Still an amatuer, what do you think?

Hi all,

I'm just getting into photography really and would like a few pointers. What do you think about these photos please?

#1

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

Byte size: ZERO | Content warning: NOT AN IMAGE

#1 I think is a nice contemplative shot. The eye is in focus, which is the most important thing. I'm not bothered by the shallow depth of field. The background, however, could be less attention-getting.

#2 Uh. Okay, it's a tire.

#3. I think this one is framed nicely. The sky is a little blown out and the mountains lack contrast and detail. I wonder how it would look taken through a polarizing filter. Perhaps an HDR technique to bring in the sky and mountains.

#4 I think this is the best of the lot. It's a dramatic shot and nicely composed and exposed. How did you get detail in the building and foreground? Did you use a flash? From the location of the sun and low light, I would expect the building to be silhouetted.

#5 Nice detail. Perhaps a little more depth of field. I also think I'd like it better if the flower were leaning into the image rather than toward the edge. I'm not sure I can explain why.

#6 A little out of focus. Needs more depth of field.

Try posting fewer images. You'll get more responses. I would have passed it over if I had less time.

No, Joe, it's a wheel!
When you get around to shooting the whole car: A few Car Lighting Tips - Updated

Good point, especially in this Critique section.

Generally, that's a good series of shots. I might have tried to kick in some flash from the left for #6, but I'm just picking a nit here.
Welcome to POTN!

#4 is awesome!

Very nice.

My only changes would be

#3 lower angle, the close willow branches seem to be taking up too much of my view. But I would have to see both to be sure, so I would have taken both if possible.

#5 Would this shot look better as a vertical shot and crop out some of the black on the side, and loose the partial leave in the lower right side?

#4's perfect in my book.

#6 is nice but not as dramatic as #5. Maybe if the butterfly was a Monarch, but you take them as you get them, right?

Good luck.

Just my thoughts

#1 works best among all 6. I love portraits like this!
#2 I'm not sure where the focus is.
#3 I love the scene. The long hanging branches on the right, however, bothers me a tad bit.
#4 It looks sci-fi (just a comment, not that it's bad or anything).
#5 I would say, cropping it tighter?
#6 agree on the previous posts on DoF

I like #1 best, but the bright background is a little distracting. I also like #4 a lot, but as joedlh said, I think that the sky is a little blown out and noisy. I think you're doing great for a beginner!

Number one Amateur mistake :: don't let yourself depend on the HDR effect too much ; ). (of course some will dissagree with me)

#1: Good focus, but nothing really to the picture.

#3: Needs to straighten out horizon line, and the sky is way overexposed. Try shooting away from the sun or at a different time of day.

#4: I'm not a fan of HDR, but I like the sky colors.

#5: Focus on one point so the eye can know where to look. It look like a ordinary boring flower right now, but if you were to focus on say one part of the flower, then it would pop more.

#6: I like this one. Maybe the face of him would have been better.

Just my 2 cents, he he

Amateur to amateur
#1 like it. nice Dof, but try darkening the background a bit, for the contrast, and croop that bit of hair over his foreground. it doesn't feel right to me.
#2 it's a tire BOOOOring you can do better ^^
#3 overexposed. you blowned the sky out. reflection is nice but I see clouds on water but not in the sky. and better crop would do nicely
#4 GREAT. Lord of the rings kinda photo. Great sunset. just great
#5 very beautyful, and # 6 nice, but looks a bit OOF. maybe my eyes are in a bad mood cuz I didn't got much sleep
Great job.
post some more

#1 Nice portrait, subject nicely seperated from background, clearly deep in thought.

#2 Boring, sorry. Might be of interest to someone with a fetish for wheels though.

#3 Needs straightening, unless the lake really does slope downhill . I like the shot but I find the white huts on the jetty very distracting. The white draws the eye but then the object one is drawn to is obscured by the branches. I would have moved around a bit to find a better viewpoint, whilst still keeping the branches framing the shot. Slightly to the left would have enabled the huts to be a part of the scene, with the overhanging branches then falling to the right of them. It would also put the chalet in the background a bit more to the left and remove the other white building largely obscured by trees. At the moment the eye is drawn to too many objects and finding them obscured when focused on. The chalet and (unobscured) boat huts would make a nice scene.

#4 Very nice, I'm not a huge fan of HDR because people usually go too far with it, this one works well.

