Three photos from a newbie

ksproul · Sep 12, 2005

This is my first post here. This past weekend, I spent some time on the outskirts of Orlando, Florida, where I live, and took some shots with my new Rebel XT. I picked out a few of what I think are the better ones and am looking for constructive criticism. These were all cleaned up and enhanced a bit in Photoshop.

I found this guy sitting on a bench at the Orlando Wetlands Park in Christmas, Florida. I'm especially interested in comments on depth of field with this one. Is it too shallow? Or does it really emphasize the spider's rather amusing face?

On this last one, which was also taken at the Orlando Wetlands Park, I drove the colors up a bit beyond realistic in Photoshop (which could be said for the other two as well, I suppose), but personally like the effect it gives the photo:

Comments and criticism are welcome. Thanks!

Kris

Mercury149 · Sep 12, 2005

Great shots! Love the colors! I especially like the spiders expression! Classic!

David A · Sep 12, 2005

The last one is a great landscape shot...I was thinking, "that sure does look familiar..." :thumbup:

ClarkKent · Sep 13, 2005

Awesome work. I don't think that it looks too unrealistic. I also think the dof is pretty much dead on for my liking.

JTHphoto · Sep 13, 2005

Nice shots, seems like you have gotten the hang of your new camera.

only constructive criticism i can offer is based on personal opinion, so take it for what its worth (not much if any). The first is nicely composed, but the light seems a little harsh. The blurriness of the spider's leg distracts me a little, but if the focus is just on his eyes, i think it works. I love the dark blue sky in your landscape, i shoot the majority of my landscapes with a c. polarizer to help get that dark blue. Maybe crop the right edge to the clouds, not sure if that would make a good photo better or not. Again, nice shots!

ksproul · Sep 13, 2005

On the first one, I do agree that the light seems a bit harsh. It was done in direct sunlight in late morning, I believe. I still need to do a bunch more experimenting with different times of day, sun/clouds, etc.

On the second, I didn't intend for the DOF to be that shallow, but it's how it came out (still messing with different apertures and often finding out that he DOF is a lot shallower than I thought it would be), so I was kind of torn on whether I like it that shallow or if it would look better with more of the spider in focus.

On the last, I used a circular polarizer, but Photoshop is also responsible for the deep blue to a decent extent. When I was cleaning it up, I tried cropping the right and some of the top off to eliminate some of the cloudless area, but doing that took away some of the deepest blue, so I ended up deciding to leave it.

Thanks for all the comments so far!

Kris

manaheim · Sep 13, 2005

Wow that's the coolest spider shot I've ever seen. I didn't even notice the depth of field until you mentioned it. I'd say it's great. LOL I gotta put that one as a background on my wife's machine just to freak her the hell out. LOL

AWESOME sky on the last one. Man, all these pepole must have a pact with god to work out these nice skies. I always get schmutz. And yes, that is a technical term.