First post, First pic im sharing

c0ps · Mar 17, 2009

Hello everyone,

Love this website and all the Information I'm learning. I decided to join the club and keep learning from nice folks like yourselves and hopefully share some of my own Findings. I always had a passion for photography but a busy lifestyle kept me away until now.
I purchased a Nikon d60 a few weeks ago. I been shooting like mad at nothing, just to play with camera settings. I would like to share one photo with you all and hopefully get some feedback of what you think.

Thru_These_Eyes · Mar 17, 2009

Wow, that's a powerful shot. To be honest, I wasn't expecting this being that it's your first post! Welcome to the forum by the way! =) This is an amazing place to learn new stuff and be critiqued in a helpful way.....

I wish there was a little more contrast to the picture. A little too much gray for me. But I love the composition of the shot and the general vibe that comes from it. Great Shot! =)

AlexColeman · Mar 17, 2009

I think it could use a little less DOF, it has an awfully distracting backgrond.

Sherman Banks · Mar 17, 2009

Great photo! As noted above, it could use a bit more contrast but you can do that using any editing software. And a shallower depth of field would help take the focus away from the junk behind him. Aside from that, you should just post bigger versions of your photos for everyone to see the details better. Are you shooting in BW mode or are you post processing a color photo?

LaFoto · Mar 17, 2009

When I look at the blinding white (which is part of the junk in the background) and at the pure black of his far leg, I doubt you can up the contrasts even more without seriously blowing out something, blocking blacks.
This is a good photo as is, and it NEEDS the junk in the background, as it is not a "pretty portrait" (I wouldn't take it as that, that is), but something like a "social study". Well, I don't know if you planned it to be something like that, but to me it IS something like that, hence the entire context needs to be in focus, too.

Its a pity we only get to view it this small, at only 500px wide. That's actually quite tiny....

c0ps · Mar 17, 2009

Hi, thank you for all the reply's

Sherman banks I took the picture in color and used the camera settings to switch it to B&W after I was done.

laFoto you hit it on the head on two counts. After I took the photo, I to thought it could use more contrast. I tried to edit it in PS but ended up looking over exposed so I went with the original shot. Its also not meant to be a pretty shot. The junk behind him is what attracted me to take the photo.

I didnt post the big Photo because I thought It would take up this whole screen hehehe. So I used the small one to fit better. Now when you say to use less DOF (depth of field) How would you of taken the shot? Not capturing the background? blurring it more? placing the subject beside the junk?

Once again thank you for your honesty and helping me improve my shot.

bigtwinky · Mar 17, 2009

Now when you say to use less DOF (depth of field) How would you of taken the shot? Not capturing the background? blurring it more? placing the subject beside the junk?

Do you know the settings you used for this picture? Mainly, the aperture? Typically, to get a blurry background, you need to shoot at a wider aperture..f2.8, f4.0. Other things that will impact the blurryness of the background are the focal lenght used (the longer focal lenght, the blurryer it gets) and the distance between the subject and the background (the more distance, the more blurry)

Hope this is what you were looking for...

manaheim · Mar 17, 2009

Neat shot. If we are to assume the junk in the background was intentional, then the DOF was not only fine, but necessary.

IF the junk was unintentional, I would suggest not so much adjusting the DOF as moving the kid away from the junk.