Would like some feedback please

[garetheves]

Been lurking for a while on here, reading when i get chance. Despite having my DSLR for well over a year now, i would still class myself as an Amateur, mainly due to time restraints. Just recently been on a 3 week holiday to Australia and thought id go mad with the camera. What do you lot think? Dont hold back i can take it. Thats how we learn after all :)

1. Sydney Harbour Bridge by Night

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/garetheves/IMG_0598.jpg

2. Remarkable Rocks - Kangaroo Island

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/garetheves/IMG_9661.jpg

3. Footsteps in the sand

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/%3Ca%20href=%22http://img212.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img9902.jpg%22%20target=%22_blank%22% 3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/8184/img9902.th.jpg%22%20border=%220%22/%3E%3C/a%3Ehttp://img212.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img9902.jpghttp://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/garetheves/IMG_9902.jpg

4. Perth wheel by night

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/garetheves/IMG_9256.jpg

5. Rock in the surf

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/garetheves/IMG_9221.jpg

I have loads more i would like feedback on but this would do for now, might add more later/tomorrow/in future

[Clint]

All photos are nice, crop footsteps in the sand so you can't see the legs or feet, only the reflection. LOVE #4

[rebeler]

I like all your photos...especially your composition. You have a good eye. My favorite is footsteps in the sand, it's simple. Maybe the rule of thirds on this one would have made it even better but it is still my favorite. Really nice job.

[ChunkyDA]

Quite nice shots. You should post more (but first clean your sensor).

[aram535]

Hi, good pics all of them.

My feedback would be:

1. It has some nice lines, but they don't seem to lead me anywhere. No main subject. What's the interesting thing that the lines should point to?
2. I really like the subject but you need 1 more thing though, something in the background, something int he foreground, its very flat and two dimensional.
3. This is good, probably the winner of the bunch for me. Would have been nicer if the footprints had not skunk back in, but its good nonetheless.
4. Very nice time delay. Maybe crop it a little tighter since the buildings aren't adding anything to the image? Would be interested to see the wheel with a much bigger building too (un-crop?) to show the scale but you would need something else in the image at that point as well.
5. Too many distractions and whatnot. Maybe if the stuff on the ground wasn't there and the rock with the water splashing around it was more of a subject?

[garetheves]

Thanks for the replies guys. So good to know im on the right lines. Few replies to people:

ChunkyDA: was gutted when i opened up the photos and spotted the marks. Lesson learnt - check lens before every shot. May try and photoshop the marks at some point. I will post some more uo later or tonight, didnt want to overload the thread at the beginning but i would like comments on some others.

aram535: Thankyou, thats some good criticisim there :) Ill crop the wheel pic and see what it looks like, i can see what you mean about the buildings though. I also have a full skyline shot with the same shutter settings, do you think this would be a better option than the one posted? Same with the rock picture, ill try cropping it. I have another footstep one which i may post up later, no legs in it, just a simple portrait shot with 1 solitary footstep in the foreground and nothing else.

Clint: thankyou, Ill try it without the legs and feet but i thought they added a something to picture.

rebeler: Rule of 3? Im guessing you mean crop it to only include 3 footsteps? Thats a good idea ill give it a go.

Expect some more pictures later or tomorrow then for more critiquing, thanks again :)

[Flo]

The footsteps one is a good one, I would only take out the last footstep though, her reflection stops there.

[tonydee]

Hi Gareth,

#1: Good that you've tried something different here, and given us a view of the towers at the end of the bridge. It loosely follows Rules of Thirds (which says put important points/lines in a third from an edge), but is left-side-heavy and has some strange distortions through it (the hotel horizontals and verticals go all sorts of directions, while the bridge seems to be going "downwards" a bit more than it ought). A wider landscape orientation is still going to get you a more harmonious result though, and more balanced.

#2: Nice shot of an interesting subject... quite face-like from that angle isn't it? Is that a pair of jeans at the bottom?

#3: Fair enough... the reflection is interesting. Having a half-step at the bottom edge can take the eye downwards and out (not good). Generally, things look better being a bit off-centre too... the Rule of Thirds is a good one to start with. Did well to cut enough below the knee that it doesn't look too awkward. All up, a good result.

#4: Pretty good exposure through much of the shot (background buildings)... that wheel thing's pretty insane though.

#5: Good attempt at getting foreground interest, but don't let it get too close to the very bottom edge of the image... a bit of sand, then some foreground (which can look better when not perpendicular to the line of sight so it varies in depth and helps carry the eye further into the shot); some mid-ground but it's a bit small already; and background (bit lacking in this shot). The main rock's too central... again the Rule of Thirds may help with your compositions. Things that carry the eye out of frame should be avoided or removed in post-processing, like the rock at the right, just before the water. While much of this can't be fixed now, I think you could still usefully improve this shot by cropping heavily above the main rock, and to its left, creating a squarer image.

