into the deep end: my first request for feedback

[SolveigAsvid]

Hello:

I'm an amateur but very enthusiastic photographer. I have been taking photographs as a hobby for under two years, and would really appreciate some feedback, critique, suggestions, advice, and so on, in order to help me improve my skills.

I have many photographs that I could share, but I'll start with only a few (as per the 'How to structure your posts to get critiques on your work' sticky I found in the Beginner's subforum). Okay, so, I'm using a Canon PowerShot SX500 IS. I was told to get this digital camera by a professional photographer (in response to my request for advice on a good but simple-to-use camera).

The following three photographs were taken with my Canon. No flash was used. I had my settings on Auto at the time. The first was taken in full sunlight; the second on an overcast day; the third on a dark winter day.

If any other information is needed, I have that....

I feel these are three of my more successful early endeavours. I would love to get some feedback on them, however...criticisms, stuff I could do to improve my technique, and stuff I did right, and why.

Let me know if I included enough information to get started.

Solveig.

 

[waday]

That's not a bad camera, especially if you don't want to pour a ton of money into a more advanced system.

My suggestions would be to: (1) work on composition and (2) move from auto into the other modes (i.e., aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual).

Some quick notes:

Work on composition. The subject of the first photo is the plant and the shadow, correct? The plant, however, is blending in with the grass, which makes it hard to distinguish the grass from the plant. Also, the shadow of the plant is being cut off at the bottom. And, the background is a bit busy, which tends to draw the eye away from the subject. In other words, I keep looking at the doors/windows to the left of the photo, the glare at the top middle, or the trees behind the plant and grass.

For the second one, the left and right sides of the pine cone have been chopped off. In some instances, this can be ok, but in this instance, it seems like it would be better suited to keep the entire pine cone in the frame of the photo. If you were to get in even closer, then it would most likely be ok. Also, and this is strictly IMO, I'd like to see more of the pine cone in focus by closing down the aperture.

For the third, I would try another composition that would not include as much of that black thing at the top, and I would try not to get that sliver of grey/white at the bottom left. In addition, if you were to close down your aperture, you could get more of the icicles in focus, which might look a little nicer depending on what you were going for artistically. If you only wanted one in focus, you could have tried to the get that biggest one in focus, but as it is right now, some seem to be in focus and others not so much.

Also, if you change your preferences to allow members to edit your photos, we can show you how me might change or edit the photos or provide comments directly on the photos.

 

[SolveigAsvid]

Hi waday. I clicked the appropriate setting on my preferences to make it okay for others to change/edit/comment on my photos. Thanks for the heads-up on that.

Very much appreciated re: the advice about composition and about closing down the aperture to improve the sharpness of my photos. That's really helpful.

So, I need to eliminate some of the 'noise' in my backgrounds, and indeed to make my photos less 'busy' overall.

Thanks again!

 

[Derrel]

My advice is to discard shot #1, but keep frames #2 and #3, and work on the processing options on those last two shots. I think Lightroom is the go-to software application for beginning shooters to organize and edit their shots.