My First Attempts With My Niece

Hi everyone. I have been lurking for a couple of weeks and trying to learn a little before I posted. I just bought my Rebel XT and began to experiment. These were my best shots so far:

Hello and welcome : )

In my opinion, the most important improvment that the first one needs is that you try and place your subjects in more uniform light, so that you don't get such harsh highlights. See her arms and jeans ?

The second one is nice, but I think it could benefit from a lower shooting angle, shallower dof and a less distracting background (legs) .

Third one.... maybe a bit closer ?

Also, you could try fill-flash, but I'm sure others will come up with more comments.

Hi Kjott21

Number 2 is a very sweet photo, These are very special moments in time that YOU alone have captured.

Nice work.

Forgot to add. Start a word doc named P.O.T.N., cut and paste stuff that intrestes you, you'll be ASTOUNDED at the advice here. It really is the BEST site on the web.

Steve

You picked a difficult object to photograph but you still managed to do a good job. Second picture came out very nice.

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

Davidoff wrote in post #3931871
In my opinion, the most important improvment that the first one needs is that you try and place your subjects in more uniform light, so that you don't get such harsh highlights. See her arms and jeans ?

Yeah we were out under a tree in the front yard. She doesn't like to have her picture taken anymore so I was just keeping an eye on her and seeing what I could get. I hadn't noticed that her arm and legs were so washed out till yesterday.

Davidoff wrote in post #3931871
The second one is nice, but I think it could benefit from a lower shooting angle, shallower dof and a less distracting background (legs) .

Legs in the background were unavoidable because my fiance had to sit right there to keep her from falling in the pool. I just picked up a nifty fifty so maybe the next one I try will have the background a little more blurred out and a shallower DOF.

Davidoff wrote in post #3931871
Third one.... maybe a bit closer ?

Closer would have meant being IN the pool. Not ready to try that yet with the camera.

Thanks for the critique.

Here are a couple more from the same session: