First Serious Attempt at Shooting

[TDMExperience]

I got my camera about a week ago - I bought it for the video and got pretty excited when I saw the kind of pictures I could take with it. So after about a week of reading and figuring out what ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and all that jazz meant, I went to a local cemetery and took some shots of a couple of statues. I'm looking for brutally honest feedback - like I said, my interest started a week ago so I know that I don't know what I'm doing. Thanks.

 

[MacHoot]

Out of the three the second is my favorite...that tree is one busy mofo!

 

[TDMExperience]

Haha, yeah that was almost my exact quote after I took the third picture. I liked the way the light was hitting the statue from that angle and all of those branches were cramping my style. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Bossy]

I love it when cameras take awesome pictures. Makes my job easy.

#2 would've been ok as a vertical shot.

Do you think these images are interesting?

 

[cgipson1]

I won't say much.. but these are all VERTICAL subjects.. is there a reason you shot them HORIZONTALLY? (and cut them off at the knees... or close to it! Literally!)

 

[tirediron]

C&C per req:

Welcome; these are a good start. There are a couple of issues which I would suggest working on: Choose your time of day better. The time just after sunrise and just before sunset is referred to as the "Golden hour" for a reason).

Portraits of statuary are no different, technique-wise, than portraits of people. Try to get on their eye level and avoid the "up the nose" perspective. People are generally vertically oriented, so turn your camera that way and avoid a lot of unused, 'empty' space in your images.

As well, if you're going to use an application or hosting 'site which strips off EXIF data, please ensure that you include it in your post. It is often essential to detailed critique.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

 

[MacHoot]

I do but I like old statues and thier story. But I'm wEiRd like that!!

 

[cgipson1]

I love it when cameras take awesome pictures. Makes my job easy.

THE CAMERA does not take the pictures.. YOU DO! The camera just records what you tell it record. Unless it is on PROGRAM or AUTO mode.. then the CAMERA takes the pictures while the Photographer is in BRAIN DEAD MODE!

 

[Bossy]

I do but I like old statues and thier story. But I'm wEiRd like that!!

Do these images tell you a story successfully?

I love it when cameras take awesome pictures. Makes my job easy.

THE CAMERA does not take the pictures.. YOU DO! The camera just records what you tell it record. Unless it is on PROGRAM or AUTO mode.. then the CAMERA takes the pictures while the Photographer is in BRAIN DEAD MODE!

Heh, I know. I was just being cheeky in response to "got pretty excited when I saw the kind of pictures I could take with it.". ETA- although these most likely are in Auto.

 

[TDMExperience]

Honestly, it never even occured to me to turn my camera (like I said, I'm brand new so I'm probably going to miss some simple stuff like that for the time being).

tirediron - I actually did go there a little after sunrise only to find that my battery was dead haha. Also, what is EXIF data?

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I really appreciate it.

 

[TDMExperience]

I do but I like old statues and thier story. But I'm wEiRd like that!!

Do these images tell you a story successfully?

I love it when cameras take awesome pictures. Makes my job easy.

THE CAMERA does not take the pictures.. YOU DO! The camera just records what you tell it record. Unless it is on PROGRAM or AUTO mode.. then the CAMERA takes the pictures while the Photographer is in BRAIN DEAD MODE!

Heh, I know. I was just being cheeky in response to "got pretty excited when I saw the kind of pictures I could take with it.". ETA- although these most likely are in Auto.

Actually, I haven't taken any pictures in auto mode. I jumped right into manual because I figured if I didn't, I would never learn anything and always take mediocre pictures.

 

[MacHoot]

I do but I like old statues and thier story. But I'm wEiRd like that!!

Do these images tell you a story successfully?

Well yea....obviously this man was a color guard and some big battle was about to go down....hence they put a monument up to depict the battle. (see I'm WeIrD like that!)

 

[tirediron]

tirediron - I actually did go there a little after sunrise only to find that my battery was dead haha. Also, what is EXIF data?

Best laid plans and all that... EXIF data is a data package embedded in your image which contains all the data and camera settings about that image, shutter speed, camera mode, focal length used, etc, etc... there are literally hundreds of lines of data. Plug a view images into this handy on-line viewer to get an idea. You can also get stand-alone applications and browser add-ons.