My friends

[izkylee@gmail.com]

My 2nd time posting in here
i need desperate cc again
be harsh

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2270/2112394400_48b146ed2c.jpg?v=0

[vpnd]

there is no need to be harsh! When the bush doesn't take up all of the bkgrnd, it can be distracting. try cropping a head and shoulders shot with the bush as the whole bkgrnd. Also next time try opening up the apeture to blur the bkgrnd some if you get in close.

[izkylee@gmail.com]

oh ok thx that helped out

last one.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2222/2102669838_6a078ffab0.jpg?v=0

advice means alot to me :D

[tonydee]

Top one's very good, should look great tightly cropped as suggested. Would help if your male friend looked a little more relaxed, but I prefer candid shots over posed ones so I'm always looking for that kind of thing... the natural smile, the face animated in conversation....

Second one's unusual and interesting, pretty good lighting (highlights might be blown at the back, but if so only just and it's not distracting given the overall composition). Faces are too small to capture much detail, at least in the small picture you've posted. To get your friends larger in the shot and still retain that kind of composition might be impossible, but you could play with an extremely wide-angle lens if you have one. Still, I think it's fun as is... particularly the way it suggests both mutual recognition, attention and yet lack of any effort to move towards one another.

Good stuff.

Cheers, Tony

[izkylee@gmail.com]

more.. like this?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2159/2123878397_e6f5a087db.jpg?v=0

[tonydee]

Yes :-). I like it much more like that.

[izkylee@gmail.com]

i do not want to make a new thread so i will continue in here

heres two more of another friend

again CC away the more flaws pointed out the better thx in advance


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2166/2123868079_ec3485554a.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2151/2123868075_e68581b7b0.jpg?v=0

[tonydee]

"Up" has some strong elements in it: he's moving into the shot, the exposure (brightness) is pretty good, his shirt isn't so over-exposed (going a featureless white) like "down". It's a clear image of his face, with an interesting and evocative facial expression.

If you're shooting on an automatic exposure mode (extremely likely), then you may be wondering why the descending-the-stairs picture is overexposed...? It's probably because you're using evaluative metering, that tried to get most of the picture properly exposed, but because one part is quite a bit brighter than the rest, it gets overexposed and the rest somewhat underexposed. If you'd been using a spot metering and aiming the camera at your friend's top, the camera would have ensured it was properly exposed, but the rest of your picture would have been far darker (in fact, much of it might have been recorded as absolute black). So, you've walked a pretty good line between the two problems with "up".

In general, it's a little dangerous to frame a picture without taking in all of your subject. While learning, consider try to shoot a wider-angle picture, then experimenting with cropping until you're happiest with the results. I took this approach with some of my earliest work at the local zoo, and end up with some very strange crop ratios, but it lifted the work considerably (in my view). So here, all I'm saying is that maybe it would have worked better if we could see your friend's feet, or some more of the space he was moving into. This might have been from using a portrait orientation, but shooting just as wide.

For other ideas, google and read about "Rule of Thirds", which means you try to put the core lines in your photo (like your friends torso) a third of the way in from an edge, and the core points (like his head) a third of the way in from two edges.

Also, it looks like his hands are a little blurred... maybe a faster shutter speed would have helped (would reduce the exposure on the bricks though :-( - sometimes simply can't win them all).

Another point of contrast between the two photos is how they illustrate your friend's posture. He hunches his back in a way that suggests meekness and/or tiredness in the top photo, but looks more athletic in "up": either not doing it or simply being seen from an angle that hides it. That's another reason why I think "up" has more energy, more of a sense of expectation about it. The warmer white balance and/or increased saturation also gives the "up" picture a more energetic sense, and makes it feel more realistic, while the "down" picture suggests more coldness, perhaps a conservation of effort, and looks more like obviously a photo and less like our eyes see a scene.

More generally, you can get ideas by considering whether the picture is trying to convey anything, or could do so with a little effort. Sometimes there'll be an idea that comes that moves the picture beyond just being about the person as a unknowable whole, and presents a specific side of them to the viewer. Some such change you might have made might have made this something the viewer would identify with more strongly.

Cheers,

Tony

[izkylee@gmail.com]

ok i understand all ur advice but the exposure portion,

how do you manual set exposure?

[rdsmith3]

i do not want to make a new thread so i will continue in here

heres two more of another friend

again CC away the more flaws pointed out the better thx in advance



The white balance or color temperature is different between the two, also. The second picture is warmer, based on hat color, facial skin color, and the light through the door at the bottom of the stairs. I do not know which one is more accurate, but if you were going to hang these side by side, you might want to adjust the color temp to be the same in both.

[tonydee]

ok i understand all ur advice but the exposure portion,

how do you manual set exposure?

It will depend a bit on your camera. On my Kiss X (aka 400D / Rebel XTi), there's a button labelled "Av +/-" near the top right of the screen, and I can hold it down then turn the notched wheel with your right index finger to ask the camera to make the shot brighter or darker. After you take your shot, if you want to get some confirmation, you can check the histogram. I've posted a lengthy explanation of that in another thread:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=423543

Cheers,

Tony

[vpnd]

if you google photography basics there should be a few sites that will explain basic manual exposure. If you have a dlsr you should have some sort of spot meter. Read up on exposure then take a walk and shoot some test shots. Maybe even leaving your camera completely manual for a week and you'll be good to go.