Newbie photo

snappygran · Mar 16, 2009

I took this photo at Sea World, I would be grateful of honest crisicism please....as I am so new to this it would help. I have posted another photo on the thread....Newbie from Australia...
Thanks,
snappygran

LaFoto · Mar 16, 2009

Welcome to ThePhotoForum, snappygran.
You captured a nice moment here! A bit overexposed, and the focus is a tad behind the dolphins, but ... other than that. Quite nice.
I guess you'd rather have this in the "Beginners' Forum and Gallery", as the "Welcomes and Introduction"-forum is more for the newcomers to tell us something about themselves. Photos best be shown in the galleries. I move the thread for you.

chadsdphoto · Mar 16, 2009

Nice shot and you captured the action at it's peak. Everything else I'll say is how to make it better, so don't take it as harsh criticism.

As LaFoto mentioned, the focus is a little off. You're going to get that when shooting action, especially action that pops out of a hidden spot and then disappears again so you have just a second or two to focus. The trick there is to shoot a lot. Keep working to get a sharp focused shot each time and throw away the bad ones.

I'd like to see the dolphins closer. Either a bigger telephoto lens or cropping could help this shot. The background is pretty, but there's a lot of it that's not really adding anything to the photo. And your horizon is a touch crooked - leaning to the left. A quick crop could help both of those things and it would get rid of that little bit of rock or person's head in the bottom left.

Now I know that when you are at a show like this you are pretty much stuck in the seat, so can't get up and move around a lot, but... It would be nice if the dolphins were against the plain sky instead of the trees. The camera being lower right down by the water would do that if it was possible to be there. I also realize that you don't know exactly how high they are going to jump, so if they were just a little higher they would be against the sky. That's why I would choose to sit as low as possible if I could so that I was sure they would be against the sky.

Sometimes getting good shots of these kinds of shows means sitting through the show once as a "scouting" trip and then figuring out where you want to shoot from for a second time around.

Good luck!

bigtwinky · Mar 16, 2009

One of the keys to take action shots is to be ready to click, and clicking, before things happen. Your mind has to be set. If you are just seeing the image for the first time in the view finder, you are too late.

So great job capturing the moment. Good sign of action instincts.

Where you need to work is the technical aspects of the picture. Focus issues - which is normal with action shots. This could often be an issue with the lens you are using. I have a cheapy telephoto lens that does the same.

Composition of the overall shot makes it look like a snapshot. As stated, getting in closer to the dolphins to have them fill the frame would add alot more to the shot. But as they are not in focus, doing this in post processing (crop) might not be the best.

Horizon is slanted. I try and look at the various focus points in my view finder and use the left most and right most ones as guides to help level the picture.

Overall, great start! Keep up the practice.

snappygran · Mar 17, 2009

Thanks so much for your honest views! I really appreciate you both taking time to comment on my pic!
I will try to remember all these pointers to the best of my ability! Hopefully my next lot of photos will be better!
snappygran