Beginner here! Need critiques and tips to get better

[helloterence]

Hi all, my name is Terence. I just got my first DSLR not log ago and decided to mess around with a bit since I have time off of school. I was wondering if I could get some critiques and or advice on what I could do or change to improve. I currently shooting in Manual (through trial and error) and RAW. I mess around a bit in Lightroom as well.

Here is some of my work from the past week:

 

[Ethang]

Hey terence, when posting photos for CC you would be much better imbedding the pictures in the thread. You will get a lot more responses than if you make people click on a link.

 

[helloterence]

Hey terence, when posting photos for CC you would be much better imbedding the pictures in the thread. You will get a lot more responses than if you make people click on a link.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[raphaelaaron]

hey terence, welcome to the forum.

ethan is right, a lot more responses may be had if you embedded some images, makes it easier.

i took a look at your photos and would say to start by shooting more interesting things. these images seem like tinkering type photos--ones that someone who would be testing out a camera would take. look at something you might take a picture of and always ask yourself 'has this been done before? even if so, what can i do to make it unique?'

when you raise your standards and not settle for status quo, you'll improve quite quickly.

best of luck, keep shooting!

 

[tirediron]

Way too many images for which to provide detailed critique (four max pls and pls post the EXIF data if it's been stripped in processing), but overall, the technical aspects look good. Your exposures are reasonable, and you've done some depth of field experiments.

 

[sm4him]

It would also help if you tell us what you were attempting to work on with each photo. Composition? Lighting? Focus--What were you intending to focus on and do you think you accomplished it? DOF--were you *trying* to blur the background, or keep it in focus?
Telling us WHAT you were trying to do and how you think you did will also help you get better, more specific C&C for whatever you are trying to work on.

 

[GnipGnop]

There's too many here, but I will mention one thing.

Just because a picture has a shallow DoF doesn't make it more artistic or interesting.

 

[thereyougo!3]

What made you take photos of a car with its non alloy wheels naked? Never a good look for a car shoot. The piano shot needs to be a little higher and you need to stop down a bit as it looks like you are shooting at maximum aperture. To give it some form there needs to be some of the black keys in focus. Otherwise all the white keys merge into one and it's hard to see where the focus point is. Not sure why the glasses are in the second jenga shot. The second Jenga shot doesn't work for me as there is too much going on in the background. First on is ok.