C&C Welcome - Couple of Photos

unsainted · Aug 12, 2008

These are a couple of random shots I took with my new A200 using the kit lens 18-70 mm

These were shot on auto, what I would like to know, is what manual settings could or should I have used to improve the shot.

These were lightly edited in Aperture afterwards, just the auto-levels etc.

manaheim · Aug 12, 2008

I love trains, esp. ones covered in grafiti or horribly abused by age... get in closer though... the interest is really in the details and textures. Otherwise the shot can be kinda boring.

Flower pictures bore the snot out of me, so I'm totally not one to comment on the second pic.

tirediron · Aug 12, 2008

There is either no way, or a million ways to answer a question such as, "What manual settings would have improved this shot?". It's a matter of knowing what you want to achieve, and then understanding the relationship between shutter speed, and aperture, the effect of ISO and WB, etc.

1. I think there is a good image or two here, but you've not quite caught it. The rail cars and their graffiti are interesting, but the ditch in the foreground and building aren't. My suggestion would be to focus tightly on some of the more colourful graffiti and try and incooperate with that elements of the rail car, rivets, rust, or some other texture. You could aslo shoot along the length of the train such that the area nearest you is in focus and fading to soft as it recedes. When incooperating linear elements in an image (The sides of the ditch, railroad tracks) use them to guide the eye to the main subject. In this case, the ditch takes the eye right pase everything and out the LH side.

2. Good use of selective focus to isolate the sunflower, but suggest that the composition would have been improved by shoot more directly at the flower and having it fill more of the frame.

Overall the images are fine technically, just need a little more experience on the artistic side.

Just my $00.02 worth - your milage may vary.

~John