Suggestions for colors ?

[lddw]

Here are some pictures I took at university (school or i don't know how you call that in USA).
If you can tell me if somthing is wrong or what I could do better :)

I like to have some overexposed areas sometimes, like on those pictures. Do you agree with me ? or should I change the exposure ?

What about the composition ?

I tried to make the best I can, but I have still a lot to learn. :)

[Stutterbug]

If you like over exposure that's cool. I personally don't like it unless I have a reason for it. I once did it on a picture of someone screaming to make it look as if there raw emotion was so strong that it ruined the very picture they were in. But I think in a regular snap shot it doesn't work for me unless you have a reason for it.

[lddw]

I gave some pictures to my school and wanted to make sure they were good.

For the first picture, you would have used a fill flash instead of overexposing the background ?
I thought the background would be better if it is overexposed than if we can see it because it is too distractive. (I'm about to buy a 35L to have more background blur than with my 17-40 (now sold) )

[yourdoinitwrong]

A little overexposure is ok, but on the first picture there is so much that there is a complete loss of detail on the left side. There is no definition between the table and the background. It's almost to the point of creating a distraction because it is so bright and takes the viewer's eye away from the main subject. In that type of setting I'm sure it's difficult to do much on the composition to try to not get a distracting background, but you could crop the photo to eliminate the overexposed area. I'm certainly not a pro but just thought I would throw my two cents in.

[lddw]

I tried to make a crop. Is it better now ?
They were in a shadow and behing them was very sunny.

[yourdoinitwrong]

I think it looks much better. You could probably take a little more off the left if you wanted but it's a big improvement over the original. In the cropped photo your eye goes to the two people, not the background.

[Sisyphus]

Yes, the crop creates a sort of frame-within-a-frame and is 100% better. Quite nice, actually, but you are right that the background is distracting.

[yourdoinitwrong]

I gave some pictures to my school and wanted to make sure they were good.

For the first picture, you would have used a fill flash instead of overexposing the background ?
I thought the background would be better if it is overexposed than if we can see it because it is too distractive. (I'm about to buy a 35L to have more background blur than with my 17-40 (now sold) )

You might get more background blur with the 35L but in a setting like this I'm not sure it will make a big difference. The distracting elements are too close to the subjects to blur them enough to make them not distracting. I guess sometimes you just end up with photos that can only do so much with (happens to me more often than not!).

[lddw]

Your right, once I have cropped it looks better.

It was taken at F5.6 exactly. If it were at F1.4, ie 4x more, with a little fill flash, it would have been good I think.



->yourdoinitwrong
Forgive me, but I didn't undestood what you mean in this sentence. (i'm still learning English)
Did you mean that the picture is taken and now it is too late to correct it ?
I guess sometimes you just end up with photos that can only do so much with (happens to me more often than not!).

[yourdoinitwrong]

Your right, once I have cropped it looks better.

It was taken at F5.6 exactly. If it were at F1.4, ie 4x more, with a little fill flash, it would have been good I think.



->yourdoinitwrong
Forgive me, but I didn't undestood what you mean in this sentence. (i'm still learning English)
Did you mean that the picture is taken and now it is too late to correct it ?

Yes that is what I meant but it is not a criticism at all! There are just certain situations, such as areas crowded with people, where you cannot get a shot without distracting things in the background. With events like the one you were photographing you are basically taking pictures quickly to capture the people you want as your subjects and can do very little to control what is going on in the background. If you compose the photos a little tighter (shoulders, neck, and head) it will help some because there won't be as much of the background showing to cause a distraction.

[lddw]

Thank you for your explanation :)

[tonydee]

It was taken at F5.6 exactly. If it were at F1.4, ie 4x more, with a little fill flash, it would have been good I think.

Actually, we'd say "4 stops", which is 16x more light.

The tricky thing is that f/1.4 is often hard to use: the background blur can be very strong, which is great, but then the depth of field is very shallow so it's hard to get the subject(s) in focus, particularly if there are two people in a candid moment. For this shot, you might have had to walk around them until they were equally distant from the camera, but then you might have a less attractive angle.

As "yourdoinitwrong" says, sometimes you have to be happy with a less than perfect shot when shooting social events like this....

More generally, I agree with others that the overexposure in #1 was a problem, and the crop helps enormously.

In #2, the paper is also too bright, distracting attention from the ladies. The focus doesn't seem especially sharp throuhgout the image: perhaps using f/8 instead of f/4 would have helped....

Cheers, Tony