Apartment fire (I'm 15)

ShoutSpenser · Mar 7, 2009

I'm new at this, and I need some tips, I use a Sony A200, and I just started into photography, I was just lucky that this happened near me to get these shots.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

#14

#15

#16

#17

#18

#19

#20

Constructive criticism?

LaFoto · Mar 7, 2009

Hi there and welcome to ThePhotoForum.
With as many photos as these, it is about impossible to offer any constructive critisism.
They are not separated by spaces either, and one runs into the next, and they are not numbered, so it would take up heaps of time to count and recount them in order to properly comment.

What I can see at first sight is that they ALL lean towards the left. These are documentary photos, or I take them for that, so there is no need to add any "artistic" aspect to some of them by tilting the camera. But since they are ALL slanting, I'm afraid you don't even notice this fact?

They do tell a story, that one's for sure. But most of them are underexposed and should be brighter.

How do you shoot? Is the camera set to AUTO? Tell us more (and please edit your first post, add spaces and numbers).

ShoutSpenser · Mar 7, 2009

I manually adjust the iso and stuff, I usually put it lower, because on auto, or too high the pictures get static, or they'll be too bright. I'm not sure how to ever get it perfectly correct with the color, like too dark or too bright, but I noticed that useing a much faster shutter speed, the picture won't be so bright.

TUX424 · Mar 7, 2009

When I come back from a days shoot i look at myself as being my own worst critic i really nit pick on things that i dont think work and how i would redo them the next time, hopefully its not a one time shot.
But dont get your head down with time you will get better photography is something that needs dedication, and hard work.
I quote "It takes 10,000 hrs to be great at somthing"
BTW i am also 15 age has nothing to do with it

Josh66 · Mar 7, 2009

ShoutSpenser said:
but I noticed that useing a much faster shutter speed, the picture won't be so bright.

When you change to a faster shutter speed, you have to also change either the ISO or the aperture to maintain the "correct" exposure.

Your camera (never used it) should have a meter visible in the viewfinder. When that meter is zeroed out, the camera thinks that's the correct exposure.
You may find that sometimes this isn't what you consider to be the correct exposure though. In those cases you would either under or over expose to get what you want.

Mgw189 · Mar 7, 2009

A good start. I am a volunteer fire fighter as well. A good way to think of photography especially in the situation you have here is use the photography to tell the story for you. Many of these shots just dont do that. If I were looking at them without knowing what was going on I would have to ask. Many have mentioned the exposure issue that you have going on. It looks as though it was a pretty bright day you shouldnt have had any issues taking shots at all. Nobody has mentioned it yet but pick up a copy of "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan F. Peterson.

Susan1114 · Mar 7, 2009

Hey you got the shots down but I have to agree that the angles were not really necessary for this type of shoot. If I was there I would have focused on getting the fire in the background with shots of the victims, police and firefighters working together. (In some you did get there with the firefighters) You'll find the "soul" of the situation come out in those types of pictures.

Hopefully there won't be another tragedy in your near future to photograph but if you do just learn from what you felt you missed in these pictures. I do think they are good. But what can I say.... My dad was a firefighter.

KD5NRH · Mar 8, 2009

ShoutSpenser said:
I manually adjust the iso and stuff, I usually put it lower, because on auto, or too high the pictures get static, or they'll be too bright. I'm not sure how to ever get it perfectly correct with the color, like too dark or too bright, but I noticed that useing a much faster shutter speed, the picture won't be so bright.

In daylight, even moderate overcast, you shouldn't need to go over ISO400 with the Alpha. As long as you keep SteadyShot on and both hands on the camera, the shutter speeds should stay fast enough to avoid motion blur.

The slowest shutter speed you can consistently handhold with or without SteadyShot depends on you; try setting it to shutter priority and playing with the speeds to find your limits while sitting, standing and kneeling, and while using a monopod if you have one. Your shutter speed is in the viewfinder display when you half-press the button, so you can watch it while you're shooting in other modes to make sure you're not exceeding those limits and either open the aperture more or increase ISO to speed it back up.

For something relatively fast-paced like a fire response, with no need for flash, etc, I'd set the dial to aperture priority, spot or center-weighted metering, and keep the aperture somewhere around f/8 unless I really needed a larger or smaller DOF. (Good DOF explanation here)

Also, RAW+JPEG mode, and the software that came with the camera can really be your friends with situations like this. The slight loss of speed and more pronounced increase in memory per photo is well worth it for all the issues you can correct more easily after the fact. When there's only one opportunity to get the shot, you want to be able to fix things later.

manaheim · Mar 8, 2009

It's interesting that they are all almost exactly the same angle...

Anyway, I agree with what everyone else said.

Welcome to the forum!

gian133 · Mar 8, 2009

i like a couple of these pictures but the tilting is distracting. i have also found recently that a tilt can work for some/few shots but most of the time it is not good.

i like the compositon of the ones of officers or fire fighters watching or in action (mostly #8) but the shots of the fire didnt really do anything for me.

thats a good oppurtunity you got. i probably would have felt uncomfortable shooting this but good job to u.

photo guy · Jan 9, 2011

Nice shots, try to get your photos so they are straight and not angled though. They will look better. Try to drop off a cd to the dept. that was there. They will like that and may also help you by giving you some advice if you ask them to look at them while you are at the station. Otherwise, nice photos.

ringokid · Jan 9, 2011

TUX424 said:
, hopefully its not a one time shot.

Somebody wishing for house fires ?

darkchild · Jan 9, 2011

some of them are under exposed. a lot.

Photogger · Jan 9, 2011

Shooting RAW and then correcting using your cameras software would probably help you in cases like this when you don't have enough time to think about appropriate settings. I like your pics, great effort!