Some Comments on Composition Please.

Hello All,
I am rather new to DSLR Photography, and Horrible at post-processing, but hopefully, those will change with time. I've been snapping away with my 40D and a couple of good lenses, and a handful of less than good lenses. I have posted some of the shots to a self-hosted Gallery and would appreciate if someone would take a look at them and let me know if my compositions are at all worthy.

There are a few shots posted that have been cropped, a few that have been processed (Some horribly), and a few that are straight from the camera, well, except for resizing and conversion to jpg.

I don't now if it's alright to post a link to the gallery as opposed to posting actual images, the posting rules don't mention that.

Thanks for any input and yes, I realize that "I asked for it."

The gallery is located Here.

Username: Visitor
Pass: Pass

Thanks,
Duane

Post a couple shots at most.

Yes, it would be better to post a couple of photos that you want critiqued. Then later post a few more. Most people will not go offsite to look at photos.

It took three tries for me to get into your site. I entered the name and password exactly the same way each time. I don't know what that was all about.

Ok,
Advice taken. The Gallery is basically just ' In House ' , a place to play with Apache and php.

As far as critique on composition ( or framing, might be the proper term. I know the subject matter, and details are sketchy at best. ) goes I'm trying to teach myself the rule of thirds, as my first and probably most important lesson in anything to do with art in general.

As stated the details are sketchy. I'm very 'green' in the digital photography world. Post processing will come at a later time as well. Right now I'm in the stage of learning to control my 40D. I only shoot in [M] and raw, or raw and large jpeg. (Lately just raw, since I found Faststone Image Viewer reads and understands .CR2 .) I have only recently acquired a ' fast ' lens, the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8. Aside from the nifty 50, the next fastest lens I have is the Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Kit lens. So I'm kinda learning about depth of field now too.

I have never been artistically inclined, pretty much black and white stick figures and napkin drawings. So, yeah 'I asked for it', but this is all real new to me.

Here's a few that I find decent enough to post. Each will have a description of what I remember doing to them, or not. Whatever the case may be.


Here's one straight from the camera, no post-processing besides jpeg conversion, resize (No Crop), and a watermark.

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

I like #1, but I might crop out the wood in the lower left corner. On #2 it looks like the focus was on the leaves in front of the squirrel, rather that on the squirrel itself... So it looks too soft. Next time try focusing on the eye. On #4 I would crop a bit off the top, and in the future maybe do that in the camera, get a little more of his body and a little less of the space above his head. Just my opinions, I have a new Canon 40D as well that I'm learning with.

Oh, and on #1 you might photoshop out the rock (?) on the left in the water, and the pole looking thing on the shore.

Here is what I would change. I would straighten the horizon in #1 The railing or whatever is in the left foreground of #1 needs to go as well. The focus on #2 is too far forward and the only way to save it is to shoot it again. Hope the squirrel is cooperative. In #3, if you can get higher, I would like it better if the cross piece on top didn't interrupt the shoreline.

Maine is one of the few states I haven't visited. It looks beautiful. Some day...

Thanks for all your replies, that is exactly the type of things I was looking for.

And @ JimM, Believe it or not, the squirrel is very co-operative. I walk out the back door and he starts chattering away, then shows up and poses for me. Strange, yes, but cheap models are hard to find here in Maine,

I took a look thru most of your gallery and while I won't comment on specific shots, I do see some reoccurring issues with a number of your shots.

The single biggest problem I am seeing is that a large number of your shots are out of focus (oof). This is just my opinion here but unless you are using a damaged lens (like it's been dropped or something), this is NOT something that can be blamed on "cheap lenses". Normally I'm a composition kind of guy and my general philosophy is that the composition should always come before the technical, but with a large number of your shots, they are so far oof, that the composition really doesn't matter either. To that I would also add that with critters or people, don't forget that the eyes have to be sharp. Even if you are shooting with a really shallow DOF, you can get away with murder as long as the eyes are sharp but if they're not then the rest of the shot really becomes pointless.

Now that said, I do think that the nature shots seem to be your strong point. Some of you people shots are ok but for the most part they just look like run of the mill snap shots...nothing really noteworthy about them at all. A couple of them could probably be fixed with a crop but honestly all you would have is well cropped snap shots.

As you have already noted, the processing is a bit of an issue here as well....but as you also say, that will come with time. Editing/processing, like photography itself is a skill. As I just said in another thread, it takes a time to learn how to do well, but it's well worth the time to learn. In you case, the biggest areas I would suggest that you work on are color correction, exposure and sharpening.

Okies...just some thoughts for ya,
Jim