FIRST ATTEMPT - THOUGHTS PLEASE!!!

[istaycrisp]

Hi All,

I am an extreme beginner and I am only working with a Samsung Point and Shoot but I am looking to get into photography as a genuine hobby. My girlfriend and I visited the local lakes and I took the camera along, these are the first photos I have ever taken that involve more than just roughly aiming in the right direction, saying 'cheese' and clicking the shutter! I would love some feedback from you knowledgeable people (not too harsh though please )...

 

[LuckySe7en]

for a point and shoot, they aren't bad. composition looks good. I'm a beginner too and I can bet that once you get an slr, you're going to amaze yourself with the kind of pics you'll be able to take.

 

[Malone]

I'm going to disagree, I think the comp is lacking..

Check out some of these links and read up on composition -

http://www.photographymad.com/

[URL]http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/jp-composition-intro.shtml[/URL]

 

[bazooka]

I think the one thing that is working most against these shots is the time of day. The shadows have lost all detail. Had these been shot on a cloudy day or closer to sunset/sunrise, the contrast would be much more pleasant. As you gain experience, this stuff will become intuitive, but for now, use this as a first learning experience for understanding how the camera and the eye sees light differently.

 

[unpopular]

Don't let people tell you that your Samsung P&S isn't going to give you good results. All equiptment has limitations, once you get a $20,000 Hasselblad, it might be too big to lug around, and you might be wishing for your Samsung if you want to photograph a less than stellar neighborhood in the city. It's important to know the limitations of your equipment, and while it is true that you'll likely be a bit more limited by your Samsung than an H3 - a good photographer who appreciates the equipment they are using can still make compelling images.

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Here I think you have a good sense of composition and you use the rule of thirds effectively. I'd encourage you to continue working on compositional conventions, but keep a careful eye on this as images might start to become stale and, even worse, you may loose interest in photography as you fall into a compositional formula. At the end of one semester, my teacher took all my slides I had presented on the light table, rotated a few and stacked them up. They all lined up perfectly, I had been taking the exact same "perfect" composition all year, and I have been trying to escape this "rule of thirds" trap for the last several years since. But that doesn't mean that these conventions don't have value, they do. Just don't rely on them.

On a technical note, I would encourage you to read the manual, especially that dealing with flash and exposure compensation. You should be able to trick the meter on your P&S by forcing it to expose at 2 stops above or below what it thinks is "correct". More detail in the silhouette image would be useful, allowing the sky to expose out a little bit and bringing it back down in whatever software you're using, though be aware of over exposure. Some fill flash on the tight portrait as well as the third image could have been useful.

Oh. And avoid taking photographs of subjects only because that's "what a photographer would do". There is a reason why there are so many photographs of ducks and geese standing in the water - because it's easy. This isn't to say that ducks and geese can't be photographed, if you're interested in this kind of work, wait for the animals to do something interesting - push yourself by not falling into these cliches, instead, try to say something about the character of the individual animal, or the conceptual idea of what the animal is and what it means to you.

 

[johnh2005]

Welcome to the forums. Just a couple of notes:

1. Make sure to number your photos. It makes it much easier for people when giving C&C.

2. Try to usually limit your photo count to the three or so range of your best shots. This will allow people to give more detailed C&C per photo. Most people do not want to take the time to write a whole huge paragraph of C&C for ten photos (not saying you have that many [though I did not bother to count yet]).

3. List the actual model of the Samsung P&S you have. This might trigger someone who has the same model to offer some very specific information that you can use to aide you in getting better. The might know of better settings, ways to "trick the meter" and other such things.

Now on to C&C...

1. Not bad. However, when shooting animals a shot from their eye level is usually a lot better. If you get an opportunity like this one again, kneel down, or even lay down and get a shot from their eye level. Also, this will give you a better DOF (Depth of Field) by allowing you to have the shore in the foreground, the birds in the middle and maybe the horizon in the background. The composition on this is not bad. However, a tighter crop might be a little better. (I am sure some others can do better)



2. I see what you were going with here. A frame within a frame. However, there really is not much to "frame" in the second frame. The fence is a nice leading line but it leads out of the photo and into nothing.

3. This one is not a bad shot. However, it would have been much better one of three ways. Either you on the other side with her back into the sun so that she is better lit. Some fill flash to bring her details out. Or, her more underexposed to make her a silhouette.

4. Is actually pretty bad as it sits. The dark on the left and the bright on the right draws the eyes quickly from left to right across the image. This makes you miss her the first time around. If she was the subject of this shot maybe a tighter crop would save it but even that will be difficult.

5. Not bad here. But her face is way underexposed. Some fill lighting here would have been great.

I hope I was not too harsh! Not bad over all, as you learn you will get better!

 

[istaycrisp]

Hi everyone, I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to look at my photographs! I think the resounding message I am getting is to further research exposure and composition! Which of course I will!
My problem is that this photography thing is slightly addictive isn't it!? I want to go out and take more before I've had the time to sit down and analyse the last bunch and learn from my mistakes!

Thanks again!! I'll get some more posted when I am next released from the shackles of work

 

[istaycrisp]

Hi John,

Thanks for taking the time to individually look at each shot, much appreciated! Your already becoming very helpful to me. The feedback wasn't too harsh at all, it was in fact very helpful and over all more positive than I had expected. I'm going to get to the library ASAP and further my basic understanding and then I'll be bothering you with more amateur attempts

 

[johnh2005]

You should not stop taking shots just because you have not gotten feedback on others yet. As you read and learn more you will C&C your own shots and learn from what you did and did not do right in the shots.