Newbie Photos

Ok Guys I am a complete novice at this photography stuff so please be kind but constructive

 

Wow, I must say your choice of shots was quite a bit like mine when I first started. You see something that catches your eye, getting the camera to capture the same thing was always tricky for me. You may not know Hertz Van Rental yet, but he always said to ask myself a few questions.
Why did you take the picture?
What are you trying to capture?
The main thing I would say is you have lots of "dead space." Photo number 2 would be the best one to give you an idea of what I am saying. 90% of your photo is consisting of water. The dock and the shore are not strong enough players to attract the eye because of the water dominating the shot. What are you most interested in capturing there? Secondly there is very little contrast between the color of the sky and the color of the water in a few of the pictures which leads to the same feeling of lots of dead space. My best piece of advice though would be choose your subject you want to focus on and most importantly MOVE IN CLOSER! I used to post pictures and there was always someone saying, that shot is great but move in closer and you will like your results even better. I try to live by that. Also, one other thing that I used often when I was starting out, which I still use now, is the rule of thirds. The human eye likes to see photos broken up into thirds, it has something to do with our perception of symetry. Try taking a shot where there is something different in the lower,center,and upper third of the frame to get a better idea. Your fourth shot shows the most promise of all, I love your framing using the tree's silhouette against the sky showing a hint of red. You also have a great depth of field (or viewing distance) in that photo. I hope these were all helpfull comments for you. I know that once you figure out how to translate what your eye sees to what the camera takes, you will be making some beautiful photos. Keep snapping happy!

 

Thanks so much for your feedback.

I'm working with a very basic camera at the moment so that doesn't help either (not much zoom etc.) but I definately can improve a whole lot on technique

The pictures taken above are at a beach about five minutes from my house and were taken on dusk. I live on the Mornington Peninsula, in Victoria, Australia and we are in the middle of winter at the moment.

These pics were taken two day ago. I have a few taken yesterday of jetty and some boats a bit further up the beach and will post those and you can let me know what you think

Thanks again

Anne

 

I like the 4rth one, because of the tree in the pictures.... It gives it a certain contrast.

Have fun taking pictures !

Cris

 

LaFoto - Thanks so much for your comments. I really appreciate them. I did indeed join TPF to learn more about photography and understand that my photos do lack anything even remotely resembling structure or purpose. To be honest I didn't really think before I took these pictures but can see how with a little bit of thought and planning that I can make my photos a lot better

I'm definately here to learn so constructive criticism is well received

Chris - Thanks for your comments I'm looking forward to having some better photos to show soon

This is another photo taken the same time as the others posted above. Thinking about what was said, would the photo below be an improvement on the ones above? Please again let me know what you all think

 

No probs...
Just have fun taking pictures and the rest of it you will learn of the way...

Have fun!

Cris

 

Thanks Lafoto I understand exactly what you mean and where you are coming from thanks again for the hints

The first shot in this post has not been edited and the second has been cropped as you can see.

There is evidence of the slight movement again in this photo and again the light was fading in this photo as would love to hear any other comments that you had on this (these) particular shot.

Thanks in advance

Anne

 

These last two are a great improvement from the others. There is nothing really distracting in any part of the picture, and it does have a possible mood or theme. Go back and take it when theres more light, and if thats not possible, buy a tripod! They are very inexpensive if you just go with a basic one. Big improvement, good job!

 

Thanks EB

I'll definately go back and try this shot again in more light and will look into getting a tripod as landscape shots really appeal to me.

Thanks again

Anne

 

I love the last set of photos, and I am glad that you are taking the advice of people here and using it in your photography. I think the last set of photos shows a big improvement from the first set. It seems more to me on this one that you had a goal in mind when shooting this one, and it gives me a good idea of what you wanted to portray.