Constructive criticism

[superted666]

Hey guys n girls,

Here are my first shots taken by my new digital camera, its my first time with a proper dslr so i was playing with all the settings to get a better understanding of things....

Here are some images, now i had a big issue on the action shots with reflection from the ground however i managed to get them a bit better towards the end of the shooting session.

I wouldnt mind knowing whats wrong with each pic etc....

http://www.fun-t.com/ft/images/DSC01815.JPG
http://www.fun-t.com/ft/images/DSC01816.JPG
http://www.fun-t.com/ft/images/DSC01820.JPG
http://www.fun-t.com/ft/images/DSC01821.JPG
http://www.fun-t.com/ft/images/DSC01822.JPG
http://www.fun-t.com/ft/images/DSC01824.JPG
http://www.fun-t.com/ft/images/DSC01830.JPG
http://www.fun-t.com/ft/images/DSC01847.JPG
http://www.fun-t.com/ft/images/DSC01873.JPG
http://www.fun-t.com/ft/images/DSC01879.JPG

also im shooting these as fine quality and to jpeg so as to fit lots on a CF card, would i notice a big diff shooting in RAW?

 

[beavo451]

RAW qill help with exposure correction and white balance correction. Also, there will be no loss of information as opposed to jpeg compression.

#1 Pretty good. Nice colors.
#2 Snapshot picture of a tower. Also, it looks like the image either suffers from camera shake or needs to sharpened, or the lens is just plain soft.
#3 Does nothing for me. Good exposure though and good attempt at DOF usage.
#4 Same comments as #2
#5 Again it appears to be blurred or OOF.
#6 Cool shot. I would bump the saturation and do some curves adjustment to make the picture pop more. Blown out section on the ground is distracting. For future reference, underexpose a little so you don't get any blown highlights and use fill flash to bring out the biker some more. Try for a better angle.
#7 Similar comments to #6, crop closer to the biker, so the subject is clearer.
#8 See #6 and #7
#9 Similar to the rest of the action shots. I would frame the picture to be around the biker and the spectators on the left.

The first picture is the best. All the others have pretty good exposure, but are blurry or not sharp. What are your incamera settings? Composition needs some work. Do you know about the rules of thirds? If not, I can post my explanation and examples.

 

[superted666]

Well for the white-ish looking action shots it was auto, for the last one which has more colour i used a custom white balance designed for sunny conditions and a few small tweaks and the colour improved dramatically

ive not heard about the rules of thirds but would love to hear what you got to say!

 

[beavo451]

Well for the white-ish looking action shots it was auto, for the last one which has more colour i used a custom white balance designed for sunny conditions and a few small tweaks and the colour improved dramatically

ive not heard about the rules of thirds but would love to hear what you got to say!

And what tweaks would these be? Did you repost your photo that was improved?

Rule of thirds is dividing a picture into thirds veritcally and horizontally. You will have nine rectangular boxes. This aids in composition. You place the most significant subject as close to one of the thirds lines or intersections as possible. Remember that this is a guideline, but it works for so many different photos.

Here are some examples:

Notice the major features are the facial features: eyes, nose, mouth.

Major features here are legs body and head.

Major feature here is the hole in the clouds

 

[superted666]

ahhh okay i hadnt heard of the that method before, Think im gonna pop to local book store and pick up a book about it all, any one book which rules them all on getting started?

 

[beavo451]

"Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson is pretty much the standard starting book.

 

[sjl]

I wouldnt mind knowing whats wrong with each pic etc....
[...]
also im shooting these as fine quality and to jpeg so as to fit lots on a CF card, would i notice a big diff shooting in RAW?

RAW vs JPEG depends on what you're doing. Think of it as working with a negative versus working with a printed image. You can do more to adjust the image with a negative than you can with the print; for instance, if the shot is over- or under-exposed, you can still rescue it with a raw exposure, but that becomes harder with a JPEG. If you're not doing that much to the images, though, it probably doesn't make much difference, to be honest.

As for the pictures: I didn't mind the first. The second needs work on the composition; it's hard to tell whether you're looking at the tower in the background, or the blue domes and mobile phone mast in the foreground.

The third's composition is also a bit off to my eye; I think it's simply that the background blur is distracting, rather than enhancing the image. Again with the fourth image, it's hard to tell what the subject is; there's too much in the photo.

The sixth and seventh images would probably work better with a somewhat tighter zoom on the cyclist.

No particular comment on the rest; I'm not sure that I can see the artistic purpose of those shots, but I don't have anything to suggest for improvements.

As with anything of this nature, all of this is just my subjective viewpoint, from looking at the images without any indication of what the story is behind them.

 

[superted666]

well i did ask for criticism.. and i got it

These were only test shots on my first day of ownership im not trying to invoke thought or have artistic shots its just to learn the camera and see where im going wrong etc....

