There's a first for everything...

[erinmarie1947]

Here it is, my first post of many...Let's hear what you have to say!

 

[xfloggingkylex]

First and foremost, welcome to the forum. You'll learn that this is one of the few forums on the internet where there are no dumb questions so ask away.

The critique section is usually designated for specifc critiques on a single photo. This means that you have a picture but there is something about it you dont like, maybe you've done a terrible job cropping, or no cropping at all (my main problem) and so you post here to get advice on it. Others post to see if certain objects are distracting or not.

So, what are you looking for with this picture, or do you just want general comments on your photo's?

I'll touch on the latter because I dont want this post to avoid your main purpose. I dont really know about this shot. It is a very dramatic black and white :thumbup: with great contrast :thumbup: and IMO, a nice POV:thumbup: . With that being said there is something up with the focus. Your aperture (f/7.1) should give you enough DOF to leave the screw in focus, but it just isn't sharp enough for my taste.:thumbdown: Also there are a lot of blown portions of the photo such as the entire sky a lot of the background, but I'm not sure you could do anything about this consider you were already using a pretty quick shutter speed.

Does this picture have any post processing?

Also I'm not sure the capabilities of the SD550 but considering it is a 7mp camera I'm going to assume it is capable of triggering the flash regardless of light. With this in mind you could fill flash the photo, but that will take out some of the shadows of the bird house, not sure if you want that or not.


Again welcome to the forums, I hope you're ready to learn (and teach).

 

[Shakka Brah]

I like it but the poor construction of the bird house bothers me quite a bit.

 

[LaFoto]

Hi again, erinmarie,
your thread got moved to the General Gallery since you did not ask for any specific critique here, while the guidelines clearly state that you should.

Personally I find it a bit harsh in contrasts with a good many burnt (too white) patches in the background (sky, lawn) - plus I would have liked to see a tad deeper DOF (depth of field) to show the entire birdhouse in focus, including the nail that sticks out for the birds to land on.

 

[rmh159]

Haha she was making the photo not the bird house.

I like it but the poor construction of the bird house bothers me quite a bit.

I definitely like the shot but see where the others are coming from. Not sure how you could've avoided the highlights though unless you would've taken the shot later/earlier in the day.