Just Looking For Ways To Help Me Improve

[Billhyco]

Just getting into photography but it is quickly becoming addictive!! Just looking for ways to improve so any good or bad comments welcomed. Thanks!


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This photo is my first time experimenting with selective color. I'm not 100% satisfied with the photo but wanted to share to get others opinion. I'd like to use brighter colors and was hoping her eyes would "pop" a little better as well.

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[Billhyco]

geeeesh, i must be soooo good i have blown everyone away from this thread!! i keed i keed.

anyone?

 

[dcclark]

Overall, I'd say -- pretty nice! A few specific comments:

#1 -- I like the direct viewpoint. Very straightforward.
#2 -- Nice macro, but the depth of field is a little too shallow -- even the center of the flower is a bit blurred.
#5 -- Good try, but I find the grey skin + pink shirt a bit too odd. Honestly... I'm thinking Zombie here. It feels like the portrait is in color (due to the bit of color), but something's wrong with her skin.

 

[NateS]

Okay...I'll give you my opinions.

1. Too Busy and mainly due to the prespective. You are both too close and/or too far away. This shot would be better from farther back to make all the clutter more as one....or closer and picking a better focal point (like the gas pump or truck).

2. I don't see anything that is in focus and your white balance appears off.

3. It's a restaurant sign. The subject isn't anything special to me.

4. Best of your 5 shots. I would have gotten in closer though to avoid the pole on the left of the frame that isn't straight up and down with the side of your photo....I'm also not sure the significance of photographing a bench....maybe if you got in really close you could do an almost abstract with the pattern of the actual bench as the focus.

5. Selective coloring rarely works and often gives the appearance that you are a beginner....we all go through that stage as a beginner and soon find out that it looks tacky more than great (no offense). One big rule on selective coloring.....if you are using it, make sure that whatever you leave in color is meant as a focal point. In your image, the eye is drawn to the shirt....that shouldn't be the case with such a lovely girl in the frame. Say you are shooting a baby that's holding a rubber duck....maybe leave the rubber duck yellow and the rest of the scene b&w....or in your photo..just the eyes in color (though I still prefer all b&w or all color 99% of the time).

Hope that helps and is not too harsh.

 

[LarryD]

There isn't really much to comment on..

They are nice snapshots of everyday stuff.... Not a lot of creative composition...unlesss I'm missing it..

But, you are right...photography is addicting, and we are always looking for that "one" shot that just blows you away..........

Keep shooting, keep posting...

It was Ansel Adams who said something like "A Dozen good photographs in a year is a good crop"

 

[bdavis]

Here's a tip...don't do selective color. It's tacky. If you absolutely MUST do it, then select the right object to be in color. In your photograph of the girl, you are telling us her shirt is the subject...

 

[Billhyco]

Nothing to harsh mentioned at all. I love having others evaluate my pictures. How else am I ever going to learn? The more feedback I receive the more I absorb and can grow from it.

So many threads I read that the pictures I think are pretty decent then I read someone's critique and literally say "oh yeah, I see it now!"

thanks thus far, love to hear everyones comments bad and good

 

[Nikon_Nyc]

overall very good composition, as previously mentioned DOF is a little off just check you focus point that all aside from that pretty good shots!

 

[Chairman7w]

I agree with the others. Overall, well-shot and a great start.

And kudos, Billy, for the classy response. Nothing grates on my nerves more than people that ask for C&C, and then get all offended and defensive about the comments... "Oh - I meant for the eyes to be out of focus, it was the look I was going for..."

 

[robertswoods]

1, 3 and 4 I like.

 

[Billhyco]

I have posted a few pics on this site before, of course posted some on other sites as well. To me it cracks me up at the W I D E range of responses you get just from one picture alone. Some people just don't like the simplicity of it, some love it, some see things that others would never catch, some think that picture is perfect. Regardless....to me that is what C&C is all about. If everybody loved every picture, art would be absolutely worthless.

Thanks thus far for all the comments.