Cheers, Tony

[garetheves]

Thanks Tony, ill give everything youve said a go and might upload them again at a future date. Here are the next set though:

1. Lighthouse

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/garetheves/IMG_9680.jpg

2. Treetops - I know this one needs cropping as there is too many distractions but i cant work out where to crop.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/garetheves/IMG_9850.jpg

3. Rocks.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/garetheves/IMG_9898.jpg

4. My other Footprint

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/garetheves/IMG_9913.jpg

5. Prison

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b283/garetheves/IMG_9965.jpg


Fire away :)

[Sisyphus]

i cant work out where to crop.

In case you weren't aware, if you want to allow others to take a stab at editing your photos, you may permit this by changing your forum options.

Go to the top of this page:
=> Click on User CP
=> Click on Edit Profile
scroll down to Additional information -- Image edit and repost permission
=> Tick the box for Yes.
=> Save changes.

There you go. It was kinda hard to find the first time I looked for it.

[tonydee]

Re post #9...

1 Lighthouse: it's ok, but doesn't stand out form the crowd. The composition is still central, but it might as well be in this case as there's no other subject matter - not even clouds or a bird. Not showing the base of the lighthouse really limits the expression of 3 dimensionality (if you focus on the very bottom edge it can look a little flat), but the lighting here is good and quickly establishes the curvature without being blown or unexposed anywhere. It looks a little soft, though at that shutter speed and aperture it probably shouldn't (f/16 is starting to get image quality (IQ) loss through diffraction, would be over the edge for a full frame, but just ok for the smaller sensor crop body 350D; still f/8 or f/11 would be a safer bet). No need for ISO400 on this one... plenty of light. And those dark blotches in the sky... something needs cleaning ;-).

2 Treetops. It's not too bad considering what you've done, but shooting into the sun, and getting a few branches in silouhette, is not a recipe for big-time success. What do you feel the sun adds to this shot? Ignoring the sun, the clouds are ok, and the branches are ok, but silouhettes tend to lack a sense of depth, and an average shot of a well-lit tree would improve on this.

3 Rocks. Good attempt to get foreground through background interest. It looks a little soft again... at f/11 this time... very strange. But I can see a few bright single-pixel points on the main rock, so it's not actually soft. Perhaps you needed a polarising filter to remove glare. The base of the main rock, and the transition from water to sand, approximate Rule of Thirds placement, so it's ok, even though the dune reaches up a little awkwardly towards the top of frame. There's not really a distinct mid-ground though... a few people in the water there would have helped structure the image and raise interest levels. Many of your rocks also line up smack down the middle, which isn't what you want... good to have them spaced out side to side a bit.

4 Footprint. Pretty cool to emboss a footprint like that... weird. I'd have put it a third in from the [edit - meant to say RIGHT]. Appreciate the space in front is important for not showing the next footprint, but it would fall to the left anyway: again, showing the footprint offset to the right would emphasise the lack of the left print. All that space with just a few marks in the sand at the top does invite inspection of those marks, so a deeper DOF would help.

5 Prison. Not a winner... the DOF and subject matter combine to make the entire image look out of focus, leaving the eye to wander relentlessly. Still need to pick a specific subject to be in focus. The image is also structured around lines radiating from the centre, but in this case I think there are enough of them for it to work ok, and one such line disappears diagonally towards each corner (not so accurately at bottom right, but partly because the entire image needs a small clockwise rotation). Left side is decidedly brighter than the right which makes the balance look precarious... like everything's going to rotate by itself ;-P.

Cheers, Tony

[garetheves]

Sisyphus: Done, cheers for that :)

Tony: Again thanks mate, you really are a mind of info :) I need to do more research into this "rule of three", if im honest i hadnt heard of it before people mentioned it in this thread and it appears to be quite important. How did you find out what settings i used for the photos?

[tonydee]

Hi Gareth,

"Rule of Thirds" is probably the most useful and simple way a beginner can improve their photos. It is also (albeit much less often) called the "Rule of Three". There are lots of web pages explaining it and giving examples (some better than others)... google is your friend. But in short: divide the picture into a 9 squares: a three by three grid - and put the edges of important things in your photo along the edges of the squares. Put important points (perhaps someone's head in a long-distance shot) on one of four corners of the middle square.

By the way, there's also a rule of thumb suggesting an odd number of items be used... though for your footprints it's unclear whether the foot itself should count as a final footprint, and how many to include is pretty much dictated by how many complete ones you photographed and the need to include all the reflection.

Your camera embeds special comments inside the photograph files, known as EXIF data. These comments record the camera model, settings, focal length, flash usage and all sorts of interesting facts. On many newer operating systems, you can simply right click on an image file in whatever file browser you have (e.g. Windows Explorer, Linux's Nautilus) and selection "Properties...", and somewhere in there it may display the EXIF data. Canon Photo Professional and/or ZoomBrowser (provided with your camera) also displays this data - can't remember which exactly as I haven't used them for a long, long time (Canon should support Linux better!).

Cheers,
Tony