Hi Newbie here :) Please critique

[sunnydayz1]

Hi :)

I am new here and thought I would start out here. I am a digital garment printer who is broadening my horizons into printing on canvas with my machine. I love photography as a hobby, but hope to be able to incorporate it into what I do. I mean come on who doesn't want to do what they love right ?

Here are a few of my shots, and give me your all :) I really need to learn what I am doing right and wrong to get going in the right direction. I truly appreciate any feedback I get.

[sunnydayz1]

Here are a couple more :) None of these photos have been edited at all. I am shooting them with a Rebel XTI. I would love if someone could give me some tips on how I should edit these in photoshop. I am very good with software, being in to graphic design, but learning the whole photo aspect of it is quite new for me :) Thanks in advance

Bobbielee

[adrian5127]

I love the first one, second one not overly keen on the subject matter but I know there will be loads that love it!
It is hard to tell on from the forum but the eyes look as though they are not the point of focus, This is nit picking as it is a lovely picutre and he has really posed for you.

Welcome to the forum and hope you enjoy it. Loads of information on here and people of all different experience

[sunnydayz1]

I do agree that his eye looks just a little soft. He did do a good job of posing :) peanuts work wonders. I am still trying to figure out the different settings and such on my camera, so I really appreciate any help :) To be honest when I took the photo, I never even thought about focusing directly on the eye :) that is a great tip.

[butugly]

dont be to dissapointed if you dont get cc straight away,i think the first shot is spot on,dont get the second shot,only because it doesnt mean anything.that beautiful young lady just needs a slightly tighter crop only because of the distractions around her.small crop on the last so your eye looks to the middle not all around the edges.all in a nice set of shots,
in my eyes and i dont have my monitor calibrated,i dont think you need much pp.not a pro but someone should be along shortly to shoot my coments down in flames.!!!!!!

[tonydee]

#1 is terrific... nice natural and interesting backdrop for a super cute subject, mid-munch to boot. For some reason, I find the out-of-focus foot more bothersome than the eye. Setting's generally look good: f/7.1 is small enough to provide some depth of field though perhaps f/8 or f/11 would have made it that touch sharper. Any smaller than that and diffraction starts to kick in. Smaller aperture means a slower shutter or higher ISO though: shutter speed was 1/500s and you were at 100mm on a 1.6x crop body (the Rebel XT has a smaller sensor than the old film format) which is equivalent to 160mm, the rule of thumb is 1/160s minimum. 1/500 is nicely safe, but 1/250s would probably be fine too... doubt he's muching that fast. And ISO400 is slow enough to avoid too much noise, but better not to go to ISO800 if you can avoid it. So, all pretty close to optimal.

An oft-quoted compositional guideline is to put subjects in a third from the edge (Rule of Thirds), but I like having him in the centre as it makes him look more static, rather than about to move away.

The "shoes and socks" sot is really good fun... the shadow cuts across usefully above the centre (might not be Rule of Thirds proportions, but could be Golden Ratio or ~1.6:1). Legs disappear diagonally towards the corners which is good. Extrapolating the knee positions certainly suggests the flexibility that's the domain of kids (and dancers perhaps).

#3 is charming, though her face seems shadowed, not only a little darker than ideal, but also the contrasts are a bit dull and some of the shadows that help clue the viewer in to the 3D curvature aren't evident. It's not a studio shot though, so can't expect "perfect" lighting, but if you're interested - the most recent post I can think of touch on the subject was Benji's here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=704454). Don't think he mentioned it explicitly, but ideally the main light will be about 45 degrees to the side/above/in-front of her. Good stuff to know, so at least you can look out for it while taking candids.

Great flowers too: combination of pink and black raises the interest levels massively, gives it some linearity too. Main thing here is the framing. Firstly, the camera's aspect ratio is pretty arbitrary: historically cameras have used other ratios and it can all work fine, so don't feel bad about cropping something squarer or into a panorama if it simply works better (unless you want to use a pre-made frame and matt), or need to fit something to a specific spot on a web site/document etc). Here, the bits that need to go are the tips of flowers at the bottom, the half flower at right, and at least the tips of the leaves at left. As is, they all attract attention and draw the eye out of the photograph. You can't always win them all though: there'll still be a flower sticking out the top, but if you're more aware of it you can minimise that next time you're framing, or you can clone it out, or soften the contrast with the other background to deemphasise it in post-processing.

Cheers, Tony

[sunnydayz1]

Thanks so much for all the great information :) It really helps to figure out how to improve my shots.

Yea the one with the little girl was taken on a really yucky day, very gray and drizzly. I am definitely going to go read that thread you linked to tony. There is alot to learn and I am so glad I found this forum.

Thanks again

Bobbielee