odds and ends

jweebo2004

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Indiana
1.
bench.jpg


2.
dragon.jpg


3.
lantern.jpg


Thanks for looking!
 
Those doesn't make me feel something.
They are all centered, which breaks the dynamic of the pictures.
The subject on the first one has nothing special (at least not with this composition), and the B&W treatment is "flat" (I'd like to precise that I am here seeing them on a non-calibrated screen).
On the second one, the flash makes the light raw. The bottom part of the dragon is also cut. Moreover, the brick wall isn't "tuned" with the dragon. This are two different universes.
The third one is blurred. You should have stabilized the camera.

The things you have to avoid, I think, is to shoot too classical subjects, and to find original shooting angles. Also try to avoid centered compositions, and try with the "thirds principle" (not sure of the translation). Concerning treatment, try playing with the levels.
 
Well, Jennifer, here you see Will saying what I already tried to express in my other comment to some other photos you have posted: some photos would do well with some post processing on their contrasts and light so they look less "flat".

As to the subjects you chose and the way you framed them here, also I must say I find them a bit boring. But "too centred photos" was a notion that I, too, only learned about here on this very TPF, while I had been wondering for quite some time why my own photos were beginning to bore me: when you place your subject right into the centre of the frame, it does have this effect. Somehow photos that are a little off centre (the famous Rule of Thirds comes into play here), they are more dynamic and more pleasing to the eye.

The Rule of Thirds ... imagine you fold a piece of paper into three horizontal parts (having one line one third down and the lower line one third up) and also into three vertical parts (having the left line one third into the paper and the right one one third from there) ... it makes a picture most dynamic if your points of interest (the one subject you chose, or two or three) are on the intersections of those lines. Do you get me? You might try it out with your next photos you take.

The photo of the dragon makes obvious that the use of flash (particularly on-camera flash) is not always to a photo's advantage, even though the flash might help you to get that particular subject into your frame in the first place. But the appearance of such a photo often is a bit amateurish. The hard shadow lines do this, as well as the fact that on-camera (i.e. direct flash) makes everything go very flat, take out any chance of creating a 3-D effect.
Also that dragon photo is not aligned, which is very important once you got clear lines THERE, as given by the stone work of the wall behind that dragon. And if you want to shoot a particular subject (such as this dragon, for example), it should be within your frame entirely. Once again, it looks quite amateurish if it is not.

And there just was too little light for the photo of the lantern.
You have camera shake here.

I hope you don't feel offended by my remarks but I understand you are still learning and want to learn, too, so all this is only meant to be helpful. Please take it that way, will you? :D
 
I like the first one, but maybe try cropping the ground on the bottom a bit. For some reason I think that would help "balance" it.
The above posters already mentioned the flash effect in the second one. I may be a minority here, but I never ever ever use my camera flash. Honestly, I find that my pictures turn out better when I take them in natural light (no matter how little or how much that is). Depending on what camera you have, you may want to play around with that... take the same picture with the flash and without it and see which ones turn out the way you like them.
 
LaFoto said:
Well, Jennifer, here you see Will saying what I already tried to express in my other comment to some other photos you have posted: some photos would do well with some post processing on their contrasts and light so they look less "flat".

As to the subjects you chose and the way you framed them here, also I must say I find them a bit boring. But "too centred photos" was a notion that I, too, only learned about here on this very TPF, while I had been wondering for quite some time why my own photos were beginning to bore me: when you place your subject right into the centre of the frame, it does have this effect. Somehow photos that are a little off centre (the famous Rule of Thirds comes into play here), they are more dynamic and more pleasing to the eye.

The Rule of Thirds ... imagine you fold a piece of paper into three horizontal parts (having one line one third down and the lower line one third up) and also into three vertical parts (having the left line one third into the paper and the right one one third from there) ... it makes a picture most dynamic if your points of interest (the one subject you chose, or two or three) are on the intersections of those lines. Do you get me? You might try it out with your next photos you take.

The photo of the dragon makes obvious that the use of flash (particularly on-camera flash) is not always to a photo's advantage, even though the flash might help you to get that particular subject into your frame in the first place. But the appearance of such a photo often is a bit amateurish. The hard shadow lines do this, as well as the fact that on-camera (i.e. direct flash) makes everything go very flat, take out any chance of creating a 3-D effect.
Also that dragon photo is not aligned, which is very important once you got clear lines THERE, as given by the stone work of the wall behind that dragon. And if you want to shoot a particular subject (such as this dragon, for example), it should be within your frame entirely. Once again, it looks quite amateurish if it is not.

And there just was too little light for the photo of the lantern.
You have camera shake here.

I hope you don't feel offended by my remarks but I understand you are still learning and want to learn, too, so all this is only meant to be helpful. Please take it that way, will you? :D

No offense taken, I am still learning so I welcome any advice! I thought the same thing after I posted them, :lol: Will continue to try and create better pictures. Thanks!

Here's that bench again but in color and cropped.

bench1.jpg
 

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