CC for Newbie

[Terri G.]

I am new to photography and this was my first time shooting in manual mode. These were taken at my local Farmer's Market using my Canon XT with a 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6. I'd love to hear any input on how to keep learning and improving. Thanks for your input.
http://photos.imageevent.com/terrig/photography/websize/IMG_3845_1.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/terrig/photography/websize/IMG_3849_1.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/terrig/photography/websize/IMG_3836.JPG

http://photos.imageevent.com/terrig/photography/websize/IMG_3843.JPG

http://photos.imageevent.com/terrig/photography/websize/IMG_3818_1.jpg

[doidinho]

IMO photos 1 , 4 and 5 would look better if you zoomed out or stepped back a bit, of course this is assuming that there was more of the same in the frame to be captured. They seem too cropped.

I like the different colors in photo 2. This is a good shot to apply the principles of color theory to your composition. Color theory basically states that the space a certain color should occupy in the frame should be inversly related to the brightness of the color as compared to other colors in the composition. For instance if your composition consisted of two colors, color A and color B, with color A being twice as bright as color B, then color A should occupy 1/3 of the frame and color B should occupy 2/3 of the frame.

Photo 3 doesn't do anything for me, its too neutral for my taste, a very small bit of color (perhaps one orange pumpkin) might bring it home.

[Terri G.]

Thanks for the feedback! The market is actually pretty small so I wasn't able to step back to get a larger grouping of much of anything, but I agree that they look like they need more. The market usually has a huge pumpkin patch in the fall so I am planning to go back when they get them set up. I should be able step back and get larger groupings of pumpkins then. I like your idea of adding just one orange pumpkin to the white ones. Thanks!