Any C&C on my pictures?

[Jaiden]

Hey, I am starting to get into photography, and really want to enhance my skills, so I was hoping I could get some constructive criticism on a few photos which I took yesterday. Some of this is just copied straight from my post in the photo of the day thread, but hopefully no body will mind.

This one was taken with my new Nikon d90 which I got just 2 days ago.
It is the the first shot that I think is acceptable to be posted on here, but I am still very novice and hopefully some of you will have some good C&C for me.

Lens: Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6G VR
Focal Length: 70mm
Shutter Speed: 4

Shot in raw, then converted to JPEG, edited in Lightroom (wb and exposure), and exported as JPEG for the net:

Clicky

will post more soon

 

[slipper]

When i first look at the picture, my eyes are drawn to a flat piece of land with grass. Really boring. Experiment with the composition of your photographs.

 

[kidkaprie]

you said "Shot in raw, then converted to JPEG, edited in Lightroom (wb and exposure), and exported as JPEG for the net"

so you shot it in raw, converted it, then edited it? if you did in fact do that, (vs. just a typographical error on your part) then you are defeiting the purpose of shooting in raw. you should always edit your images using the raw file. this allows for greater control of things, like WB and exposure. that being said...

your exposure looks decent, but your WB is a little off (looks a little warm). i also agree with slipper. your picture is just a flat piece of land, or at least that is what the eyes are drawn too. definetly try to compose something in your image and draw the eyes toward it.

dont let this stop you from photographing, let it inspire you!! keep up the work and let us see more!

 

[Jaiden]

thats the thing - not much software actually supports the nikon d90's nef (raw) files yet. Lightroom, photoshop, etc... none of them. When I say I converted it to jpeg, i literally mean I just used the in-camera function to process nefs, where I actually did play around with the exposure a bit, but thats it really. The only software which you can actually edit the d90 raw's right now is nikon's extra software which costs a small premium.

Also, do you think I should have perhaps shot from the other direction and used the dirt pile as the foreground? The only reason I didn't do this was that I thought the background (facing the other way) wasn't as interesting.

 

[kidkaprie]

this should help....

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php?title=Camera_Raw_4.6

as far as taking a "shot from the other direction "...

I can't really comment on what you should/could have shot in that particular location. I was not there to see what would have made an interesting photo, in my eyes. Based upon looking at your photo, I can offer limited advice on framing an interesting photograph. I might have positioned myself close to the fence so that it runs along the left side of my image. Used a shallow DOF and focused on something that sticks out at you (maybe that fallen branch/log/whatever it is). I don't know if that would make an interesting image or not, because I can't really tell how it would look, without actually being there.

You have to look for interesting things in the un-interesting. Take the ordinary and make it extrordinary. Someone might see just a door, where as someone else would see a gateway into some magical land.

I am by no means a professional, nor would I consider myself just below professional level. I am still experimenting with my "photographic eye" and see myself still as a beginner. So take my advice with a grain of salt. If you would like, feel free to browse my website and see some examples of my work. Sometimes I followed my own advice, other times, I was just snapping pictures.

Hope that helped...

 

[ipodtoucher]

The Gordon Ramsey version: Its a crock of ****! (sorry I just love his show, mainly the British version hahaha)

My version: pretty boring, I know what its like to start new into photography, and I have worked hard to become the professional I am not today

I think with this picture you didn't catch my eye. Its slightly over-red which can be fixed with any editing software, Aperture, lightroom, etc. I am trying to look in the picture to see what you could do to make it interesting. If you could look at that tree branch on the other side of the fence, try to make something out of that.

Just like kidkaprie said, I too am not a professional. It is my life goal to become one, but I am not one as of now. If it will help browse my photo works and feel free to gain inspiration from them. And feel free to ask questions!

Happy shooting!

 

[Jaiden]

i've posted some more shots on my blog, have a look at them at http://www.jaidencapra.com

Thanks for the advice so far,
- Jaiden