looking to improve

nomav6 · Nov 5, 2004

please tell me what you think of these pics to help me improve, these where also posted on other pages within the forum, but Im looking for tips on how to become a better photographer which is why Im now posting them here, thanks

MDowdey · Nov 5, 2004

i like your use of lines in the first one...

do you have photoshop? i would increase contrast, and throw a little sharpening filter on that bad boy..

md

Trig · Nov 5, 2004

They are both great. I agree with the contrast on the top one. The kitten one is cute but menacing haha.

mygrain · Nov 5, 2004

These are pretty good. The first I almost lose the compostion because the angle of the shot. I would possible go back and take a few with less a straight on shot and angle it a bit to get more of the trains cars. Yeah the contrast seems to be off a bit. If ya don't have PS then you can get Vic Man's Photo Editor for free here...http://vicman.net/vcwphoto/

Its a very simple program but you can tweek hue, saturation, and contrast and many other things as well.

JonMikal · Nov 5, 2004

I like the top one best and will fourth the contrast suggestion. I may even be inclined to crop the first support out. It would be better if it was all there or not at all. GREAT WORK!!!

pilgrim · Nov 5, 2004

am i the only one who thinks the cat picture is just AWESOME!!?
it looks soooo evil, i love it!

photogoddess · Nov 5, 2004

I love the first one but I agree with Matt about the contrast and sharpening needing a boost. Also, I would love to see a similar shot with the camera up just a smidge. Love the kitty too - menacing little bugger.

nomav6 · Nov 5, 2004

First I would like to thank you for the kind words and the suggestions, with that said I do have photoshop and The GIMP I'll play with it some and will update this with it, its not hard for me to go back to the train its in the same town that I go to college at, so I'll go there and see how much I can get in and play with the angles some, I have some more pics of the train but that was my favorite one, and as for the cat I have another one that is not so "evil" and I thought about putting them both in photoshop and putting a rollover on it.

motcon · Nov 5, 2004

if it offends you that i marked up your images, do let me know and i will promptly delete them.

- it appears that you have diverging verticals. the two red lines are of equal length in the image below. the divergence causes a bit of tension. while tension in a composition is good, this tends toward skewing and imbalance. if my eyes serve me correctly, the supporting beams on the left are indeed leaning to the left in their natural state. with that in mind, you may want to try cropping out the (i'm not sure what it is) vertical on the right of the frame. anchoring a shot like this with a foreground object is a good thing to do, so i'd leave the beam on the left right where it is.

- as my eyes travel down the path of the photo, it seems to lose dof. at what aperture did you shoot this?

- as noted, the shadows could be printed down a bit harder for more contrast.

- what are you trying to communicate with this shot? i do love the abstraction of the lines and the long swath of white captures my eye.

the cat photo: love it. just love it. have you considered a square cropping of it to get rid of the space on the left and bring more focus to center?

good eye...keep shooting.

*edit: i'm a film shooter, not a photo-chopper, but here is a crop and some adjusted shadows.

Karalee · Nov 5, 2004

whoa, that was one of the best (and most helpful) critiques Ive ever seen.

hobbes28 · Nov 5, 2004

Karalee said:
whoa, that was one of the best (and most helpful) critiques Ive ever seen.

I'm with you on that. We need an emoticon with a dropped jaw.

I really like your pictures here. Your DOF is really good on both of them so you focus on the parts that you want to be seen. The best way to learn, IMO, is by posting what you like/don't like and looking for ways to make them better. Keep it up!

Trig · Nov 7, 2004

pilgrim said:
am i the only one who thinks the cat picture is just AWESOME!!?
it looks soooo evil, i love it!

No you aren't, I love this pic more and more every time I see it. I want it framed... not the kitten, the pic...

nomav6 · Nov 8, 2004

Trig said:
pilgrim said:

am i the only one who thinks the cat picture is just AWESOME!!?
it looks soooo evil, i love it!

Click to expand...

No you aren't, I love this pic more and more every time I see it. I want it framed... not the kitten, the pic...

if you want a copy I will print one out for you for a trade of one of yours and mail it. PM me and let me know and we will work something out

leotopia · Nov 8, 2004

maybe u could give these photos some titles to introduce more of the background, and also let us feel the message u wanted to express. Otherwise, i would wonder, what happened at that train station and why's that cat looking like that, did it see u?

nomav6 · Nov 8, 2004

the name of the train is Grandfather the reason behind the picture is that it reminds me of my grandfather, he loved trains and would talk about them all the time, the kitten picture is named spider, its a stray that my sister kind of took in and is now taking care of, its still scared of people until someone starts petting it then it calms down.