New photographer, New to the forums

[Michael Leal]

Trying to keep this as brief as possible. I'm a new photographer (shooting 6 months) using a Nikon D40 (18-55 kit). Ive been hoping for new equipment but my funds are extremely limited here at college. Enough into.

Pictures!

comments and critiques are well appreciated, thanks

update: just tacked one pic at the bottom that I forgot to add at the beginning.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

 

[uplander]

I like the first pic.... The rest, not so much.

The others are either snapshots and forced compositions to my eye. IE no Pop!

 

[Michael Leal]

Thank You for the reply.

 

[DRoberts]

1st and 5th are nice shots. The others to me are just everyday shots. Not saying there is anything wrong with them technicaly, just nothing to say "Wow" about.
Try to be more creative with your content.

 

[Michael Leal]

1st and 5th are nice shots. The others to me are just everyday shots. Not saying there is anything wrong with them technicaly, just nothing to say "Wow" about.
Try to be more creative with your content.

I really aprecciate your critique DRoberts. I totaly understand what your saying. Ill remember to ask myself if this photo has enough interest before I go about finialyzing it.

In a mild defence against myself I do always set my own Iso, Apeture, Shutter, and flash settings in full manual mode. There is a good ammount of thought that goes into making sure that the target is properly exposed and is as sharp as I can get it, but looks like I got to try harder on reworking my composition to get new angles with more "pop".

Thanks again.

 

[chrisburke]

its great that you are shooting in strickly manual mode, but that doesnt make a picture interesting, it just shows that you know the technical side of photography, which is great, far to many people just shoot in auto and wonder why their pics turn out crappy. Like DRoberts said, tech side, your pics are great... but they are shots that you see every day... the label of "photographer" is one that is thrown around like crazy, and there are many posts on here.... to make people believe your a photographer, it would be great to see a "wow" photo... i.e. not the same pictures everyone is taking... but as I said, your tech side is great, keep that up.... just go find something more interesting to take pictures of..... if you don't get any ideas, search flickr to see what other people are taking pics of, you may be stealing their ideas, but truth is, your just trying to learn.

 

[Michael Leal]

its great that you are shooting in strickly manual mode, but that doesnt make a picture interesting, it just shows that you know the technical side of photography, which is great, far to many people just shoot in auto and wonder why their pics turn out crappy. Like DRoberts said, tech side, your pics are great... but they are shots that you see every day... the label of "photographer" is one that is thrown around like crazy, and there are many posts on here.... to make people believe your a photographer, it would be great to see a "wow" photo... i.e. not the same pictures everyone is taking... but as I said, your tech side is great, keep that up.... just go find something more interesting to take pictures of..... if you don't get any ideas, search flickr to see what other people are taking pics of, you may be stealing their ideas, but truth is, your just trying to learn.

Thanks for the awesome feedback Chris! Im glad to see that you think my technical skills with photography are going well. Im going to take your advice with "copying" others styles for learning sake. If you don't mind I would love to send you some photos every now and then for you to critique!

 

[Laika]

I think this generally a nice set of pictures. In a technical sense you did everything right - the lighting is wonderful in all the pictures as well.

I think that the fifth picture is the most interesting of the picture of the ones you posted, I think you have some nicer pictures on your flickr.

I would say with number seven...watch your angles when below the subjects. It can make the viewer feel they are looking up the models nose.

Keep trying different things and before long you will develop more of a style.

 

[Flower Child]

i like 4 and 5 personally

 

[chrisburke]

If you don't mind I would love to send you some photos every now and then for you to critique!

you can if you want.. but i'm not better than other people here.. fact is, i still screw up on the tech side of things quite often... but I dont mind helping you out... could also just keep posting them here, I'm here pretty much every day (sometimes I get bored at the office, and I keep TPF opened in the background)

 

[levyfulop]

nb1 and nb 7 are my faves.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/levyfulop

 

[manaheim]

I like the newly added pic of the woman near the latticework. It's a complimentary shot of her (the other of her is not so much, IMO), the lighting is nice, etc. I might crop it a bit more to remove a bit more of the lattice, but other than that, very nice IMO.

 

[Michael Leal]

Thanks for all the comments guys they are really helping!

 

[austriker]

well hello michael. i have the same camera, same situation lol.. im in college, just working with a d40, and i have been shooting since summer (when i borrowed my dads d40x).. ill try and check out your flickr and comment

i agree wit the previous comments, most seem just like snapshots, rather than artsy or 'photography' . 4 is good, very close shot, and number 5 is called frame inside a frame (not sure how much u know) and so those are the 2 good shots i would consider to be like 'photography' .. hope that helps