Photo Feedback

PhotoDonkey · May 24, 2008

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tirediron · May 24, 2008

First thing I would have doone differently is post them in the 'General' gallery, which is the place for critique, but that aside, your pictures are very good. The 'zoom' effect doesn't do much for me, but that's a personal thing.

You've got good lighting and exposure, your sky isn't washed out (although a polarizing filter would have really made it pop I suspect) and you've followed the rules for composition (Rule of thirds, lead to the subject).

If I were shooting number two, I might be tempted to try a composition with somewhat less foreground; perhaps get down lower and aim up. I understand why you situated yourself where you did though.

Perhaps clone out the little imperfections in the sidewalk foreground?

Hope this helps,
~John

Ptyler22 · May 24, 2008

I am a begginer too, so this isn't from a photographic point of view, just my opinion, but I like the pictures, but the first one, you zoomed too much and made it too blurry, but the second looks very nicely angled

PhotoDonkey · May 24, 2008

Yeah, On the first one I'm not totally pleased with the effect, but it was the best of the ones I did. I'm still trying to master that effect.

When I was cropping the second one, I wanted to crop out up to the bit of sidewalk before the island of grass, which would have left more headroom, but my wife suggested leaving more of the sidewalk, so I followed her suggestion.

I think I'm going to re-work the cropping and try cloning out the imperfections in the sidewalk as was suggested.

I actually was using my polarizer on this one. Maybe it didn't work because the sun was behind me? I think I read that they work best at 90 degrees to the sun. Or maybe I need a better polarizer.

Thanks for the feedback.

PhotoDonkey · May 25, 2008

dead links

tirediron · May 25, 2008

PhotoDonkey said:
<snipped>

I actually was using my polarizer on this one. Maybe it didn't work because the sun was behind me? I think I read that they work best at 90 degrees to the sun. Or maybe I need a better polarizer.

Spot on. Ideally you want to have the sun low in the sky, and at 90 degrees to the axis of your lens. In the case of this statue, it might be worth going back at a different time(s) of day and trying the same capture with the polarizing filter, just to see what the results are.

PhotoDonkey · May 25, 2008

tirediron said:
Spot on. Ideally you want to have the sun low in the sky, and at 90 degrees to the axis of your lens. In the case of this statue, it might be worth going back at a different time(s) of day and trying the same capture with the polarizing filter, just to see what the results are.

Agreed. I prefer to shoot closer to sunset, which might make for a bluer sky. This was shot late afternoon (about 4 hours before sunset), and I'm not sure the location of the sun would help the polarizer... but I'll probably give it a shot. Might be fun to shoot closer to sunrise too.

jg123 · May 25, 2008

The second one is amazing...it looks like the statue is floating.

visualpoetry · May 27, 2008

Great photos. Although, it would have been nice to have the face of the statue in #1 in focus and the rest blurred out. Nice work!

..what a cool statue!

PhotoDonkey · May 27, 2008

Yeah, I'm still trying to master that effect. I'll eventually go back and try it again.

bahandi · May 27, 2008

i have read that the zoom affect is created by zooming out, not in

oursfan · May 28, 2008

jg123 said:
The second one is amazing...it looks like the statue is floating.

I was thinking the same thing. Plus, I just noticed after really analyzing the photo that all the trees in the background seem to be blowing in the wind the same direction of the statue.

I think the first one was a good attempt and could work once you master the effect, but as it is now, I am not feeling it. That is just personal opinion though. I would like to see the same shot once you get the technique down though. I bet it would be pretty nice.