New aspiring photographer looking for advice or like minded pal

[Jennns_photos]

Hey there,

I am new to photography. I first tried in the middle of the year but I got discouraged and gave up. But now I feel like I can’t give up and I’m not letting myself. I don’t have anyone I can really bounce off ideas with and no one know much about cameras and such so I was wondering if anyone would mind looking through some of my work and possibly give me any type of advice or friendship. Lol.

Thanks,

Best

J

 

[BoldArtist]

Hello. I just joined this forum too. I tend to be a let the camera do all the work digital-type. I am learning still may rudamentary fundamentals myself.

 

[Jennns_photos]

Hello. I just joined this forum too. I tend to be a let the camera do all the work digital-type. I am learning still may rudamentary fundamentals myself.

Hey! So am I!

 

[snowbear]

Welcome aboard. Many of us are friendly.

There are a number of good sources for learning the basics: online videos, books, and a few free online courses.
I'm not sure how you posted everything three or four times. It looks like you had some focus problems with the tree, but I like the way you composed the shot. The dog is a little blurry, too, but I suspect it's the narrow depth of field from shooting so close at f/5.6. Try to drop the aperture down a little, and focus on the closest eye, if possible. It's cropped a bit closer than I like, but that's a personal thing.

Keep trying and, for ideas, browse through the Photo Themes forum. After you have a few more meaningful posts, feel free to enter the Photo Challenge.

 

[Jennns_photos]

Great. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Designer]

Hey there,

I am new to photography. I first tried in the middle of the year but I got discouraged and gave up. But now I feel like I can’t give up and I’m not letting myself. I don’t have anyone I can really bounce off ideas with and no one know much about cameras and such so I was wondering if anyone would mind looking through some of my work and possibly give me any type of advice or friendship. Lol.

Thanks,

Best

J

Hey, Jen! Welcome!

The doggie photo is under-exposed which happens a lot in snow. Your camera is trying to "even out" the exposure, thereby underexposing your main subject. Also, since the dog's head is mostly vertical, rotate your camera to "vertical".

The tree branch photo is fairly well exposed, but it's not a very good composition. Sometimes you take half a dozen shots of the same leaf, moving around the thing looking for a better angle.

 

[KmH]

Making good photographs consistently requires have a good understanding of visual art, composition guidelines, light direction and quality, digital camera technical fundamentals, and post production.

Many of the those are book length subjects.
Digital Photography Tutorials
10 Top Photography Composition Rules | Photography Mad
The Digital Negative: Raw Image Processing in Lightroom, Camera Raw, and Photoshop (2nd Edition)
The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos
Direction & Quality of Light: Your Key to Better Portrait Photography Anywhere

 

[Ysarex]

I am new to photography. I first tried in the middle of the year but I got discouraged and gave up. But now I feel like I can’t give up and I’m not letting myself. I don’t have anyone I can really bounce off ideas with and no one know much about cameras and such so I was wondering if anyone would mind looking through some of my work and possibly give me any type of advice or friendship. Lol.

Thanks,

Best

J

What software are you using to process and post your photos? I ask specifically because of the ICC profile attached to you photos which should be corrected.

Here's a comparison of your dog photo with a corrected version and some explanation.

I inset a histogram into each image lower left corner. A histogram is a graph of the tone distribution in your photo. As a general rule in most photos we want a full range of tone from black (left corner of histogram) all the way to white (right corner of histogram). In your version of the photo note how the histogram falls way short of the right/white corner. A third of the tones that we expect in a photo -- in this case the highlights -- are just not there. As Designer noted the photo then appears underexposed -- it looks dark and dingy. All the more since it contains snow which should be white.

Compare the histogram in your version with the one in mine. The histogram in my version of your photo extends corner to corner. In adjusting your photo that was my goal; I made adjustments to achieve a full tonal distribution. I also made a color adjustment to your photo and removed a blue color cast. The snow in my version of your photo is the color of snow.

Joe

 

[Jennns_photos]

oh wow, thank you so much! I am using Lightroom but I have just started and I use the website Lynda.com for lessons. I really appreciated this

 

[Ysarex]

oh wow, thank you so much! I am using Lightroom but I have just started and I use the website Lynda.com for lessons. I really appreciated this

You're welcome. When you export a file from LR make sure and go to the File Settings tab and set the Color Space to sRGB. Otherwise your photo may not display correctly when people view it on the Internet.

Joe

 

[smoke665]

Hello and Welcome. I'm glad Joe commented because he will always give you great advice.

I read that you are using LR, if it's through the subscription plan, the latest release has an "AUTO" button added. One click on that will set everything very close except the White Balance, but with the eye dropper tool even that is simple. I downloaded the first image of the pooch, adjusted the WB, clicked on the AUTO, and clicked on Medium Contrast Tone Curve - that's it nothing else. There are still adjustments to be made, but I wanted you to see how well this one button approach worked. The first image is the histogram "after" the adjustment, check it against Joe's example above.

And this is the image, after the adjustments

As I said there are some other final adjustments I would make, but LR does a good job of getting it close.

 

[BoldArtist]

I am use to changing lights, shadows with photoshop. I also take image both vertically and horizontally so I can see which ones agree with the shapes surrounding my subject. But I am not great all of the time composing and rely on cropping for composition often which creates more work.

 

[Derrel]

Stick with it! Do not give up! You can and will become a better shooter, and a better processor. Keep the faith.

It's digital...shooting pictures is basically free, not 59 cents per shot, so there's no excuses these days.

Read, experiment, practice, learn, analyze, reflect on your work, and keep plugging away. Before very long, you'll be a better shooter.

 

[dennybeall]

Consider if the shot tells "the story" The dog in the snow tells us about a dog playing in the snow - Good.
The branch tells us ???? - Not so good?