Pictures offered for review

tripwater · Oct 3, 2009

Ok, I went out on my lunch break 2 days ago and then again after work. These are shots I took. Keeping in mind that I am self taught by reading books and listening to others, please be gentle :lol:

But feel free to point out any and all things I may be doing wrong with composition, lighting, DOF in your opinions. I am here to learn as much as I can from anyone who is willing to share.

All shots taken with EOS 20D and lenses used are Aspherical 28-105mm or Tamron 80-210mm.

Thanks

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G.

H.

I.

J.

TiCoyote · Oct 3, 2009

Some of these look a little pale. I'm gonna comment on the first three:
#1 Could use a smaller aperture, so more of the flowers are in focus. I want those to be the subject, but the sharpest focus is on the ironwork
#2 Could use a larger aperture. Now the flowers are distracting
#3 I think this one is cropped too much. It only really makes sense as part of a series.

Pcubed · Oct 3, 2009

Congrats on your first picture posts, tripwater!
- For A, I don't know if you were focusing on the flowers on the leg of the stand. If your focus was on the leg, maybe you should change the composition slightly or make the flowers more out of focus. Right now, the leg is blending into the rest of the flower holder.
- Pictures D and E need a little more color, maybe you increase the saturation or something. I'm not sure exactly what you need to change to get that effect. =p
- Picture F is nice but it would be better if you could see the posts behind it too, just to have repetition that helps to lead the eyes into the distance in the photo.
- I'm not sure, but G. looks like it's a little soft on the dog's face.
- H-J are pretty candid photos of the horse. I like J. the most. =)

tripwater · Oct 3, 2009

Thanks!

Yeah the first set of pics were a definite exercise in aperture. I need much more practice at that. The second pic I moved the flowers behind the odd statue and wanted to get the out of focus blue of the flowers in the statue's eyes but that didn't quite work out how I had hoped. It looked nice on the small screen on the back of the camera

The flag pics definitely could use some saturation increase. The flag was in a cemetery and it was faded and shredded so that was its actual color level. But I agree, more saturation would help. I did not do any post work on any of these other than the B&W posts which I totally agree more posts should be in focus.

The softness on the dog's face, how could I fix that one in the future? It was shot at 1/320 at f 7.1 according to metadata. I am thinking maybe f8 or f11 might help this?

Thanks again for taking the time

UUilliam · Oct 3, 2009

tripwater said:
Ok, I went out on my lunch break 2 days ago and then again after work. These are shots I took. Keeping in mind that I am self taught by reading books and listening to others, please be gentle

But feel free to point out any and all things I may be doing wrong with composition, lighting, DOF in your opinions. I am here to learn as much as I can from anyone who is willing to share.

All shots taken with EOS 20D and lenses used are Aspherical 28-105mm or Tamron 80-210mm.

Thanks

This is no excuse... Most of us here are self taught by playing with the camera( I know I am for sure I have yet to read a book inc. the manual however I am waiting on the delivery of Understanding Exposure By Brian Peterson.)
Fair enough, you dont want us to be too harsh, but there aren't much of us who have been taught by a tutor.

on another note... Why letters?

usually people use numbers for easier selecting but hey its all the same

now onto Critique.

They ALL have the aperture (DOF) set too low, stop them up about 2 stops
I really like the horse ones, the Exposure is PERFECT on them (or so it seems to me)
However! You have cut off the mouth / nose in H and you cut the ear off in J
That is the only downside, the 3 of the horse have an acceptable Aperture (well... technically any aperture is acceptable but I find it more Appetising in these images).

Pcubed · Oct 3, 2009

tripwater said:
Thanks!

Yeah the first set of pics were a definite exercise in aperture. I need much more practice at that. The second pic I moved the flowers behind the odd statue and wanted to get the out of focus blue of the flowers in the statue's eyes but that didn't quite work out how I had hoped. It looked nice on the small screen on the back of the camera

The flag pics definitely could use some saturation increase. The flag was in a cemetery and it was faded and shredded so that was its actual color level. But I agree, more saturation would help. I did not do any post work on any of these other than the B&W posts which I totally agree more posts should be in focus.

The softness on the dog's face, how could I fix that one in the future? It was shot at 1/320 at f 7.1 according to metadata. I am thinking maybe f8 or f11 might help this?

