First thread with photos, overall thoughts and advice? :)

[Lieniitte]

Ello, all!

This is my first post with my pictures here, sorry it's lengthy. I wanted to give a little bit of info on what I have done and want to do. And I am looking for some C&C.

First off, all of these shots are ones I took quite some time ago. I bought a camera and started taking photos somewhere around the beginning of 2012. But then life got in the way and I simply couldn't find much time to take photos, so from around April 2012 -November 2012, I would do some occasional shoots for friends, but since then, I've only done maybe 2 or 3 shoots a year, sometimes less. All of them just for fun and for friends. So these photos are basically from when I started, and I haven't gotten any better or learned anything new in between or since then, because I've not had much opportunity.

Now I am a lot less busy than I was and I plan on really starting to learn more and develop some real skills. In the future I plan on posting only 1 or 2 photos for some more C&C, but right now, because these are all from a while back, I am just looking for some overall thoughts and overall advice on what I am doing wrong and what might be right.
Is there anything that really sticks out?

This is a link to my Flickr: Flickr Lieniitte s Photostream where I have my favorite photos since I started out. And really, there's something in there from almost every single shoot I've ever done. I've lost some pictures, so it's only 12 photos. I really haven't done much. Plus, I don't really count landscape photos I've shot because I don't think they've turned out very well. In this thread I will post a few that are my absolute favorite, but I would really appreciate it if anyone had a look at those 12 and gave some overall thoughts.

Here is a link to the homepage of the person who I was inspired by when starting out: Fotogr fs Billijs Locs - portretu ime u notikumu un k zu fotogr fs. I followed him around at a couple weddings from afar, watching what he did, trying to learn. He does the type of photography I wish to. Outdoor shoots for people, capturing special moments for them and I do like the style a lot. I know I have a long way to go, but I'd like to get there someday

So I'd appreciate an overall look at my Flickr, but these are a few favorites:

9 by Lieniitte, on Flickr

I realize this one could have been a bit more straight
8 by Lieniitte, on Flickr

And this one isn't really in focus much.. But I still like it a lot.
12 by Lieniitte, on Flickr

 

[sashbar]

I think you most certainly have a very good eye, especially for the color and perspective, and for an absolute beginner you are doing much better tham most. I think your friends will be happy with yor shots.

You need to pay more attention to background details to improve your images. Red leaves in the upper right corner of ypur first image are distracting and there is too much empty blown space there, so if you trim the upper part , the image will look better. With your second image the color scheme is very good, but it is tilted. Look at the fence, it is not parallel to the frame. With you third photo ther is a distracting detail in the lower part, is it a belt? it could be cropped easily as well.

I like the way you are using the forefront details to make the shot 3-dimentional, but beware of large out of focus objects on the forefront, that are disconnected perspective vise, sometimes they do not look great. Unlike 1 and 2, the blurred leaves in 3 do not work really well in my view.

Read about basic composition rules and try to avoid unnesessary central compositions. You see with image 1 the girl is off center and it adds dynamics and looks better. Ot works woth static objects too.

I would think you next steps should be 1) learning composition, how to place your objects within the frame and get clearer idea about the balance regarding the object size withing the frame. 2) learning about the light in photography. One thing that could improve the above images would be a different light, the way it creates shadows and forms in an image. In that respect #3 is a bit flat, even though you have tried to get the perspective. But that is because of the light.

I would suggest buying a couple of books on composition and light in photography, it will give you a lot of ideas, more than any advice here on the forum.

I would recomment Searching the Light by Perello and The Photographer's Eye by Freeman.

 

[BananaRepublic]

In shot 1 the sky in the background was the first thing I noticed but overall i liked it, perhaps try to reduce the blown out look a little.

Image 2, Since the woman is the main focus I don't know that the fence make a massive difference.

Shot 3, I think the leaves in front of her elbow and stomach are distracting.

 

[Lieniitte]

I think you most certainly have a very good eye, especially for the color and perspective, and for an absolute beginner you are doing much better tham most. I think your friends will be happy with yor shots.

You need to pay more attention to background details to improve your images. Red leaves in the upper right corner of ypur first image are distracting and there is too much empty blown space there, so if you trim the upper part , the image will look better. With your second image the color scheme is very good, but it is tilted. Look at the fence, it is not parallel to the frame. With you third photo ther is a distracting detail in the lower part, is it a belt? it could be cropped easily as well.

