New to forums/photography looking for critique

Monkey89 · Jun 3, 2015

Hi. I've been playing with photography for a little bit of time now, and I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks. I recently got into a project photographing local native flora and fauna, but I feel like I need to improve my game.

As a bit of background, at the moment I am an extremely low budget photographer. I'm using a Canon Rebel XT and for my lens all I have that functions is a Vivitar series 1 70-210. I had the kit lens that came with the camera, but it seems to be malfunctioning pretty hard.

This is a local spadefoot I shot the other night. It's really my first nighttime photography I've ever done.

Whiptail taken around midday

Earless lizard

ronlane · Jun 3, 2015

Welcome to the site. In order to do a proper c&c, I would suggest posting 3-5 photos, as it takes us time to go through and comment on them.

That being said, when I look at these that you have above, here is what I see that would help you most at this time.

1) All of your subjects are centered in the frame. Search and read about rule of thirds and composition of your photos.

2) The other thing is the exposure and lighting of the images. Most of them appear to me to be under exposed and the daylight ones are taken in harsh lighting conditions.

That being said, I really like the subject and the timing of the first image. It is under exposed and centered, and I would like to have seen you be a step or two to the camera left.

Hope this helps.

Enjoy the ride.

Monkey89 · Jun 3, 2015

Ok, removed some images. Also I live in a desert at over 4000ft elevation. I'm still working on getting exposure right during the brightest parts of the day.

ronlane · Jun 3, 2015

Monkey89 said:
Ok, removed some images. Also I live in a desert at over 4000ft elevation. I'm still working on getting exposure right during the brightest parts of the day.

That one is easy, use something to shade your subject or shoot in the morning or evenings when the light is the best.

WesternGuy · Jun 3, 2015

Monkey89 said:
Ok, removed some images. Also I live in a desert at over 4000ft elevation. I'm still working on getting exposure right during the brightest parts of the day.

Monkey89, there are a couple of things that you can do to "calibrate" your images. I don't live in a desert, but I do live around 4000' and often shoot in the mountains at elevations above 4000'.

The first thing you can do is get yourself a grey card - Get your White Balance Right in Seconds Using Grey Card - Digital Photography School . They are relatively cheap and can be had at any decent camera shop. As a cheaper alternative, some folks use a piece of plain white paper or the palm of their hand.

The other alternative is to get a Colour Checker Passport - Amazon.ca x-rite colorchecker passport . This is not a cheap solution and, if you are just starting out, probably not one you would want to go to, but maybe after you have had some experience using a grey card. Personally, I use both, depending on the situation. I use the Passport to calibrate my camera which is something you probably don't want to worry about yet and I use the grey card to colour correct my images when required.

Either of these "tools" will give you the ability to correct for the colour in your images, when you process them, but you must shoot raw for these to be of optimal value to you. If you have any more questions on this process, then post back or PM me and I will try and help you out.

I also agree with the comments that ronlane has posted. Mid-day light is about the harshest you can photograph in, and anything you can do to mitigate this harshness will only make your images better. Also, as he has suggested, let the rule of thirds be your friend. Here is one place to start for composition - Photography Composition Articles Library .

I hope this helps.

WesternGuy

Monkey89 · Jun 4, 2015

I know this photo still has several compositional errors, but how is the exposure on this one? I disregarded it because of the glare off of the frog's back.