Thanks again for taking the time

Thanks for agreeing with me. Remember, I'm still new to all this, so I'm mostly talking out of my butt rather than from experience. :lol:

As for the dog's face, maybe your focus point wasn't on it? I think f/7.1 should be an adequate aperture to capture it, but it looks like a lot of the grass in the foreground is in focus too. I don't know enough about aperture to figure out what the problem is. It looks like the fur right underneath the head is more focused, so maybe your focus was on that instead of the head.

tripwater · Oct 3, 2009

UUilliam said:
This is no excuse... Most of us here are self taught by playing with the camera( I know I am for sure I have yet to read a book inc. the manual however I am waiting on the delivery of Understanding Exposure By Brian Peterson.)
Fair enough, you dont want us to be too harsh, but there aren't much of us who have been taught by a tutor.

on another note... Why letters? usually people use numbers for easier selecting but hey its all the same

now onto Critique.

They ALL have the aperture (DOF) set too low, stop them up about 2 stops
I really like the horse ones, the Exposure is PERFECT on them (or so it seems to me)
However! You have cut off the mouth / nose in H and you cut the ear off in J
That is the only downside, the 3 of the horse have an acceptable Aperture (well... technically any aperture is acceptable but I find it more Appetising in these images).

Well I am not trying to make excuses here, I was just stating that I am very new to this because I have visited other forums as a guest and read some harsh critiques and I think that people might be more forgiving / less rude if they know the level of experience prior. These pictures are quite literally the first DSLR pictures I have ever taken ( I am that new to this) I have always had a point and shoot camera that did it all for me. I welcome this new challenge!

And as for the letters versus numbering...you're the 2nd person to point it out so I will use numbers from now on

Thank you very much for the advice. I will work much harder on aperture control and DOF. That seems to be my common mistake through out most. So I now have something to focus on(no pun intended).

tripwater · Oct 3, 2009

UUilliam said:
I am waiting on the delivery of Understanding Exposure By Brian Peterson.)

I love this guy. I have his book on Macro photography and his 1990 Understanding of Exposure. Not the new release that includes digital camera work. I love his approach. He is not too technical and pretentious. You can tell he loves the art of it and the way he explains the process works well for me.

Pcubed · Oct 3, 2009

tripwater said:
UUilliam said:

I am waiting on the delivery of Understanding Exposure By Brian Peterson.)

Click to expand...

I love this guy. I have his book on Macro photography and his 1990 Understanding of Exposure. Not the new release that includes digital camera work. I love his approach. He is not too technical and pretentious. You can tell he loves the art of it and the way he explains the process works well for me.

I just ordered his new version of Understanding Exposure. It's got great reviews. Now that you've given it a good review about his writing style, I'm excited to dig into it.

tripwater · Oct 3, 2009

I honestly can't say enough good things about this guy. His pictures are wonderful and he explains how he pulls off each one. I have a bookmark of a page that has all his books and plan on getting most that apply / interest me. He also teaches an online course as well...

chammer · Oct 3, 2009

really like the fence post, and looks great in b&w. i do agree though, it seems to stop abruptly at the 2nd post and leaves you wanting to see more fall off into the distance.

tripwater · Oct 3, 2009

After one of the suggestions, I went back to one of my other flag shots and bumped up the contrast a bit in Lightroom and it brought out more color.

See what you think...

Samanax · Oct 3, 2009

When taking these pictures, did you select the focus point to use or did the camera choose? Most DSLRs let you select the focus point you want to focus with and that gives you more creative control over your shots.

When shooting people or animals, focus on the eyes.

The exposure of the shots look just a tiny bit overexposed.

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I like how you're thinking about your shots (like in B & C) so you're not just pointing and snapping. Your images show me that you have potential and just need to work on your skills to improve. The compositions need a little work.

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tripwater · Oct 3, 2009

Thanks Samanax!

Ok so I figured out the partial exposure metering and focus point settings. When I looked through the view finder I always noticed the AF points jumping around to different things and I just took a pic when the camera let me. So now I set the focus point and know what I am doing! I also set the camera I borrowed to partial exposure metering which limits the spot it meters to the circle in the view finder instead of overall.

I went out and took more pictures and much better focusing! I will post a couple more soon for your review.

tripwater · Oct 3, 2009

Ok, now these pictures were just an exercise in focusing for me. I was not worried with composition or anything really other than testing out this focus point setting and getting the subject in focus. I already wish I had a different aperture setting on the first couple of flower shots to blur the background more as it is distracting. Next time!

See what you think...I feel much better KNOWING what the heck I am focusing on! Those horse shots could have been much better had I known.