first landscape shoot ever ..LET CRITICIZE ME... SO I CAN LEARN ...

gtrgodzilla66 · Apr 30, 2016

this is my first mess around please let me know what do i need to improve
lens is 18mm-55mm and shoot with 6400 iso , manual mode , ranging 1/10-1/30 f5-f8

ronlane · Apr 30, 2016

Based on the images that you have posted and the settings that you list, here is my suggestions to improve. Get a tripod if you are going to shoot at night like this. Then you can use longer exposures and drop the ISO way down, so that you will have more usable files. The second piece of advice would be to read and study about composition and knowing what your subject is and the best way to present it.

Designer · Apr 30, 2016

gtrgodzilla66 said:
this is my first mess around please let me know what do i need to improve
lens is 18mm-55mm and shoot with 6400 iso , manual mode , ranging 1/10-1/30 f5-f8

The car photos are pretty good, considering they were apparently shot just as they sit with no additional light.

The bridge shots show the color of the light to good advantage, but the composition is somewhat unbalanced.

AlanKlein · Apr 30, 2016

1/10 - 1/30 second is very slow for hand held. You might consider a tripod to reduce shake. They're very grainy but I guess that's because you're shooting at such a high ISO.

limr · Apr 30, 2016

gtrgodzilla66 said:
this is my first mess around please let me know what do i need to improve
lens is 18mm-55mm and shoot with 6400 iso , manual mode , ranging 1/10-1/30 f5-f8

Because you're new, you might not know where to post for critique. This section is usually for general discussion, not for individual photo critique. There are many Photo Galleries where you can post images for critique: Photography Forum In your title, you said these are landscape, though they're not really landscapes. There is a "Landscape and Cityscape" gallery, and if you're not really sure how to categorize them, you can put them in the "General" gallery.

As for the images, others have mentioned some technical details that are useful. I'd like to suggest that you pay attention to background. When taking pictures of your car, for example, you might only notice your car, since that is the subject you are interesting in capturing. However, someone just looking at the photo is going to notice that there's a busy, fairly uninteresting background, and that is going to take attention away from the car. The lower perspective on the car is good, though. You might want to check out some of the threads in the Photo Themes for cars to get a sense of the little details that can elevate car photography (like background or tire placement, for example): AUTOMOTIVE - Your Car Photography

The other two, as mentioned, feel a bit unbalanced. What caught your attention about this scene? Was it the details on the I-bar? Was it the bridge? The focus on the foreground suggests that you were interested in that, but the composition that leaves so much of the background visible (and not so blurred out that you can't make out details) draws attention away from those foreground details. The bridge looks nice, but the clutter of the parking lot detracts a lot from the bridge.

Keep shooting!

tirediron · Apr 30, 2016

OP: I've moved your post to the general gallery which is a critique forum, and one which gets a lot of traffic. You will do much better if you reduce the size of your images to no more than 1000 px on the long edge and <300Kb so that they actually display in the post rather than just appearing as links.

Derrel · Apr 30, 2016

I liked the first shot the most, the one with the Erican Eagle sign and the nice car in it. My only wish would be that you had inckuded the AM in American Eagle...but then again, it does sort of work.

I would say that this "Erican Eagle" issue is one of the single, most-critical aspects of landscape and other types of photography: making sure that the very corners and edges of the frame have a net positive impact on the picture you frame up. Objects placed at the very edges of the frame often create a lot of visual "pull"...it's an odd thing, but it's a factor in many,many shooting situations.

In this case, "Erican Eagle" is, in my opinion, distracting...I think it draws my eye back to it, again and again. And yet...it seems almost deliberate, so...

The very famous photography guru and instructor David Vestal recommended that his students scan the frame edges and corners for every shot. Sometimes people suggest deliberately, knowingly, consciously scanning the corners of the frame and the edges in a counter-clockwise direction before shooting each shot.

The edges of the frame can make or break a shot. I think for early days and night-time, the first shot is okay.

Watchful · Apr 30, 2016

When we talked last night you said you were going to remove these (wrong files you posted) and put up your landscapes to discuss. What happened, the comments were removed so now people think these are the pics you wanted to post. Kind of confused here, did you give up? If you need help posting pics let me know, I'm happy to help again.