 

[pulsewidth947]

I recently bought an SLR (film), and its fully manual. I really recommend getting to grips with using a camera manually. Once you know how changing aperture/shutter speed affects your pictures, you can really start getting creative. I tend not to follow the general rules of composition, except the rule of thirds. But best of all lots of practise helps, and this is the fun part! If you are anything like me, you have to get used to taking many bad/average pictures, before you get that 1 photo you are really proud with. But you have digital so that's nothing for you to be really worried about!

chrismccorckle has written a great introduction to Photography. I wish the mods would sticky it as its very helpful for us who are starting out.

 

[beavo451]

I recently bought an SLR (film), and its fully manual. I really recommend getting to grips with using a camera manually. Once you know how changing aperture/shutter speed affects your pictures, you can really start getting creative. I tend not to follow the general rules of composition, except the rule of thirds. But best of all lots of practise helps, and this is the fun part! If you are anything like me, you have to get used to taking many bad/average pictures, before you get that 1 photo you are really proud with. But you have digital so that's nothing for you to be really worried about!

chrismccorckle has written a great introduction to Photography. I wish the mods would sticky it as its very helpful for us who are starting out.

I did one too here.

While chrismccorckle has good knowledge, in my limited time here, this particular poster has come across as being a sort of elitist. (Although at times, I think I do the same thing).

BTW, I noticed that you decided to get the Sony A100 that you were debating in your other thread. How do you like it so far?

 

[superted666]

Yea i went to the shop tried the d70s , rebel xt and the a100 and overall i felt the a100 as a better deal, i read up so new the pro's and cons before buying but it suits my use excellently.

At first pictures were hard to get looking good but the more i play with them the happier i get! ive found dealing with iso,shutter speed etc the hardest to get light in oveercast conditions but im getting there one step at a time.

Give it a month or so and hopefully il have something proud to post on here

 

[pulsewidth947]

Awesome beavo, yeah I missed that. I think it'd be a good idea to set up a Photography WIKI entry for Mac Guides. Might have to see if I can figure that out. If I do figure it out, would you mind me putting your guide on it, with your pics? If you do mind, might I suggest you do it as people are missing information

I found a collection of tips and tutorials earlier. Might be of interest to you superted.

 

[beavo451]

Awesome beavo, yeah I missed that. I think it'd be a good idea to set up a Photography WIKI entry for Mac Guides. Might have to see if I can figure that out. If I do figure it out, would you mind me putting your guide on it, with your pics? If you do mind, might I suggest you do it as people are missing information

I found a collection of tips and tutorials earlier. Might be of interest to you superted.

That is no problem with me. My images are watermarked at the bottom left corner so as long as you don't take those out .

Yea i went to the shop tried the d70s , rebel xt and the a100 and overall i felt the a100 as a better deal, i read up so new the pro's and cons before buying but it suits my use excellently.

At first pictures were hard to get looking good but the more i play with them the happier i get! ive found dealing with iso,shutter speed etc the hardest to get light in oveercast conditions but im getting there one step at a time.

Give it a month or so and hopefully il have something proud to post on here

I look forward to your pictures! Overcast and cloudy days are better for photos than bright sunny days (IMO).

 

[Clix Pix]

I think it'd be a good idea to set up a Photography WIKI entry for Mac Guides.

Actually, don't you think this is re-inventing the wheel? There are a LOT of excellent guides to photography already available on the internet, not to mention a lot of excellent books as well..... Several photography forums are setting up their own Wikis, too..... Why not leave this to the experts?

 

[superted666]

dont see why hurts having something here,
it was the first place i came and would be great having good guides and the expertise already available on these boards.

Read through some of those guides, so much to consider and think about!

 

[pulsewidth947]

Actually, don't you think this is re-inventing the wheel? There are a LOT of excellent guides to photography already available on the internet, not to mention a lot of excellent books as well..... Several photography forums are setting up their own Wikis, too..... Why not leave this to the experts?

Possibly, but like Superted says, theres no harm in it. If you have some links to these guides you could let us know and we can include them on the list. I personally didnt know where to look when I got my camera, and just happened to stumble over the guides here.

 

[superted666]

completley off topic but pulsewidth i was checking out your flickr and the lighting effects you acheive look stunning!

come on whats your secret? the blue skys dramatic change in darkness looks sweet!

 

[Clix Pix]

completley off topic but pulsewidth i was checking out your flickr and the lighting effects you acheive look stunning!

come on whats your secret? the blue skys dramatic change in darkness looks sweet!

Without looking at the images, seeing your words "dramatic change in darkness," I can suggest two things: he may have used either a polarizer or a gradiated filter (neutral density or one with some color).