OK. I'm an amateur!

[Axel]

I have been complaining before in another forum about the quality of my pictures and need to know what I'm doing wrong. Here are a few examples of my disasters...
This one I don't even know what I was looking for, it was just an experiment, but I see that something isn't right... I want it to be more artistic!

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This one I'm rather happy with. But the problem is that I didn't know what to expect from the picture when I took it. It was taken with an ISO 200 at 3 seconds...

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Something's missing here... I like the colors, but would want the dark part to be even darker and the sky to be more blue... It lacks the artistic touch...

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Same as above, but the sky seems to get darker at the top left corner for some reason...

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This one is horrible and taken right before the next one... I don't recall the difference in the settings though...

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As said above...

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What I'm looking for in most of my pictures is the silhouette (sp?) effects! But I always shoot them at a guess... I would like to know how to be able to do it and knowing what's the outcome!

Thanks for your comments and I know they suck big time so don't be too harsh on me...

 

[Nagala]

A quick lesson at how your camera registers exposures. Imagine two pieces of paper, one black, one white. The white piece is 0% value, the black, 100%. Ok, your camera (unless it's fully manual) is set up to think that what you're trying to shoot is exposed at a perfect 18% gray.
Meaning, if you're aiming at something that is black, it's going to think it's lighter and overexpose. Shoot something lighter and it's the other way around.
Now, I'll start with the last two since I'm already down here looking at them. The last one, you likely were aiming dead center, which is lighter than the 18 gray, and it exposed for that, darkening the tree. The one above it, I'd assume you hit the exposure on the tree, meaning it exposed longer and blew it out.
In the 3rd picture, if you're wanting a darker building, all you'd have to do is either speed up your shutter speed or close (or step down) your aperture for less exposure. Everything else will darken as well, so you have to realize this and gradually learn what you can do with light and what you need to do to overcome certain things.

 

[Axel]

A quick lesson at how your camera registers exposures. Imagine two pieces of paper, one black, one white. The white piece is 0% value, the black, 100%. Ok, your camera (unless it's fully manual) is set up to think that what you're trying to shoot is exposed at a perfect 18% gray.
Meaning, if you're aiming at something that is black, it's going to think it's lighter and overexpose. Shoot something lighter and it's the other way around.
Now, I'll start with the last two since I'm already down here looking at them. The last one, you likely were aiming dead center, which is lighter than the 18 gray, and it exposed for that, darkening the tree. The one above it, I'd assume you hit the exposure on the tree, meaning it exposed longer and blew it out.
In the 3rd picture, if you're wanting a darker building, all you'd have to do is either speed up your shutter speed or close (or step down) your aperture for less exposure. Everything else will darken as well, so you have to realize this and gradually learn what you can do with light and what you need to do to overcome certain things.

Thanks for your input. They're all fully manual!

 

[Nagala]

What did you use for a light meter?

 

[Axel]

What did you use for a light meter?

Eeeer.. The camera's own... Or am I misunderstanding something here? You may have meant a automatic as the camera's own... As I said, I am an amateur...

 

[trtjazz]

Now for my .02 on some of your other points. The first glaring difference I see between #1 & 2 is composition. #2 has the center line of the floor drawing the eye down the corridor. Taking it at floor level helped to reinforce that.

For a compositional lesson/experiment, reset up the glass and bottle on something you can move around in a circle. Take phots from all different angles and heights, then review them, look for what composition works for the given subject.

As far as the darker blue not only upper left but right as well, it looks like a bit of lense vignetting to me. The further one gets into tele the worse it gets.

 

[jadin]

For the first one, the biggest problem is a) you used flash too close to the subject, which gives it harsh bright lighting, and unnatural light. b) the perspective. If you want it to be artistic you have to get a unique angle. Try putting the camera right on the table. This will make the glass seem larger than it really is, and will just plain make it more interesting.

 

[Axel]

Now for my .02 on some of your other points. The first glaring difference I see between #1 & 2 is composition. #2 has the center line of the floor drawing the eye down the corridor. Taking it at floor level helped to reinforce that.

For a compositional lesson/experiment, reset up the glass and bottle on something you can move around in a circle. Take phots from all different angles and heights, then review them, look for what composition works for the given subject.

As far as the darker blue not only upper left but right as well, it looks like a bit of lense vignetting to me. The further one gets into tele the worse it gets.

Thanks for the imput. But what is "lense vignetting"?

 

[Axel]

For the first one, the biggest problem is a) you used flash too close to the subject, which gives it harsh bright lighting, and unnatural light. b) the perspective. If you want it to be artistic you have to get a unique angle. Try putting the camera right on the table. This will make the glass seem larger than it really is, and will just plain make it more interesting.

Thanks. Good suggestions. But how do I get the flash to be farther away??

 

[trtjazz]

Thanks for the imput. But what is "lense vignetting"?

Those darker blue corners that is inherit in most camera lenses. Some are worse than others. The lense tends to fall off focus and exposure out at the extreme edges. At least that is effect, for cause, someone more technical than me would need to answer that.

The fix is to be aware of how much your camera does it and allow for the cropping out of it. This is not bad at all though.

 

[Axel]

Those darker blue corners that is inherit in most camera lenses. Some are worse than others. The lense tends to fall off focus and exposure out at the extreme edges. At least that is effect, for cause, someone more technical than me would need to answer that.

The fix is to be aware of how much your camera does it and allow for the cropping out of it. This is not bad at all though.

Thanks trtjazz!

What I wonder is if the better lenses have less of that darkness... I mean, would it be better to have a Nikon lens than a Sigma, which is my case?

Anyway, I appreciate your input a lot!

#2 has the center line of the floor drawing the eye down the corridor. Taking it at floor level helped to reinforce that.

What exactly do you mean by that? Is the center line too outstanding? If that is the case, what should I have done instead to make the photo better?

Once again thank you!

 

[Nagala]

Eeeer.. The camera's own... Or am I misunderstanding something here? You may have meant a automatic as the camera's own... As I said, I am an amateur...

I was referring to the camera's light meter. Even though you manually set the exposure, the metering you used to judge that exposure wasn't. If you meter a black area, it'll show perfect exposure. But if you shoot at that setting, it's going to overexpose for the reason I mentioned above.

 

[crystalview]

It seems that you've already received a ton of advice...and the advice given comes from some folks that know what they're talking about!!! I'm a total amateur hobbyist "picture taker" Maybe some day I'll be a real photographer. Enough rambling...I just wanted to say that I love that second hallway shot...very cool. I agree that the low angle makes the picture.. Nice work!