Composition?

[Barbiepicqueen]

What is the main thing that professional photographers look to capture in a photo? Is it the composition? Mine here, is this what someone would call composition?

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

What if you cropped a bit off the top and bottom... I used a 2:1 asoect ratio as an example....

 

[KmH]

The 2 main things a pro is looking at, is the lighting, and the composition.

There are several compositional guidelines for visual art that have proven effective over the last few hundred years.

List of photographic composition techniques - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_(visual_arts)

 

[Barbiepicqueen]

What did you think of my pic, opinion please, I kinda thought that this was one of my better ones,LOL! And its so hard for me to take a real decent pic, because I am only using a Kodak easy Share Z812 IS with 8.1 pixels, kinda hoping next income tax refund time, to get a better one, I saw one with a larger zoom lens, and it was also 18 mega pixels, it was around $1100.00, I def want a better one, as I love photography sooo much.
BTW thanks for the helpful links

 

[Barbiepicqueen]

Thanks Bus rider, looks great!! Did you use a frame around my pic or is that just the way it appears to me?

 

[Taylor510ce]

Decent concept. I would have lowered the tree line though to show off more sky and less ground. Typically you would divide the shot into thirds so that the horizon falls on one of those lines ( NOT ALWAYS though before anyone has a stroke about what I just said ). I also would have maybe darkened/saturated the colors a little.

 

[BuS_RiDeR]

Thanks Bus rider, looks great!! Did you use a frame around my pic or is that just the way it appears to me?

I usually frame the pics I edit/post. Just my thing...

 

[Barbiepicqueen]

Thanks Bus rider, I kinda thought you put a frame around it, thought I was seeing things,LOL! I usually do put frames on the photos, and I usually do that with my Xara extreme graphics software, don't know if you have ever heard of Xara, but its a great program, even has a photo extrusion tool to transform objects into 3-d, very cool, just thought I would share

 

[white]

What did you think of my pic, opinion please, I kinda thought that this was one of my better ones,LOL! And its so hard for me to take a real decent pic, because I am only using a Kodak easy Share Z812 IS with 8.1 pixels, kinda hoping next income tax refund time, to get a better one, I saw one with a larger zoom lens, and it was also 18 mega pixels, it was around $1100.00, I def want a better one, as I love photography sooo much.

Buying new gear isn't going to help you make better photos.

Composition is defined as the arrangement of objects (and/or subjects) in the picture area.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Composition is defined as the arrangement of objects (and/or subjects) in the picture area.

or, as I was going to say, any image is a composition.

The problem is whether or not it is a good one and that is very subjective. For example, your photo doesn't do anything for me but a good part of that is that sunsets and sunups bore me to death.

However, if you really are interested in learning, this forum is not a bad place to start. And I do agree with the second part of White's response too. New/better gear is not going to make better photos. The photographer is much more important than his/her gear.

 

[KmH]

I saw one with a larger zoom lens, and it was also 18 mega pixels, it was around $1100.00, I def want a better one, as I love photography sooo much.

Kind of off the main subject but....more MegaPixels, is not always better.

Canon has been cramming more and more mega pixels onto their APS-C sized image sensors because they know many dSLR buyers are motivated by the "more is better" line of thought.

Canon APS-C image sensors are a little smaller (22.3 mm x 14.8 mm), physically, than other APS-C image sensors (23.6 mm x 15.8 mm).

When more pixels are put onto a limited size space, each pixel is going to be a somewhat smaller.

Smaller pixels are like smaller buckets, and cannot hold as much as larger pixels can.

In the case of pixels we want them to hold light, which is made of little particles called photons. The more photons each pixel can hold, the higher the potential quality of the final image, which is why full frame image sensors (36.0 mm x 24.0 mm) are put in most pro level cameras, bigger individual pixels.

There is another important consideration regarding pixel size, and that consideration is image noise.

All image sensors generate image noise. It is unavoidable. But it can be limited and controlled if we have a signal that is significantly larger than the noise. That paramater is the Signal-to-Noise Ratio, SNR.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of 2 dSLR cameras that are at the same level in their makers line up and are direct competitors for the buyers dollars.

One has 18 MP, and the other has 12 MP.
The "more is better" school of thought would expect the 18 MP camera to easily outperform the 12 MP camera across the board, since it has 33% more pixels. The opposite is the real outcome with the 12 MP image sensor having much better overall performance than the 18 MP camera particularly when it comes to actual ISO performance, Dynamic Range, Color Sensitivity, Tonal Range and SNR performance. (ISO Latitude is an advertised value, not a measured value like ISO Performance.)

DxOMark - Compare sensors

So a real life example that more is not always better.

If I were to make an image of the same exact scene with each of those cameras, would you be able to see the differences? I doubt it. Would I? Maybe. :blushing:

 

[PJL]

^ Yep, there's a reason that Nikon sticks with 12 MP for three of their four full-frame dSLRs.

 

[Barbiepicqueen]

Thanks Keith, for your professional opinion regarding me getting a camera with more mega pixels, maybe when I get the time, i will find at least 3 new cameras I am interested in, then you can give me your unbiased opinion, that would be great, and a big help to me, as far as purchasing a new one when its time. also the fact that I still lack some basic knowledge of photography/cameras and I trust your opinion