Fav. First photos C&C

[PixelRabbit]

EDIT 12/12 **New bird image added at end**

Hi All, I just got my first DSLR less than a week ago. Canon 60D with 18-200 lens
I immediately realized exactly how much I have to learn! So I'm going to jump in with both feet right off the bat and ask for some input on my three fav pictures I have taken so far.
Thanks in advance for your replies and input

First one it was dreary outside yesterday and my faithful sidekick Miss Gabby and I went for a walk around the property to try to find some colour amongst the decay before winter sets in. I like the photo but feel it would do well with more light.

This one I love the bird but don't like the overall composition, I needed to get the entire "feeder" he is sitting on and perhaps taking the shot from a higher angle?

And finally this is my Miss Gabby, I'm rather pleased with this one but again I think some "light" is missing somehow.

 

[PixelRabbit]

I should probably add that there is no processing at all, these are straight out of the camera and uploaded.

 

[mwcfarms]

Well you are jumping right in, good for you. They look soft to me or out of focus. Not sure if thats because of your shutter speed being 1/60th on the first and third. The third image you shot with a 200mm focal length but a 1/60th Shutter speed. You should avoid dropping your shutter speed below your focal length because your probably going to get a soft image from the longer shutter speeds.

I think if you work on composition on the bird one it would have been good. I don't think necessarily getting the whole feed in is necesarry. I like the fact that you caught him in motion just wish for a tighter crop and a bit more sharpness and no tilt.

The first has nice texture but is soft. If you go back out and try to improve your composition and sharpness.

I really love the fact that you told us what you liked about the image and what you didn't, it helps tremendously with giving out critique.
Keep playing with your camera and try to keep your shutter speed above that focal length, see if you can notice a difference in the sharpness of the overall image.

 

[photo guy]

Nice bird shot. The dog is a little too close. Nice shots though. Keep practicing

 

[AgentDrex]

I like soft images...most of mine are on purpose whether others like it or not. I didn't take the time to read the EXIF, but I'm going to make an ass of myself by assuming you are using the camera in auto mode for the most part. Centering your subjects will work with certain compositions, but not with the ones you have posted here...IMHO. Some may suggest following the "Rule of Thirds"...I like to attempt to follow Rabatment of the rectangle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[KmH]

A refinement of the rabatment of a triangle is a Golden Rectangle - Golden rectangle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Golden ratio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are many compositional guidelines. The rule of thirds (ROT) is just one of them. Golden spiral - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Those that have Lightroom can set their crop tool to display a grid, thirds, diagonal, triangle, Golden Ratio, or Golden Spiral overlay.

 

[PixelRabbit]

Well you are jumping right in, good for you. They look soft to me or out of focus. Not sure if thats because of your shutter speed being 1/60th on the first and third. The third image you shot with a 200mm focal length but a 1/60th Shutter speed. You should avoid dropping your shutter speed below your focal length because your probably going to get a soft image from the longer shutter speeds.

I think if you work on composition on the bird one it would have been good. I don't think necessarily getting the whole feed in is necesarry. I like the fact that you caught him in motion just wish for a tighter crop and a bit more sharpness and no tilt.

The first has nice texture but is soft. If you go back out and try to improve your composition and sharpness.

I really love the fact that you told us what you liked about the image and what you didn't, it helps tremendously with giving out critique.
Keep playing with your camera and try to keep your shutter speed above that focal length, see if you can notice a difference in the sharpness of the overall image.

Thanks for the great reply mwc, hmmm thinking maybe the softness is what I'm meaning when I'm saying there is a lack of light, I couldn't quite put my finger on it but I think you hit the nail on the head. I'll take your suggestions and go back and see what we get

Nice bird shot. The dog is a little too close. Nice shots though. Keep practicing

Thanks! even though I find fault in the bird pic I do like the capture of the wings Can't wait to improve on it, having the feeders right at my front door makes it nice and simple to tweak things and check the results on the computer quickly and go back for more. As for the dog one, good observation, I love a good closeup but find that even before I got the new camera I was in the "too close" rut and need to back up a little

 

[PixelRabbit]

I like soft images...most of mine are on purpose whether others like it or not. I didn't take the time to read the EXIF, but I'm going to make an ass of myself by assuming you are using the camera in auto mode for the most part. Centering your subjects will work with certain compositions, but not with the ones you have posted here...IMHO. Some may suggest following the "Rule of Thirds"...I like to attempt to follow Rabatment of the rectangle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The dog pic was the first day and def was in auto mode, I just wanted to get out and shoot and feel the camera (and it was awesome lol) The other two I'm 99% sure I had tweaked the settings and didn't default back to any presets (not going to say 100% because I did a lot of playing that day) Thanks for the link that will be very helpful when composing shots next time out.

