Some from this morning

[jeveretts]

I Keep trying and I'll give you my thoughts and critique as well. I hope you will give yours too.

The first one is a guy sleeping/camping under the boardwalk. I like how he is completely settled in, even so far as to remove his cowboy boots. Nothing sticking out but his feet.
What I think went wrong... The background between the pillars is brighter than I would like, I used channel mask to try to bring it down some. I think it could be better, but I like the subject matter and his whole setup.



the Second one is a bicyclist through a stone archway. OK, first of all, this picture is a little cliche.. I personally don't find the subject matter all that interesting, but I believe there was an opportunity for interesting composition here.
I gave it a go, not sure if it hit. I think it might have been better if I shot it at a lower Fstop and got the cyclist more in focus and the wall less in focus. Ah well live and learn.


The third one I am a little torn on. On one hand I really like it a lot, on the other hand, I was almost ready to toss it. The girl was standing in a windows, and she posed when she saw me. There is a lot of busy reflection and a lot going on so the girl really gets lost in the picture. But I feel that she is so pretty and was posing so hard, it felt like she was almost struggling to be the center of attention against all the other stuff that was going on.



Still, I would love to hear all your critique.

 

[robbins.photo]

A cpl would have been a good thing for that last shot, by adjusting the CPl you can minimize the reflections coming off the glass, either a little or a lot depending on your mood.

 

[jeveretts]

A cpl would have been a good thing for that last shot, by adjusting the CPl you can minimize the reflections coming off the glass, either a little or a lot depending on your mood.

AH! I don't own one of those. Can you put one over a UV filter?

 

[robbins.photo]

A cpl would have been a good thing for that last shot, by adjusting the CPl you can minimize the reflections coming off the glass, either a little or a lot depending on your mood.

AH! I don't own one of those. Can you put one over a UV filter?

Technically, sure.. but I don't use UV filters. On higher MP cameras there is a noticeable loss of image quality especially with the cheaper UV filters, and honestly a lens hood and lens cap are about all the protection a lens needs in almost all cases.

I wouldn't recommend stacking filters though, if you want to keep using your UV filter I'd remove it and put the CPL on, then if you feel the need you can always put it back on when you remove the CPL.

 

[RyanG]

the Second one is a bicyclist through a stone archway. OK, first of all, this picture is a little cliche.. I personally don't find the subject matter all that interesting, but I believe there was an opportunity for interesting composition here.
I gave it a go, not sure if it hit. I think it might have been better if I shot it at a lower Fstop and got the cyclist more in focus and the wall less in focus. Ah well live and learn.
View attachment 79650

Just finished watching a video about comparing pictures taken at different focal lengths and would assume that if you shot this at a longer focal length the distance between the archway and the bicycle would have been compressed and the bicycle would have been bigger. But alas, you didn't share the focal length you took this picture at so I'm just guessing.

 

[Designer]

The focal length was 33mm.

 

[The_Traveler]

I think the problem with the first is that it is essentially a jumble of rags and the only thing that allows it to make sense is the feet.
The colors are distracting as is just about everything in the bright area.
The feet are the same tone as the sand and they are crucial.

a better simpler framing would be about 5 or more feet to your right where the feet take up more of the frame, the jumble of stuff, his boots and the metal detector are all tighter and the bright background isn't there.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I'd try moving around and changing your vantage point some - that might have given you a background that wasn't quite so distracting, think about where you want to 'put' the various objects in the scene. If I'm shooting in mixed light like that I often lower the camera and meter for what I'm photographing then reframe so the meter doesn't tell me to adjust for the brighter light in the background; I might bracket shots too (although I do that more often if I'm shooting B&W film) so I take more than one shot sometimes to make sure I got one with a proper exposure if the light is tricky.

I like the archway, the pattern of shadows and fence is what makes it interesting, but again I might have tried shots from slightly different vantage points to see how those patterns seem to balance best.

I don't know if a filter would have helped or if you'd lost the interesting reflections. I might have tried framing it higher to get the top of the palm tree and keep the edges of those signs and the white truck out of the picture, I think those overpower the more subtle aspects of the picture seeing her and the reflections. Actually, maybe making copies and trying some crops you could see what you come up with.

You seem to be seeing interesting subjects, it might be a matter of thinking about patterns and shapes in your compositions and how they look best together.

 

[RyanG]

The focal length was 33mm.

This is the video I was referring to. Watch the whole thing. About 5 minutes into it he starts to show you what the different focal lengths do to a scene.
I'm not sure if I am allowed to do this but here it is.