Critique my work?

KmH · Feb 26, 2012

That's an image made by the Hubble Space Telescope.

It really helps when there is no atmosphere and you have an 8 million $$$ camera. attached to a 4 billion $$$, 7.9 foot aperture, telephoto lens that has an effective focal length of 189 feet. :lmao:

CW_GTI · Feb 26, 2012

manaheim said:
jake337 said:

I have a 2004 R32 in the garage.

Click to expand...

I miss my 337........

Nice to see other VW enthusiasts in these forums! My brother just got a MK3 GTI VRT last night (361whp, 345tq)

On topic: I think the flower pictures look good too, what lens did you use for it?

banderson · Feb 26, 2012

Just the standard 28-135 kit lens for it. I'm saving now for better lenses. And yeah, I want one- but I'm broke lol

zcar21 · Feb 26, 2012

What exposure and metering mode are you using? I would like the third one if you crop the clouds out and raise the exposure a little.

Timoris · Feb 26, 2012

First picture,
As mentioned before it is blown out.

It seems to be because your lighting is from the right, but your picture was spot metered, which explains why the left side is slightly underexposed and falls within that flower's own shadow. The solution would have to be a lightbox or flash bounce form the top, giving equal lighting. A lightbox can easily be made for less than 20$.

Also, what caught my eye was the shadows in the background. Unless that is what you were going for (and I kind of like it) your subject must be far enough from the background as to not cast them in frame.

Equal, diffused lighting.

The same goes for the second picture, the light source coming form the top left gives off a shadow for the bottom right part of the flowers.

Last picture:
It has a lot of potential, like the flowers.

As mentioned, something seems to be up with either your monitor calibration or metering because they seem, off, dark.

If you where to retake it, (good practice, why not?

) Meter your camera for the sunset/ocean, then, flash on the cabin. (more on that in a moment)
Your light source seems to come from behind the cabin, bathing it in shadow. We need to up the detail on it. If you where to give it a nice wide flash at 45° to the camera, you may have something there.

Alternatively, for a low cost, you could probably already take it, more "arty" shot, Use a tripod, Small aperture (say, f/22) and several second exposure. While the camera is doing it's thing, "Paint" the cabin in light with a white LED flash light. As such, you'll have a clear, colourfull sky, Smooth, artful waves and a nicely exposed cabin! :-D

MK3Brent · Feb 26, 2012

KmH said:
That's an image made by the Hubble Space Telescope.

It really helps when there is no atmosphere and you have an 8 million $$$ camera. attached to a 4 billion $$$, 7.9 foot aperture, telephoto lens that has an effective focal length of 189 feet. :lmao:

Not to mention 7 Earth day long exposures.

banderson · Feb 26, 2012

zcar21 said:
What exposure and metering mode are you using? I would like the third one if you crop the clouds out and raise the exposure a little.

Exposure was manual but I can't recall what it was at, and I have been practicing manual focus and I believe I was doing it manually at the time but I could be wrong.

banderson · Feb 26, 2012

Timoris said:
First picture,
As mentioned before it is blown out.

It seems to be because your lighting is from the right, but your picture was spot metered, which explains why the left side is slightly underexposed and falls within that flower's own shadow. The solution would have to be a lightbox or flash bounce form the top, giving equal lighting. A lightbox can easily be made for less than 20$.

Also, what caught my eye was the shadows in the background. Unless that is what you were going for (and I kind of like it) your subject must be far enough from the background as to not cast them in frame.

Equal, diffused lighting.

The same goes for the second picture, the light source coming form the top left gives off a shadow for the bottom right part of the flowers.

Last picture:
It has a lot of potential, like the flowers.

As mentioned, something seems to be up with either your monitor calibration or metering because they seem, off, dark.

If you where to retake it, (good practice, why not? ) Meter your camera for the sunset/ocean, then, flash on the cabin. (more on that in a moment)
Your light source seems to come from behind the cabin, bathing it in shadow. We need to up the detail on it. If you where to give it a nice wide flash at 45° to the camera, you may have something there.

Alternatively, for a low cost, you could probably already take it, more "arty" shot, Use a tripod, Small aperture (say, f/22) and several second exposure. While the camera is doing it's thing, "Paint" the cabin in light with a white LED flash light. As such, you'll have a clear, colourfull sky, Smooth, artful waves and a nicely exposed cabin! :-D

I should calibrate my monitor. Any good suggestions on doing so? Also- I have a MacBook pro- would that make any difference? And I know- I wish I could retake it. This was when I was still living 25 mins from cocoa beach. And I live in Florida now. I know I could take it better now, but I took it maybe... A week after I got my first dslr (an olympus e500 from eBay) lol

Timoris · Feb 26, 2012

You can always take your Macbook to a Photo store the likes of Lozeau, they usually offer a cheap service.

Good practice is to calibrate every week, for that there are tools, such as a program and a, well, a Suction cup webcam which reads your screen.

However, in the situation you are now, maybe just get it calibrated once.

I have, years ago, I know, I'm bad. But it has not effected my pictures.

[ADDED] OH! Macbook, yeah, colour changes depending on the angle you are looking at. Tricky.

banderson · Feb 26, 2012

Timoris said:
OH! Macbook, yeah, colour changes depending on the angle you are looking at. Tricky.

exactly.. lol Plus after trying to calibrate my screen, my eyes hurt and now i have no idea what looks right anymore D: hahahah

banderson · Feb 26, 2012

WHEW. After probably an hour or more, I think I finally got the monitor calibrated correctly. LOL then I went and looked at my photos. My calibration must have been WAY off. :l

banderson · Feb 26, 2012

I now notice how grey the background on 2 is. (Was white before) :l

banderson · Feb 27, 2012

so ive been practicing with lighting for a while, and came out with this picture.. Any thoughts?

Timoris · Feb 27, 2012

Nice!

I find the lighting is good, the image seems balanced and well composed.

Somewhat, Purplish in the background but other than that, nice.

banderson · Feb 27, 2012

Timoris said:
Nice!

I find the lighting is good, the image seems balanced and well composed.

Somewhat, Purplish in the background but other than that, nice.

Thank you!!

I think I am going to do some more portraits of my girlfriend tomorrow. People are more complex lol and I'm not seeing the purple on my computer or phone? Maybe my eyes just aren't as trained as yours, though.