's artistic intentions, one must know how to use the camera, and the lens, well enough to translate artistic vision into an actual photographic recording, on either film, or a digital sensor. Artistic skills, such as composition, and the use of light and color, as well as the utilization of the elements and principles of design, come into play very much at the higher levels of photographic work. For the most part, younger photographers such as yourself are, these days, skipping over the "artistic" education part of photography, and are ignoring centuries' worth of artistic endeavors, and are largely self-taught and unstudied....

This is truth right here. I realized that before i can take myself seriously as a photographer (hobbyist) i need to have beyond a solid understanding of the technical aspect of photography. this is what i have been working on for the past year. i am positive my technical understanding has gotten "better" over the past year and i can tell that without even looking at any of my photos. Using my camera is becoming second nature. next step is understanding lighting and color better. i have somewhat of a good grasp on composition so once all these flow with each other, then i will focus on taking "good" well rounded photos.

 

[kundalini]

Have I improved any from the time I first joined this forums, until now.

Your join date is April 2011. It is still April 2011 with another week left in the month. Do you really think that is enough time to make a serious improvement?

You could / should return to your original question in a year and then enough time will have lapsed to actually make an reasonable evaluation.

 

[Derrel]

Well, Kevin, you've been here for something like 23 days at the very longest...that's not a very long period over which to evaluate one's progress. In fact, the chance that your photographs are "better" now than they were on say, April 10th, is most likely to be due to the quality of the photographic opportunities you've encountered, rather than any increase in your total,overall skill level. Also, the amount of effort you put into any one photographic challenge would be more of a factor in the quality of your results than any improvement in your skills. Remember, we're talking about your "improvement" over no more than 23 days' time...

Addendum: I was writing my post while Kundalini had just finished his, but I think you get the idea...many of us here think evaluating progress over a one-month time frame is inadvisable, if not impossible.