New Photographer, please critique

#1 is a classic example of lens flare. If you wanted all that for artistic effect, then you got plenty of it.

Same thing happened to some extent in #2.

The duck picture #3 gets an interesting effect with the pattern of criss-crossing leaves, branches and stems, but it overpowers the subjects.

In the last picture I really like your composition and the overall effect of the scene is very interesting and relaxing. I do feel, however, that it is a little too dark. I don't think it needs more contrast, because I like the full range of tones that you have there now. It's just that it could use a slight shift in the brighter direction right across the board.

Regarding the lens flare - each of the several elements of the lens has an interface between it and other elements or with air. Each such interface can and will cause the circles that you see. Anytime a portion of the lens can look out past the lens hood and see a point source of light, a footprint of each of those interfaces will show up somewhere in the print on a radial line from the source of light.

Thank you for the comments. I actually added the lens flare in photoshop after the fact. It was actually a gloomy day in the second picture. Anyway...thanks again.

Just keep shooting more like that last one. It's very good. Welcome to a great hobby.

Last shot is very cool. As everybody all ready said to much lens flare in the first few.

I have a version of the last one where I photoshopped out all the the cars in the distance and all the road signs...I think it looks much better without all that stuff.
Thanks for all the comments though.
Sarah

I like them all. I'm not going to get into a formal critique, I just don't have the energy after processing a boatload of images of my inlaws. You may want to check out the sharpening scripts at the TLR site: http://www.thelightsri​ghtstudio.com …onalSharpeningT​oolkit.htm. I'm not usually a big proponent of ultra sharp images, but you may find some very light capture sharpening to your liking.

1. Out of focus and no clear strong subject of the image.
2. Colored lens flare in a black and white photo? Also same comment as #1
3. I just don't like it.
4. Has potential, it's too uniformly grey, try to dodge and burn it to bring out something interesting. There's a huge B&W thread in post processing you should read.

sat6981 - with your permission might I post a 'tweaked' version of the last image - it's a really nice image, and has great potential, but at the moment, is quite flat - when you're converting images to black and white, you want to check the histogram, to make sure you're getting the blackest blacks, and the whitest whites - otherwise they have a tendency to look a little

You're making a great start though - and even though the first couple of shots appear to be a little out of focus, I quite like the compositions, and think the flare works quite well in the first shot.

Yes, you may post a tweaked version.

I am not converting the images to black and white; my camera has a black and white setting on it. Would it be better to shoot in color and swith it to black and white later?

If you've got PS then yes shoot in color.
You can always convert it later, but it's hard to hand tint a photo to make it color.
You'll have a lot more control doing the conversion in PS.

Oh yeah... Welcome to POTN!
Hope you enjoy your stay and keep posting your work.

Great, thanks for the help...I will try shooting in color and converting to black and white.

Sarah - here's my attempt at enlivening (is that a real word?) your road shot more. What I've done is adjusted the levels (using an adjustment layer in Photoshop), used the Unsharp Mask (USM) to give it local contrast enhancement (see http://www.cambridgein​colour.com …-contrast-enhancement.htm for an explanation of that) - settings 15,50,0.

Finally, I've attempted to use the dodge and burn tools to darken the sky, to bring out the drama of the clouds more - although I'm very much a beginner in using the dodge and burn tools, so I'm not entirely satisfied with the results. If you like, I can email you the photoshop file (or can hide it in my website for you to download, it's only a 1MB file, as I saved it after resizing it. . .d'oh!).

Hope it gives you an idea of what you can do with it.

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Wow...that looks so much better. Thanks for the help

No worries. What I would always advise is to shoot in colour, find a method of converting to black and white you're comfortable with - using the Channel Mixer is a great way - it's simple, and fairly intuitive, and finally, use Levels (and possibly curves, and dodging and burning) to make sure you have a range of tones from the blackest blacks to the whitest whites.

To create more drama, you want to have areas with high contrast - e.g. the dark mountains against the light sky, or the line running down the side of the dark road. For portraits, to be kinder, generally you will not want such strong contrast, but the main thing is to experiment, and have fun!