#5 Looks slightly soft to me, I suspect the focus is slightly too near to the camera (the nearer leaves look a little sharper than the flower heads). I don't know how much you have sharpened this image already, but a touch of selective sharpening on the flower heads may help. I would also crop it tighter and remove some empty space, but that's a personal thing. A bit off the top and the left would decentralize the flower and have it leaning into the image, leaving the open space on the right would then be fine.

#6 Again a little soft although the focus point is around the right area. Needs to be pin sharp on the butterfly head and with enough depth of field to cover (at least most of) the butterfly.

I'm not too sure why #5 and #6 are soft, as they don't look sharp even on the focus point. Things you might try thinking about are:

Are you sharpening in post processing, also resizing for the web generally softens an image and a bit of sharpening is required to bring back the 'pop'.

Are you using a tripod, or enough shutter speed to cut out camera shake. Equally, if using a slow shutter speed on a tripod, the subject may move slightly in the wind and cause a little motion blur / softness.

Try using a smaller aperture (larger number) to increase the depth of field, but don't sacrifice shutter speed too much in these situations. You may need to boost ISO to get sufficient speed and aperture.

Hope this helps a bit.

#3 does have the horizon straight. If you check the vertical lines of the house and the boat house they are vertical. There is just no "real" horizon here.

acchildress wrote in post #6634002
#3 does have the horizon straight. If you check the vertical lines of the house and the boat house they are vertical. There is just no "real" horizon here.

yes,I agree with acchildress. I think it's beacouse of the reflection on the water, and the gras in the bottom you have weird perspective on the horizon. it trick your eyes

joedlh wrote in post #6610219
#1 I think is a nice contemplative shot. The eye is in focus, which is the most important thing. I'm not bothered by the shallow depth of field. The background, however, could be less attention-getting.

#2 Uh. Okay, it's a tire.

#3. I think this one is framed nicely. The sky is a little blown out and the mountains lack contrast and detail. I wonder how it would look taken through a polarizing filter. Perhaps an HDR technique to bring in the sky and mountains.

#4 I think this is the best of the lot. It's a dramatic shot and nicely composed and exposed. How did you get detail in the building and foreground? Did you use a flash? From the location of the sun and low light, I would expect the building to be silhouetted.

#5 Nice detail. Perhaps a little more depth of field. I also think I'd like it better if the flower were leaning into the image rather than toward the edge. I'm not sure I can explain why.

#6 A little out of focus. Needs more depth of field.

Try posting fewer images. You'll get more responses. I would have passed it over if I had less time.

This is my thoughts as well. However I might add to the help for #3. I would have shot from about 1 foot off the ground. and not had the land in the foreground. It also would have not let the tree obscure the boat covers.

#4 has that HDR "glow" around the buildings that gives away the technique. I know there's a way to prevent that, but I don't recall what the technique is.

Jeremy

I am in general agreement with all of the other comments. Also, as other have said, for the Critique Corner, fewer images are better for getting quality critiques.

Here are some specific comments:

1. The cluttered background with the blown out bright areas is a distraction. Also, the saturation seems to be too high and the white balance should be tweaked to correct for overall color bias. The composition is nice, but would be much better if the background had something of interest. I would prefer to see all of the man's face in focus -- currently his chin is slightly OOF.
   
2. Looks like the type of shot that I what one would expect of an insurance adjuster documenting a claim.
   
3. it is a pretty scene. The only problem may be trying to include all of the wonderful view in a single image and, thus overwhelm the viewer.
   
4. This is a pretty sunset scene and certainly a candidate for using HDR processing. However, the HDR processing should have been able to better handle the range of light in the scene. I see some splotchy black areas on and around the structures in the foreground that should have more moderate tonal variations. There are also still some blown out areas in the clouds around the sun that HDR should have addressed more effectively. This was not an easy scene to try to capture and my suggestion would be to take several extra exposures going further than you think is necessary in the underexposed direction because you may find that you need them when the image has extremely bright areas such as this.
   
5. This is a very nice periwinkle picture and the black background works well. The leaves and flower appear to be somewhat underexposed and the water droplets which ought to provide some sparkling highlights turned out to be rather flat. I think that auxiliary lighting from directly over the plant would have helped in this situation.
   
6. This would be a nice macro image if the DOF was great enough to have the flower and insect completely in focus. As it is, the DOF is not quite deep enough. For macro shots such as this, a tripod is a necessity because of the small aperture and long exposure time needed.