Please give me a constructive evaluation...

[robyn_fresh]

I took these at the local lake. I'm using a Fujifilm FinePix s700 (not the greatest camera, but it's what I have.)

 

[sovietdoc]

#1 is interesting but the top is way underexposed.

#2 Uhm okay. What's the significance of what's in the shot? If you're focusing on the feather, then there is too much background up top so the composition balance is off. Thought the water/ground line is interesting. I'd prolly just crop it differently to emphasize on the feather.

#3 Not sure why you decided to focus on the vegetation up front. Doesn't look like it worked as a reinforcement to the shot. So just no to 3rd one.

 

[Rudha]

#1: i like it, but i think it would have been better if the water was in focus
#2: If you filled the frame with the feather it would have been better and also the moss looks nasty in my opinion lol either way you need to get a little bit closer
#3:If the ducks are focus then you entirely missed them but if the focus was deliberate it still doesn't work for me. In my opinion you should work around to remove those weeds from blocking your subject.

Keep shooting :thumbup:

 

[bentcountershaft]

1. I don't care much for this one. The flag is too small to add any significance so it's does more harm distracting than anything else. The water fall itself looks good but I would have zoomed out a bit to show a little more of the trees and avoided the flag altogether.

2. I like the line the water and land create. The feather is a little small to be the subject but more importantly, to me at least, is it's placement. I would have picked it up and moved it a bit too the right. Overall it's a little too bright but not so much that it couldn't be helped in post.

3. If you were wanting the ducks to be out of focus behind the grasses a shallower depth of field would really help. They're too close to focus to get the look I think you may have been going for. I could be completely wrong about what you were going for though.

 

[robyn_fresh]

I edited the exposure of the top portion of this first shot. Thanks.

I just don't know what to do with the 2nd shot now. I thought the waterline was interesting.

 

[sovietdoc]

I just don't know what to do with the 2nd shot now. I thought the waterline was interesting.

It is, but if that's the center of your shot, why is there that feather that throws off the balance?

 

[bentcountershaft]

I just don't know what to do with the 2nd shot now. I thought the waterline was interesting.

I think it is too. If you'll let me I'll have a try at editing it and you can see what you think.

 

[robyn_fresh]

I just don't know what to do with the 2nd shot now. I thought the waterline was interesting.

I think it is too. If you'll let me I'll have a try at editing it and you can see what you think.

Go ahead and edit it. I'm not sure how to change the effect that the feather has on the shot of the waterline.

 

[gsgary]

I bought one for when i go away on my motorbike and you can get some good shots with that camera, heres a few i have taken over the last few years with it
http://gsgary.smugmug.com/Competitions/Miscellaneous/DSCF0466p/341435310_jMiQt-L.jpg

http://gsgary.smugmug.com/Holidays/France-and-Spain-2007/Image00001/206158106_YDBUy-L.jpg

http://gsgary.smugmug.com/Holidays/France-and-Spain-2007/Image00032/206160027_746vA-L.jpg

http://gsgary.smugmug.com/Holidays/PolandLithuania-2006/DSCF0250crop/78661182_ekwWS-L.jpg

 

[Breaux]

I seem to be in the minority, but I like #3, with its unexpected focus. It made me look twice, and then think about what you were going for.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Keep shooting.

Although I don't think much of those images you are at least trying to see things differently. And that is a very good start. If you want to be an artist anyway

By the way, I am both an artist and, as of tomorrow, a commercial photog again. Those are two very different things and although I prefer the arts, commercial work pays the bills. But, to each his/her own.

Let me explain why I don't think much of those particular images:

#1 I don't like many images of our flag (yes I'm american) as they remind me of a certain brand of mindless patriotism but I do like how you composed the image. Without the flag and with the top of the fall at the 1/3 mark, it would have been much better.

Your second version of the image is not any better imho. Somewhere in between the two would be better, I think.

#2 Take out the feather, make sure the thing the feather is sitting on is all in focus, and I think you would have a very nice photo. I don't know what the feather means to you but I don't get it. I would get the image I'm talking about but, then again, I'm weird, lol.

#3 I get what you were trying to do and I like it. But the "weeds" up front are not the most interesting and, so, the photo is not either.

As I said, keep shooting, keep looking at things differently, and you will come up with good, interesting shots eventually.

And realize there are few artsy people on forums. Forums are good for technical problems but not for so much for the vision thing.

Cheers

 

[bentcountershaft]

I just don't know what to do with the 2nd shot now. I thought the waterline was interesting.

I think it is too. If you'll let me I'll have a try at editing it and you can see what you think.

Go ahead and edit it. I'm not sure how to change the effect that the feather has on the shot of the waterline.

This is the best I could do with it for my tastes. Ideally I would have liked the feather to be about where it is in this one as far as left to right goes, but a little closer to the waterline so that there is some space beneath it. I like kmh's suggestion as well for it and just do away with the feather completely. When I first saw this shot it was the waterline that caught my attention so the feather can actually take away from that.