A refinement of the rabatment of a triangle is a Golden Rectangle - Golden rectangle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Golden ratio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are many compositional guidelines. The rule of thirds (ROT) is just one of them. Golden spiral - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Those that have Lightroom can set their crop tool to display a grid, thirds, diagonal, triangle, Golden Ratio, or Golden Spiral overlay.

Ah thanks KmH, I love options!

 

[xnoirox]

I like these.
The first is really good, but cropping it so the the little moss in the center is off to the side a little. Settled in the cross hairs of the rule of thirds.
On the second, I'd say the composition is good. Gives a sense of where the bird is going. But it's slightly out of focus. I like it though.
And the third, you could be more level with your dog. and the head seems cut'off at the top.
They're good for just having your camera for a week

 

[PixelRabbit]

I like these.
The first is really good, but cropping it so the the little moss in the center is off to the side a little. Settled in the cross hairs of the rule of thirds.
On the second, I'd say the composition is good. Gives a sense of where the bird is going. But it's slightly out of focus. I like it though.
And the third, you could be more level with your dog. and the head seems cut'off at the top.
They're good for just having your camera for a week

Thanks for the input xnoirox, I was nervous when I first posted but so very glad I did.

After I logged off last night I went and thumbed through a couple photography mags I have here.... and you know that saying what you have seen you can't "not see" ? ... wow .. I laughed! There is the rectangle! ... oh there it is again! ....ooooo pretty .. a spiral! lol

Can't wait for the sun to come up so I can get out and find rectangles and spirals myself and tackle photographing snow since we got a couple inches overnight.... should be interesting.

 

[AgentDrex]

I'm excited for you as well!

 

[bazooka]

Welcome! I apologize beforehand if you are offended that my thoughts of your images do not match those above. However, posting for C&C is an excellent way to learn and grow quickly for both the submitter and the critiquer. So let's get right to it.

First one it was dreary outside yesterday and my faithful sidekick Miss Gabby and I went for a walk around the property to try to find some colour amongst the decay before winter sets in. I like the photo but feel it would do well with more light.

#1 Bright green moss clumps, amidst mostly colorless rock. Very shallow depth of field. Shot at f/4.5.

I think you chose an interesting subject and I would like to see more of it. However, it's so small in the frame that there is little detail for me to enjoy. A majority of the frame is out of focus so there is little else for me to gather detailed information from. Furthermore, the subject is centered, creating a very static, very "central" image.

Next time, I would recommend getting closer (you may need a semi-macro lens, or extension tubes). Include the main clump along with the two smaller clumps on the right. A set of three similar subjects often works well as it is simple, but still interesting as the eye can easily jump from one to the other. You should still use the same colorless rock background as that gives the eye the impression that it's more saturated than it really is, and it doesn't distract from it.

However, keep an eye on tonal values as well. You'll notice that there are several bright white areas on the rock that are the same size as the green clumps. If used in a background or foreground, these will fight for attention. Try to frame it against a darker or midtone area of the rock. Or try all three for experimentation. Work the scene!

This one I love the bird but don't like the overall composition, I needed to get the entire "feeder" he is sitting on and perhaps taking the shot from a higher angle?

#2 The subject is a bird in a feeder, either landing or about to fly away judging from the motion blur and position of the wings. There is a large dark strip on the left side of the frame and the feeder is sitting on the bottom of the frame. The background is a colorful green, where as there are few colors in the plane of the subject.

Again, you chose an interesting subject... a bird in a feeder. Nothing wrong with that. You even "chose" (I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you didn't let the camera choose) a slower shutter duration which makes the moving wings almost angelic. Unfortunately, the birds head is soft. That may be a shutter speed issue or a focus issue, I cannot determine which.

