C&C My Photos

[Nolan]

Please C&C these photos. I would love to hear your opinions/suggestions!

The following photos were shot with the Nikon D90 | AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 G ED VR

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

 

[max3k]

these dont do much for me...what was the point of taking them? what were you trying to portray?

 

[Derrel]

I think you're doing "okay" so far, but maybe not getting the fine details of these types of shot quite perfect. Like on shot two, of the tree trunk off center...the bark of the tree on the front edge is out of focus,and that's a bit jarring. The out of focus highlights in the background are a bit hot on the top set of OOF highlights. The shot would have been better with the highlights controlled a bit better. It's a very difficult thing to do,sometimes. And deeper DOF, brought by using stopping the lens aperture down, would have helped pull focus on the front edge of the tree.

Nos. 3 and 4 are almost there, but have too much OOF background competing with the in-focus foreground. But excellent exposure and tonal control and a great rendering of the rusty metal.

No. 5 appears a tiny bit out of focus on the foreground bolt and nut,and the processing and/or the exposure are a tad bit "hot". The perfect exposure and tonal control of 3 and 4 would have made no. 5 a better image. I know a guy who shoots theses types on incidental closeups,and he often moves the camera around quite a bit, and tries various focal lengths and shooting distances, and even widely different f/stops at times. This type of photography is very challenging--making a nice photo of a hot,sexy woman is pretty easy....making rusted nuts and bolts and a tree trunk look good demands a lot of what is known as lenswork skill. Your VR lens is a perfec tool--it will allow you to try smaller apertures like f/8 to f/11 when you need deeper DOF on longer focal lengths.

You're close on all of these; my main suggestion would be to try slightly smaller apertures, and try focusing with the lens stopped down--ie use the DOF preview button, and try focusing with it held in, in order to place the DOF band so you get maximal DOF...simply focusing with the lens wide-open will not allow you to manually "place" the DOF band, which is a very 1960's-1970's style of working with an SLR.

You have a very wide-range zoom; you can try shooting from close-up at wider settings like 50 down to 18mm,and yo can also try shooting from farther away using 55-135mm focal lengths; the different shooting distances will change the perspective you get,and will alter the foreground/background relationships quite a bit. Again....making rusty nuts and bolts look good is a challenge.

 

[512]

#1 good composition, but it looks empty, without a real poi
#2 i like it very much, the wb is quite uncorrect but it enhance the shot
#3 see #4
#4 better than #3 in saturation but non as good as #3 in composition
#5 lacks in saturation. a more sharpness on the firs subject is suggested

 

[Nolan]

Thanks for the much needed feedback! Its Very appreciated. I'll apply your suggestions in the future.

Any other thoughts on how i can better my photography?