three photos. Please critique!

[erikNW]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3523/4030702568_16c0929541.jpg

This is at my school's Acoustic Night.
F/2.8 ISO1600 1/8


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2598/4030701116_f705f0e552.jpg

Skate shot.
F/7.1 1/200 ISO200

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2643/4020356976_2ac33bff08.jpg

I'm not sure what to think about this photo. The girl was alone at a skate park one day and sat there with her face in her hand with an odd expression. Some kids were noticing and I was trying to tell the story of them looking at her from a distance. (this was shot at 300mm). Tell me what you think.

f/5.6 1/800 ISO400


I'm looking for advice on anything I can do to improve. Thank you!

[aroundlsu]

1 and 3 are very good. 2 doesn't have enough natural light. You could have easily added more natural light by opening the aperture and turning down (or moving away) the flash.

The only other nick pick I can toss out is your exposure settings on 3 are odd. Why shoot at ISO 400? (or 200 for that matter) when you have so much light? You could easily have opened up a stop and dropped to 1/400 to get ISO 100 on photo 3.

[erikNW]

Thanks for your reply. I was using my pop-up flash for 2 (no speedlite yet). I agree it doesn't have enough natural light.
As for the ISO on photo 3...I was shooting into a shady area and then zoomed into sunlight/forgot to lower it. I need to pay better attentionnnnn..

[aroundlsu]

ISO 400 is not going to hurt anything, it's just a general nit pick. I am obsessive compulsive and rarely/never move my camera off of ISO 100. I always just add more light. But that seems to be just me since Canon just introduced a camera that can shoot at friggin ISO 100,000.

[joedlh]

#1 Problematical. The performer is faced away from you. Was it because you wanted to get the audience in the shot? The bright light under the table distracted your camera's meter, causing the rest of the image to be underexposed. You could crop the bottom just below his feet and the right just past the back of his chair. All the stuff there just makes the shot too busy.

#2 puzzles me. Wasn't there enough light to get the shot without the flash? If the sun was directly overhead, then yes, you would need a fill flash. But you've pretty much blasted the subject. It makes the shot look artificial. For action shots, you could try a higher ISO. Also, at F/7.1 everything is in focus. You could open the aperture a bit to allow in more light. Dial in -1 flash compensation and you've got a winner. (Watch your shutter speed with the flash).

#3 doesn't do it for me. It looks like you were trying to take a shot and a cast member from the musical Godspell stepped in front of you. If it were me, I'd delete it.

As to choice of ISO, I use 400 90% of the time with xxD cameras. I'm not a believer in the ISO 100 or nothing mantra.

[tonydee]

#1... it may be more interesting larger, where you can focus on the people you know in the crowd, but for a stranger who's maybe not patient enough to pull out the details, and for whom they'd mean little, there's not a lot to satisfy in the shot. Difficult lighting conditions indeed...

#2: looks very pasted on... there's a black shadow under his left arm... how did that happen?

#3: made more sense after I saw your explanation... kind of grew on me... but really it's hard for anyone to make the connections between foreground shadow and background without that explanation.

As for ISOs, when you see something you want to shoot - and it's transient - can't necessarily expect to remember what ISO you're on all the time. You did well to realise your vision of the shot. ISO400's not much of an issue unless you end up wanting to increase the exposure, or local contrasts, in post-processing, print big etc..

Keep shooting and sharing with us.

Cheers,
Tony

[Flo]

#1 Problematical. The performer is faced away from you. Was it because you wanted to get the audience in the shot? The bright light under the table distracted your camera's meter, causing the rest of the image to be underexposed. You could crop the bottom just below his feet and the right just past the back of his chair. All the stuff there just makes the shot too busy.

#2 puzzles me. Wasn't there enough light to get the shot without the flash? If the sun was directly overhead, then yes, you would need a fill flash. But you've pretty much blasted the subject. It makes the shot look artificial. For action shots, you could try a higher ISO. Also, at F/7.1 everything is in focus. You could open the aperture a bit to allow in more light. Dial in -1 flash compensation and you've got a winner. (Watch your shutter speed with the flash).

#3 doesn't do it for me. It looks like you were trying to take a shot and a cast member from the musical Godspell stepped in front of you. If it were me, I'd delete it.

As to choice of ISO, I use 400 90% of the time with xxD cameras. I'm not a believer in the ISO 100 or nothing mantra.
LMAO.that gave me a great laugh this morning......:lol:

I also agree with your critque.
I too use IS0 400 99% of the time.I haven't used the tripods yet, so handheld I use 400.

[erikNW]

The Godspell comment cracked me up as well.

For number 2 I'll just give you the details on what I did... I exposed for the sky and used flash to fill my object....and then I edited it (poorly) to what I thought was cool. I'm really glad you've all critiqued it so I know to make less extreme adjustments to my pictures... Here is the original. Do any of you think this looks better or was it my technique of taking it that ruined it?

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs274.snc1/10132_1120519185550_1604162066_1900324_5859095_n.j pg

[joedlh]

I exposed for the sky and used flash to fill my object.


It looks like it was overcast. In that case, the sky was your source of light. If you meter on it, your camera will try to make it 18% gray, which is too dim given that it's your light source. Take a look at the histogram of the original. It is way underexposed. You're only using half of the tonal range. However, adjusting it results in the artificial lighting of the first image. Try metering off something that's close to 18% gray or use manual mode and check the histogram on the LCD. If you want to use fill flash, dial it down 1/2 to 1 f/stop.