Lots of C&C please

[cindyg2024]

Went for an impromptu trip to the Washington DC zoo on Saturday. Of course I was looking for some other pictures to snap besides just the animals. Here are a couple I think are decent. Please give me feedback on the pictures as far as the subjects, positioning, etc. I know the camera settings weren't what they probably needed to be, but suggestions on that are always welcome.

Original pic:

Another

Original of that pic

And two flower shots that I kind of liked

 

[AUZambo]

I think you did a good job cropping the pictures. It's the easiest thing to do, yet alot of people seem to forget it.

There seems to be alot of noise in some of the pictures. Did you reduce the image quality before uploading them?

 

[LaFoto]

Heya Cindy, welcome to ThePhotoForum!!

I just moved your thread from The Beginners' Place to the General Gallery since The Beginners' Place is more of a Q&A-forum whereas the galleries are specifically designed for showing one's photos, ok? No big deal.

Have fun posting!

 

[cindyg2024]

I think you did a good job cropping the pictures. It's the easiest thing to do, yet alot of people seem to forget it.

There seems to be alot of noise in some of the pictures. Did you reduce the image quality before uploading them?

No, I didn't reduce the image quality. I think that was a result of me having a crappy camera and cropping the pictures and also being a complete NOOB at a lot of this.

Thanks for the input. Still looking for more!!!! I love learning, especially when its something that I really like.

 

[mwct]

I love the photos esp the portraits Cindy, they have a lot of character. When you show a picture it may be good to say what they are of, otherwise we won't know, e.g. in the portraits above, are they self portraits, your daughters, a couple of snapshots of random people who posed for you...

Anyway as for the noise, there is a software you can use to reduce it, although it has its pluses and minuses. One plus is that its free: http://www.imagenomic.com/download.aspx (download the community edition). There's a non-free version but I use the free version.

As for general C&C:
- the flowers can be made to pop out more by enhancing the pink and desaturting the green, if you have photoediting software such as photoshop
- i like the 3rd portrait the most bec of the pose but also the nice framing, it looks like a really well thought out portrait but also, not sure if you noticed it the water brightness above the head makes it look like a halo. #4 has a strange arm in it.

I can't imagine what I would do differently for camera settings, it all looks perfect to me.

Finally I noticed that you have date codes on your photos. I normally leave them off because if you have them on it can be hard to remove if you want t later, you can always add the date later if you wish (using an simple photo editing software).

 

[Sweetsomedays]

Is it just my computer or is the white in the waterfall blinding? Thats my only thing, it's drawing my eye away from the children. I like the one of the purple flowers with orange in the middle

 

[cindyg2024]

I love the photos esp the portraits Cindy, they have a lot of character. When you show a picture it may be good to say what they are of, otherwise we won't know, e.g. in the portraits above, are they self portraits, your daughters, a couple of snapshots of random people who posed for you...

Anyway as for the noise, there is a software you can use to reduce it, although it has its pluses and minuses. One plus is that its free: http://www.imagenomic.com/download.aspx (download the community edition). There's a non-free version but I use the free version.

As for general C&C:
- the flowers can be made to pop out more by enhancing the pink and desaturting the green, if you have photoediting software such as photoshop
- i like the 3rd portrait the most bec of the pose but also the nice framing, it looks like a really well thought out portrait but also, not sure if you noticed it the water brightness above the head makes it look like a halo. #4 has a strange arm in it.

I can't imagine what I would do differently for camera settings, it all looks perfect to me.

Finally I noticed that you have date codes on your photos. I normally leave them off because if you have them on it can be hard to remove if you want t later, you can always add the date later if you wish (using an simple photo editing software).

Thank you for the input.... Just an FYI - the older girl is my daughter and the younger girl (blonde) is my best friends daughter. #3 and #4 are actually the same pictures, I just cropped the one to get the "strange arm" out of the picture.

I definitely need to take the date codes off. Just a setting I put on there for downloading and saving on my computer. Sometimes pictures sit on the camera forever and I can't remember when they were taken. Will have to work on that.

 

[mwct]

Sometimes pictures sit on the camera forever and I can't remember when they were taken. Will have to work on that.

You can check the date a photo was taken by looking at the EXIF data on a photo. When a digital photo is taken the camera records stuff like when the picture was taken, what camera it was taken by, and all the settings used. Depending on what photoviewer you are using, you can bring up this information by selecting a button or option from the menu. So there is no need to record the date on the photo itself.

 

[cindyg2024]

You can check the date a photo was taken by looking at the EXIF data on a photo. When a digital photo is taken the camera records stuff like when the picture was taken, what camera it was taken by, and all the settings used. Depending on what photoviewer you are using, you can bring up this information by selecting a button or option from the menu. So there is no need to record the date on the photo itself.

See that - learn something new all the time. Thanks for the info, now I just have to figure out how to access this information.

 

[mwct]

You're welcome. And if you find you need help with that, just ask, I'm sure someone will be using the same photoediting/viewing software as you do and will be glad to advise! (I use photoshop and the canon software bundled with my camera, so if you need help with those I'd be glad to).