Introducing my photos - C&C Please!

[SunKat]

Hi Everyone, as I am new here I thought it might be a good idea to show you some of my photos as a way of introduction. I consider myself to be an amateur photographer, I would love some feedback, encouragement, and tips to improve.



A Dragongfly, Vegetables, Dinosaur Shadow, Clouds, Strange Spider and Spider building web.

Many Thanks,

 

[irishguy0224]

#4 is my favorite out of all of them, the others really do nothing for me. Some seem too soft, #5 seems OOF as does #6. But keep working!

 

[Designer]

dragonfly is pretty good
vegetables lighting and color is good, subject is weak
dinosaur not great
clouds in sunset pretty good
strange spider good lighting and framing
spider with web interesting, but not great

 

[SunKat]

Hi irishguy0224, I liked how #4 turned out too. I am new here, so please can you help me understand a couple of terms? What does it mean when a photo is "too soft?" Is it not in sharp enough focus? And what does "OOF" mean please? Apologies I am learning new terms!

And thanks for the encouragement to keep at it!


Hi Designer, I really liked my dragonfly, he's the best photo I've ever taken of one so far!
With the vegetables you say the "subject is weak", does that mean I should have rearranged them? Or chosen something different?
With the Dinosaur I was attempting to photograph the shadow on the wall which I thought was quite cool. Perhaps I should have zoomed in and focused just on the shadow shape, not the items around?
The Clouds and Strange Spider I'm pretty happy with too.
How could I have improved the last spider photo? He was crawling around in a circle making his web, which was attached to the washing line. Is it the background that's the problem, or the fact the sunlight is shining through him from above?

　
Many Thanks for both of your critiques! These are the first critiques I've ever had on my photos, so I am hoping to improve. Thanks so much for your help with these!

 

[Heitz]

I'm going to bet that the 'soft' pictures were crops of a much larger photo, right?

 

[Heitz]

PS, "soft" just means "soft" . That could be due to out of focus, or due to the limits of the lens, etc. Just a lack of sharpness, for whatever reason

 

[Frequency]

Clouds are really great.... The dragon fly in #1 has a too busy B/G
I like the veg also...

Please post one image below the other , bigger ones with numbering

 

[SunKat]

Hi Heitz, Thanks for explaining the "soft" term to me. I am assuming the lack of sharpness may be due to my lens, or the bright light at the time. Only #5 the Strange Spider was cropped, the others are exactly as I photographed them, I was using the zoom on my digital camera. The last photo #6 Spider building a web was difficult to focus on - he kept moving all the time! When my camera focused on him, he had already moved before I could hit the shutter. And if I didn't focus on him, my camera autofocuses on the houses in the background. Photographing live subjects can be a pain, but I always feel good when I finally capture them!


Thank you Frequency, I am proud of how the clouds turned out! The dragonfly would stand out much better with a smoother plainer background. Thanks for the tip on how to post my images better, one below the other. This is my first time posting pictures on here, so I shall try to do that next time. Only now do I realise it's difficult to refer to them bunched up without numbers! Thank you!