Feedback on technique please

Hello,

I'm trying to improve my skills and right now I'm focusing on exposure. I've only been shooting in M for the past few days, and I've got a lot of shots where I'm clearly missing on exposure! I did a lot of reading today and took a lot of pictures this evening and think that I was able to make some significant improvements in both my understanding, and ability to adjust. I would appreciate any advice offered on how I could make these two photographs more appealing, or execute them better technically. Aside from the boring subjects in them, I'm generally pleased with the results.

#1.

are you using the exposure level indicator in your viewfinder? just focus on something and adjust ISO \ aperture and shutter speeds until the pin is in the middle (it will sample the exposure level of what you point at as long as you hold the shutter button halfway), so its not over exposed or under exposed, then just play with the variation of the 3 factors to get what you want out of the picture in terms of motion, DOF etc etc

as for pictures being boring or not, the rule of thirds is a good way to go, colors, lines, shapes, all of these can make the composition more appealing,
if the subject is not interesting then its not interesting not everything is photo worthy... look for interesting subjects,

now for the pictures, the first one seems to be in focus, narrow focus plane, the colors are nice, but the background is boring, the colors are bit dead as a result.

the second one is out of focus, it seems to be due to camera shake, try using a tripod for long exposures or get more light in there to increase shutter speed if hand held.

good luck with your learning progress! and I'm learning more and more myself, this site is a great place to learn theory, but the best place to learn is from hands on experience on the field of course

I think the exposure is fine; you might be asking the wrong question. Composition of #1 lacks interest for me because of the centered framing and the flat background. #2 is very nice for the colors. The subject achieves good position in the frame, but the OOF elements at the bottom distract my eyes quite a bit. So while the effect is technically correct, the composition could be improved by minimizing the visual weight of elements not central to the image.

GlimmerMan wrote in post #11063055
I think the exposure is fine; you might be asking the wrong question. Composition of #1 lacks interest for me because of the centered framing and the flat background. #2 is very nice for the colors. The subject achieves good position in the frame, but the OOF elements at the bottom distract my eyes quite a bit. So while the effect is technically correct, the composition could be improved by minimizing the visual weight of elements not central to the image.

I realized the framing of the first was poor shortly after taking the shots. I tried to correct some by cropping. Since my 50mm prime is my sharpest lens I was using it for these pictures. I think I needed to stand back a bit more, but I was also trying to capture good detail, I don't know if that would have suffered if I was standing 10 feet away versus 3.

I was going for a look on the second that did have some OOF focus elements at the bottom, I've seen a lot of portraits and other shots that I liked that work, but I agree in this case it does not work. I think it's because there is no color differentiation between the OOF part and the in focus part. Thank you very much for offering your feedback.

FrontElement wrote in post #11062851
are you using the exposure level indicator in your viewfinder? just focus on something and adjust ISO \ aperture and shutter speeds until the pin is in the middle (it will sample the exposure level of what you point at as long as you hold the shutter button halfway), so its not over exposed or under exposed, then just play with the variation of the 3 factors to get what you want out of the picture in terms of motion, DOF etc etc

I am using the exposure meter, but I'm a bit curious about something. I was using my flash and bouncing off the ceiling. The exposure meter in the camera always ends up showing the pics will be underexposed by two stops or more when I've got the flash on. I was thinking of changing the metering mode to spot metering and seeing if that gave me better results in the view finder exposure meter, but then I'm limited in my camera to using the center focus point. Maybe I've got something setup incorrectly on the flash or body.

FrontElement wrote in post #11062851
now for the pictures, the first one seems to be in focus, narrow focus plane, the colors are nice, but the background is boring, the colors are bit dead as a result.

the second one is out of focus, it seems to be due to camera shake, try using a tripod for long exposures or get more light in there to increase shutter speed if hand held.

good luck with your learning progress! and I'm learning more and more myself, this site is a great place to learn theory, but the best place to learn is from hands on experience on the field of course

I agree with the background, it's a plain wall behind it. I had taken a few shots, others with a couch behind, similar to the colors of the second, but the colors seemed so close to the main subject that I thought it was washing them out. I'll try another shot with something different behind it on the plant today.

The second picture I hope is not OOF due to camera shake, or I'm real shaky, 50mm focal length, 1/800 @ f/1.4. I think the wide open focus, and the fact it gives me only tiny DOF (hope I'm using the term right ). I should have stopped it down a bit for sure, I was experimenting and trying to completely blow out the background. I've found the feedback helpful, thanks again to you both!

Ephur wrote in post #11063343
The second picture I hope is not OOF due to camera shake, or I'm real shaky, 50mm focal length, 1/800 @ f/1.4. I think the wide open focus, and the fact it gives me only tiny DOF (hope I'm using the term right ). I should have stopped it down a bit for sure, I was experimenting and trying to completely blow out the background. I've found the feedback helpful, thanks again to you both!

In that case the mistake is mine, it IS the aperture you used, if you have convenient settings to take your photograph, you don't have to compromise on the aperture to gain more shutter speed, 1\800 is wayyyy fast for this kind of shot,
close your aperture a couple of stops, and reduce shutter speed to compensate until your exposure is right, you will also enjoy the benefit of sharpness to your image, and it's more than enough to create DOF behind the subject, with 1.4 you can have the front tip of the subject in focus and 1cm behind it everything will be blurred (great for some things, but not this) it is really THIN,
if you find it hard to keep stable on slower shutter speed, use a tripod or lean on something, correct me if I'm wrong but was it taken in your home? if so, you got all the comfort and time to set the image properly, no pressure, give thought to composition, set the lighting as you see fit, create the correct background that works for you, get proper support for your camera if you don't have a tripod, you got all the time in the world to plan your shot, use it
good luck!