Let's set that aside and look at the composition. Again you chose to place the bird center (left-to-right) in the composition, and quite low. This creates a lot of colorful bright green empty space above the bird which is very distracting. Color against colorless fights for attention as it did successfully in #1. Here it is working against you. So be careful of your background color, and brightness. Of course, you should also be always mindful of background content, but I think the "content" of this background is pleasing. You're also chopping the bottom and side of the feeder only to get the bird in the center. This seems illogical to me.

The large black strip on the left seems to server no purpose. The light is coming from the left so I would expect that side of the image to be open, or perhaps even lighter than the rest. I think you should strongly reconsider why you chose to place that there.

Finally, the subject is very small inside the frame. Maybe 5% of the frame is subject which means I can't get any detail out of it. And in the midst of all these other black shapes and bright green backgrounds... it's like the little wimpy kid getting beat up on the playground when he just wants to avoid being picked last to be on a team. STRENGTHEN your subject! Do this through light, color, composition. Think BEFORE you shoot. Think! Seriously, photography is not natural or second nature. We don't see the world in one aperture through a 2x3 box. So it takes thought to retrain our brains to see like a camera does or like a print on a wall.

One more comment, the light on the bird is quite nice, although perhaps a bit on the blue side.

And finally this is my Miss Gabby, I'm rather pleased with this one but again I think some "light" is missing somehow.

#3 You did better here at filling the frame, I'd argue that you maybe you filled it a bit too much. I'd like to see a little more room for the chin at the bottom and for the top of the head at the top. I think tight works like this for people ok, but I don't like it on dogs.

What is the brightest and most colorful area of this image? The mouth. What is the least attractive area of this image? The mouth. I like to call that dangly thing "roast beef" and it's not attractive (although fun to play with ). So either wait until she closes her mouth, or shoot at a different angle which doesn't place so much emphasis on the open side of the mouth.

The light is quite flat because you used your on-camera flash. If you're going to stick with that, the tones in the image have to be taken at face value. The lighter areas are going to be "stronger" to the eye than the darker areas. So find a way to compose to downplay that. OR, don't use your on-camera flash and use ambient light instead to shift the attention from the lighter mouth area to the darker eyes which is where most of the attention should be. If you can get "catchlights" in the eyes, this helps tremendously.

Lastly, I'd either like to see both eyes, or a full profile. Because a full profile looks much better with creative lighting, and I assume you aren't into off-camera flash (yet), let's see both eyes.

I hope some of this helps. I look foward to seeing your progress.

 

[PixelRabbit]

Wow Bazooka, thanks for taking the time to do such a thorough job, you have given me tons of food for thought... and a new way of thinking/seeing to take with me outside ....right now .. the sun it out! so I will be back in a bit.. going to turn on auto and go and work on composition and focus for today .. hopefully I will have some shots to share later !

 

[bazooka]

My pleasure. I'd love to see how you improve with your next round of images. It takes time and practice, and becoming more honest and critical of your own work.

And if you want to focus on composition, I don't see any problem in running in auto. Just be wary of what aperture and shutter speed it tries to give you. It may not jive with what you need. Try [P]rogram mode instead of full auto green mode. That way you can change either the aperture/shutter speed and it will adjust the other for you.

 

[PixelRabbit]

My pleasure. I'd love to see how you improve with your next round of images. It takes time and practice, and becoming more honest and critical of your own work.

And if you want to focus on composition, I don't see any problem in running in auto. Just be wary of what aperture and shutter speed it tries to give you. It may not jive with what you need. Try [P]rogram mode instead of full auto green mode. That way you can change either the aperture/shutter speed and it will adjust the other for you.

Well ... I ran in auto... and the wrong auto at times (sigh) but I got a few that I liked, (with things I didn't like about them) Now I think it is time for a hot chocolate!

1. Love the bird except he seems a little out of focus and flat, background wasn't ideal since there was snow in the trees and it is too bright and busy, competes with the bird.
I'm always shooting sideways into the light taking these so thinking I may have to relocate the feeder.

2. This one I almost like, I really want to like it but I really want more contrast and the shadow to be darker... but I like it ... almost.

3. This one came closest to the image I was trying to get.... but wow there is a LOT going on and there is depth missing somehow.

4. This one I like but something bothers me about the treeline, I achieved what I was trying to do, have the reflection in the pond to be in focus but I lost focus in the trees and I miss it.