Thank you for the detailed advice! And it's nice to hear someone other than my mom saying that I have a good eye for this, makes me motivated to continue as I do love photography.

I have a few questions on what you wrote about. I do see what you are saying, I usually never think about the background as much, since I focus on the person, but I see how that sky and other things could be distracting or done better. Though, how would I go about making the sky less blown out? I remember trying to get the girl in focus and the exposure right on her, and that was the first time I took a photo of someone who doesn't have white skin, so I was worried that her skin would come out too dark or unnatural.
How would I go about paying more attention to the background, but still get good exposure everywhere?

In the second photo, yes, definitely the fence should have been straighter. I had a couple shots with it straight but her face wasn't as nice in them, so I opted for this one and kept her like she was, sacrificing the fence lines. Do you think it would have been better if the was fence straight? I could go in Lightroom and try it.

In the third photo, Hmm, yes! That is a belt! I hadn't noticed it. Cropping is a problem for me, as I am afraid to make is aesthetically not pleasing. I try to stick to the aspect ratio of the original and always worry about cropping making the composition worse. It's as if the pressure is really on me to get the precise best composition of that photo, when it feels like less pressure to just leave it as it is. To crop in pp means I have to know what I am doing. So I definitely see what you mean about learning composition better and I do want to learn. I will try to crop out the top on the first image as well.

Is it common to change the aspect ratio of an image when cropping?

Now that you mention it, it is quite flat. The leaves in the third one seem to have caught better light than the person. And I don't even have to guess that that's not good.
I always worry about light too, for instance, the third photo was taken in the shade, so as not to get light spots on her face that I wouldn't know what to do with in pp. And a lot of photos from the shoot with the Chinese girl in the Botanical gardens came out all wrong, because part of her was in light and part in shadow, because we were under or near trees and bushes all the time and I just don't know what to do with that kind of spotted light. Would you use an external flash to solve this? I haven't tried, thinking that would make me lose shadows. But where I live we have about 260 days of rain a year, so sun is hard to come by and even when it's not raining, it's often cloudy.
Any advice in that situation?
I will definitely order that book you mentioned on light, but it will take a few weeks to get here.

My friend who is just starting photography will be visiting in a couple days and staying for a month, so we plan to do a 30 instead of a 365. These will be good things for me to work on during this time, but the books won't arrive so fast

Sorry if I ask too many questions, but I am eager to soak up all I can.

Are these crops better? I cropped the first one and straightened the second, but I couldn't find a good crop for the third when cropping out the belt.

 

[Lieniitte]

In shot 1 the sky in the background was the first thing I noticed but overall i liked it, perhaps try to reduce the blown out look a little.

Image 2, Since the woman is the main focus I don't know that the fence make a massive difference.

Shot 3, I think the leaves in front of her elbow and stomach are distracting.

Thank you for your reply and advice!
Do you have any advice on how to get the background to not be so blown out, but still keep normal exposure on the girl?

In the second image, personally, I don't usually like it when thing's aren't straight, but this really was the best option out of the ones I had. My mom seems to like photos without straight lines the best, so I guess those lines really must be different for people.

Thank you, yes, they could be distracting. It was my first time trying out the foreground thing and I seem to have gone overboard I had been hoping to pass it on as "artsy", but I guess that doesn't always work.

 

[Designer]

This is going to be way too short of a reply, and I apologize for that considering you wrote so much.

1. I always assume to straighten each photo in post. It's darn near impossible to get them actually straight in camera, even when using a level. Just plan on it. I do that if not first, then nearly first and the crop comes second. The only times I don't straighten first is when there is a question about the exposure or WB, and if those can't be adjusted to reasonable appearance, then I will most likely discard it.

2. I wouldn't worry too much about blowing a background. It's just the background.

 

[Ray Hines]

Here's a quick crop for you using the original aspect ratio. I used Photoshop and just cropped from the bottom right and then pushed the crop to the far right. I think it keeps all the important bits you wanted.

 

[Derrel]

I looked at your Flickr page, and you are doing okay so far. I would say that mostly your compositions are good, except for, on a few, a very small detail or two has been overlooked. LIke the woman "dancing"...petty good, except for the tall light pole (?) in the background. The Chinese girl, good, but the one stick in the front is a bit jarring. But overall, you have the sort of idealized lifestyle look going pretty well. You have a good start. I would say keep shooting attractive people--they help a lot. Keep doing a mixture of horizontals and verticals, where each is appropriate. Buy The Photographer's Eye, and read and study it. But mostly, keep shooting! One suggestion would be to add a very slight vignette to some of the images, to darken the edges of the frame at small amount. The stock, factory vignettes are too extreme, and I think you need a set of four or five custom vignette presets for Lightroom.

 

[sashbar]

I think you most certainly have a very good eye, especially for the color and perspective, and for an absolute beginner you are doing much better tham most. I think your friends will be happy with yor shots.

You need to pay more attention to background details to improve your images. Red leaves in the upper right corner of ypur first image are distracting and there is too much empty blown space there, so if you trim the upper part , the image will look better. With your second image the color scheme is very good, but it is tilted. Look at the fence, it is not parallel to the frame. With you third photo ther is a distracting detail in the lower part, is it a belt? it could be cropped easily as well.

Thank you for the detailed advice! And it's nice to hear someone other than my mom saying that I have a good eye for this, makes me motivated to continue as I do love photography.

I have a few questions on what you wrote about. I do see what you are saying, I usually never think about the background as much, since I focus on the person, but I see how that sky and other things could be distracting or done better. Though, how would I go about making the sky less blown out? I remember trying to get the girl in focus and the exposure right on her, and that was the first time I took a photo of someone who doesn't have white skin, so I was worried that her skin would come out too dark or unnatural.
How would I go about paying more attention to the background, but still get good exposure everywhere?

In the second photo, yes, definitely the fence should have been straighter. I had a couple shots with it straight but her face wasn't as nice in them, so I opted for this one and kept her like she was, sacrificing the fence lines. Do you think it would have been better if the was fence straight? I could go in Lightroom and try it.

In the third photo, Hmm, yes! That is a belt! I hadn't noticed it. Cropping is a problem for me, as I am afraid to make is aesthetically not pleasing. I try to stick to the aspect ratio of the original and always worry about cropping making the composition worse. It's as if the pressure is really on me to get the precise best composition of that photo, when it feels like less pressure to just leave it as it is. To crop in pp means I have to know what I am doing. So I definitely see what you mean about learning composition better and I do want to learn. I will try to crop out the top on the first image as well.

Is it common to change the aspect ratio of an image when cropping?

Now that you mention it, it is quite flat. The leaves in the third one seem to have caught better light than the person. And I don't even have to guess that that's not good.
I always worry about light too, for instance, the third photo was taken in the shade, so as not to get light spots on her face that I wouldn't know what to do with in pp. And a lot of photos from the shoot with the Chinese girl in the Botanical gardens came out all wrong, because part of her was in light and part in shadow, because we were under or near trees and bushes all the time and I just don't know what to do with that kind of spotted light. Would you use an external flash to solve this? I haven't tried, thinking that would make me lose shadows. But where I live we have about 260 days of rain a year, so sun is hard to come by and even when it's not raining, it's often cloudy.
Any advice in that situation?
I will definitely order that book you mentioned on light, but it will take a few weeks to get here.

My friend who is just starting photography will be visiting in a couple days and staying for a month, so we plan to do a 30 instead of a 365. These will be good things for me to work on during this time, but the books won't arrive so fast

Sorry if I ask too many questions, but I am eager to soak up all I can.

Are these crops better? I cropped the first one and straightened the second, but I couldn't find a good crop for the third when cropping out the belt.
View attachment 100741 View attachment 100742

Re blown sky - it is usually happens when dynamic range is to high for the sensor and with some experience you will recognize these situations. In that case you have to expose for the key tone (you may read about key tones in Perfect Exposure by Freeman) that you will need to select, bearing in mind that post processing, incl. Lightroom will allow you to correct some highlights and shadows. As an option you can slightly underexpose and then pull shadows in post processing. One thing is for certain - you need to shoot RAW in these situations.
Modern photography has post processing as an integral element and it gets more and more important, as pp tools get more sophisticated and sensors get more dynamic range. Same goes for cropping. Whether to keep the aspect is entirely up to you. If you print, it makes sense, if you use digital albums than it may not be that necessary. But cropping in pp is a very valuable experience that allows you to develop your sense of composition, especially if you want to go beyond basic things like Rule of Thirds etc. The fence must be straighten, such an unnecessary tilt is an immediate sign of a beginner for any trained eye. I think your photos are too good to allow these types of faults. You are afraid of cropping because you do not have a clear picture of how compositions work. It is nothing complicated, but you needs to educate yourself. As for a flash, I will leave it to the experts in this field, I do not like using flash.
One thing I would like to add - eye contact enhances the image 10 times.

