Interested in hearing your opinions

[adrianlarsson]

Hey everyone! I'm new to the forum and am starting to get more and more interested in photography. I've been shooting with my girlfriend's Sony Cybershot and fiddling around with the different manual settings trying to understand them. So, I'm posting some shots here and am very interested to know what you guys think about them, so I can try to hone my skills.

The camera only allows you to change ISO, EV, white balance, and contrast/sharpness/saturation, and I honestly can't recall the settings I used for these pictures. I've tried to touch them all up with photoshop.

#1. NY lights

I was looking out the window and saw that the clouds were pretty bright even though it was midnight. That's what happens when you live near NYC! (I made the clouds a little brighter through photoshop)

#2. Teddy Bear

I was learning how to use the different EV and ISO settings so I took this shot, thought it looked kinda cool. Is it too dark?

#3. Flowers

Does this shot do anything for anyone? The flowers look nice but its a pretty boring shot I feel. Any thoughts?


All comments are welcome! I am eager to learn and want to improve, which will hopefully justify me spending some $$ on a new camera for myself!

 

[danalec99]

Moving this thread to the General Gallery since it does not comply with the guidelines for posting in the Critique Gallery.

Welcome to TPF!

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

If you want proper critique of your photos, try posting them one at a time (one per thread) and explaining the shot. Not just the settings but what you were trying to accomplish with the shot.

Critique forum guidelines here

Fee free to post plenty of photos in the other galleries as well, we look forward to seeing more.

 

[LaFoto]

The flowers are nice, and they are quite well exposed, so that does speak for them. Their colours are also beautiful, but many (more so male than female persons, I guess) might think "Bah, just another flower pic", and you might just feel the same. If this had been mine, I think I'd have composed it a bit differently, I might have moved the camera down a little so the big flower gets shifted up a bit more, and the smaller one beneath it gets into the frame as well. The withering one above the big, "subject-flower" is of no importance, see? And you'd have your primary subject in the left third of the photo and a minor one in the right (or towards the right). Do you get what I am saying?

The teddy bear could have done with a second light behind you so we'd get to see some more detail. As it is, I think it is too dark, indeed. If you hadn't said "teddy bear", I might still be guessing what I am seeing here.

And I really, really, REALLY like the first!
Those clouds as lit from the near-by city are so thick and ominous, and catch all sorts of colours, and I like how you made them still a bit lighter in PS so they show all their detail.

 

[adrianlarsson]

Hey, sorry for posting in the wrong section, I'll make sure to be more careful.

LaFoto: thank you for your comments! You are right, the flower picture wasn't composed with much thought. The picture is actually cropped from the original where I had the subject flower dead smack in the center, and I felt that that wasn't too artistic. I think the reason I'm not too fond of it is because of the reason you stated.. that its "just another flower pic" (even though I'm the one that took it haha ).

Yes, the second pic is a bit too dark, you should at least be able to tell what it is haha.

I really like the first picture as well, it was such an unregular sight that I felt that if I didn't capture it I would regret it.