Hawaii Trip

Hey all! New to DSLRs and finally got my hands on one I've been reading a TON online, non-stop about everything to know about photography in general. After having my camera for just one day, I was on my way to Hawaii and decided there's no better place with fun things to shoot.

Here's two pictures from my trip to hawaii (8 days)....PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE critique these to death! I'd love to know what I can improve on and change.

I don't see any pics or links.

Also, funny but I received a firewall spy-site warning when I opened this thread. Unfortunately, I didn't click on it quick enough to see what it was all about.

They opened just fine for me.

Well if you've been reading everything you could get at least you didn't forget to go out and take some nice photos.

I like them both. The first one looks good to me. I don't see anything that I would change. The color is nice and so is the exp. You could have gotten closer to the people but then that would have been a different photo altogether.

The only thing I would have changed about the second one would be to have included all of the monument. I don't like it cut off on the right side.

Others will see more to correct but that's all I see right now. I'll come back later for my "schoolin".

In the first shot the horizon is tilted. I would guess that it is in the 2nd shot, as well, even though one would have to measure it to tell for sure.
The exposures look perfect on each.

Just figured it out. It's ZoneAlarm stopping a link to ****. The newer versions of ZA do so by default.

I noticed after posting that the horizon is not level in the first picture!!! (whoops!) To save the picture without throwing it out, would you say to crop it so the horizon is not even there? I think I was focusing on the people being straight up and down and not the horizon -- in this case, which is correct? The people or the horizon?


Thank you guys for the input so far....Very much appreciated. I have visions popping into my head faster than I can write them down - I never look at anything the same anymore

splizaat wrote in post #6460451
I noticed after posting that the horizon is not level in the first picture!!! (whoops!) To save the picture without throwing it out, would you say to crop it so the horizon is not even there? I think I was focusing on the people being straight up and down and not the horizon -- in this case, which is correct? The people or the horizon?


Thank you guys for the input so far....Very much appreciated. I have visions popping into my head faster than I can write them down - I never look at anything the same anymore

Well, that brings up the other point that I should have mentioned in the first place. The horizon line brings the water right up to the upper right corner, which means that there is no way to tilt the image without losing all of the sky.

It would have been a better choice to have a substantial amount of sky with the rest of the picture, but as it is, your choices are either crop it all off, or crop it all off - take your pick

I shot this picture about six times (on continuous) and all the others have no sky/horizon in them, I just REALLY liked how both their heads happened to be looking in the same direction of this one. Looks like i'll crop it!

splizaat wrote in post #6460451
I noticed after posting that the horizon is not level in the first picture!!! (whoops!) To save the picture without throwing it out, would you say to crop it so the horizon is not even there? I think I was focusing on the people being straight up and down and not the horizon -- in this case, which is correct? The people or the horizon?


Thank you guys for the input so far....Very much appreciated. I have visions popping into my head faster than I can write them down - I never look at anything the same anymore

I would say the people should be straight unless they are in a posture that allows leaning.

Amazing first pic and very nice colours for the second one. As for the first shot goes, just crop it off the top; if you rotate the image you will still lose the sky and the surfers will not be completely vertical as they are now. The color of the water is amazing!

After some post processing here is shot #1.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Welcome to the forums. The colors are amazing, that's for sure. The horizon on #1 is really no big deal since the sky is such a flat blue. Select the sky color as you BG, transform>rotate the image until level (the background color exposed will be the sky color). All that's left to be done is to re-crop or do minor stamp work on the right edge.

splizaat wrote in post #6460451
I noticed after posting that the horizon is not level in the first picture!!! (whoops!) To save the picture without throwing it out, would you say to crop it so the horizon is not even there? I think I was focusing on the people being straight up and down and not the horizon -- in this case, which is correct? The people or the horizon?


Thank you guys for the input so far....Very much appreciated. I have visions popping into my head faster than I can write them down - I never look at anything the same anymore

With the first shot, yes I would just crop it in a bit. If you've read about the rule of thirds, I'd put the surfers right in the lower left hand third, and crop out the sky and trim a little off the right.

On the shot of the Arizona memorial, the colors and exposure are beautiful, but you chopped off the front edge of the memorial. As I recall it was actually a boat landing there or something, but I would have included it (zoomed out a little) to give the shot a little more symmetry. Also I have to agree with Bob...if you look at the water line there, it is a bit tilted.

On a personal note, I too have been to Oahu and I've been on that tour of Pearl Harbor...it was very touching to say the least and your second shot there brought back some 30 year old memories. The memorial itself doesn't look any different at all from the shots my father and I took there so long ago.

Anyways, for a first time out with the new DSLR, you did pretty good .

Peace,
Jim

I agree with the crop--lose the sky and keep the people straight. I like telles75's crop, but I would've gone a little bit tighter personally.

I like the angle on the memorial. What kind of DSLR do you have? I'd heard that they weren't allowing DSLR's at the memorial. I haven't been there since elementary school and wanted to go back but not if I couldn't take my camera.

Nice job.

Hey guys....Thanks a TON for the help so far....It's helping me a ton.

I looked at the other one shot I took of the memorial and there's the edge of someone's head in the photo which i think is why I for some reason cut the right edge, but enough with excuses - next time i'll kick the person in the butt and tell them to get out of the way

As for my gear, I'm using a Nikon D40 with a 55-200 VR lens on the shot of the surfers and the 18-55 kit lens on the memorial. I know this is a canon forum but I figured we're all into the same thing (photography) and I have learned a ton on this forum just from reading and using searchon techniques, post editing, equiptment, flashes, etc -- hopefully this doesn't cause problems as you guys all seem like an AWESOME group to chat and learn from.