 

[astroNikon]

I like # 1 really well .. cute
# 2 I want to like but my eyes are drawn to the non-straight fence that' she's leaning against.
I .... just ... can .. not .. take .. my .. eyes ... off of the crooked bar fence.
# 3 - I think it would look nicer cropped further in
my hobbyist $.0000002 partial cents worth.

 

[The_Traveler]

I think:
Try to get things that should be vertical to be close to vertical in the image. That way it isn't distracting the attention of the viewer wondering whether the tree is leaning or the photo is off.
Unless the subjects smallness is part of the artistic point, make the subject as large as possible in the frame consistent with showing the environment. How much tree/bush/sky does one need to know what is going on?

 

[The_Traveler]

Really, really good start.
You have a good eye for composition. Now just learn a bit of how people experience and understand the pictures and you will do very well.

 

[Lieniitte]

Thank you, everyone for the c&c! I am already finding it very helpful, and am very thankful that you all took your time to help I am overwhelmed, in a very good way! I can't wait to try and put to use all this advice
When I got my camera, I experimented a ton with the technical stuff like exposure, shutter speed and all that, but only did what felt right with most other stuff, not paying much attention to anything else. Will work on that!

Thanks for the examples of crops too, gives me a good idea, that you can actually do things in different ways. Both with closer crops and also ones keeping more of the picture. I'm a bit scared, but I will get that book on composition and keep trying.

I looked at your Flickr page, and you are doing okay so far. I would say that mostly your compositions are good, except for, on a few, a very small detail or two has been overlooked. LIke the woman "dancing"...petty good, except for the tall light pole (?) in the background. The Chinese girl, good, but the one stick in the front is a bit jarring. But overall, you have the sort of idealized lifestyle look going pretty well. You have a good start. I would say keep shooting attractive people--they help a lot. Keep doing a mixture of horizontals and verticals, where each is appropriate. Buy The Photographer's Eye, and read and study it. But mostly, keep shooting! One suggestion would be to add a very slight vignette to some of the images, to darken the edges of the frame at small amount. The stock, factory vignettes are too extreme, and I think you need a set of four or five custom vignette presets for Lightroom.

Thank you! And that one with the dancing, if you mean the one where she has white pants, then that is actually a very large bridge in the distance. I really haven't ever payed much attention the background framing. I will try to do that more!
I always tried to get vignetting out of images, since when people review lenses, they always say it as a bad thing, even though I have liked vignetting sometimes in pictures I've seen. I have found a few free Lightroom presets for different things online, though they haven't been much help. Probably need to buy them not expect to get it free.
And thank you, I looked up Lifestyle Photography, and that really is the type of stuff I want to do, so that means a lot to me that you see it as that kind of style!

I think:
Try to get things that should be vertical to be close to vertical in the image. That way it isn't distracting the attention of the viewer wondering whether the tree is leaning or the photo is off.
Unless the subjects smallness is part of the artistic point, make the subject as large as possible in the frame consistent with showing the environment. How much tree/bush/sky does one need to know what is going on?

View attachment 100749 View attachment 100750

Thank you! That is great advice. I probably need to figure out what parts of the picture I want to stand out more. Though, since it's usually a person, I tried to keep her straight in the tree photo (the tree was crooked), but that crop you did looks very good, so really, it seems crops can be done many ways and I just need to learn.

 

[Designer]

I'm a bit scared, but I will get that book on composition and keep trying.

Don't be scared at the prospect of one book.

You might be scared when you realize there are many books on composition.

Random"trying" is less than satisfying, and often frustrating. Do a bit of reading THEN try some things.

 

[Lieniitte]

I'm a bit scared, but I will get that book on composition and keep trying.

Don't be scared at the prospect of one book.

You might be scared when you realize there are many books on composition.

Random"trying" is less than satisfying, and often frustrating. Do a bit of reading THEN try some things.

I'm more scared of trying to crop images than I am of a book. I love books, I probably read them more than I should.. But the book will take a few weeks to arrive. And May is the best month for me to go out and take photos, since it is the most dry month of the year. It really is sunny only like 30-50 days a year here in this part of Norway and it rains 230-260 days a year. So I want to use this month to do as much as I can, before the books arrive. I guess I should do some digging around elsewhere til then