New to photography, need feedback on shot

[Mpulsive81]

So I've become rather intrigued with photography as of late and am looking to get a DSLR in the near future, however for now I'm using my P&S Canon S3 IS. I was trying to learn the basics of photography and took a couple shots of a room I did in our new house. (A couple people may know where I got the inspiration for the color) hehehe

At any rate, any feedback would be much appreciated. These pics are milestones ahead of my first pic (lol had a shutter speed of 1 second and didn't understand why my pics were always blurry) One of the guys on the board told me what I could improve on and these are the end results:

edit: i can't get these pics to show up right using sixpop. If anyone can tell me how to do so i'd appreciate it. IN the meantime, here's the link to my flickr page.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30520016@N07/

The lighting was my biggest challenge. The ceiling fan gives a warm ambience, not necessarily the greatest lighting for photography, which is why i ended up using the flash. But there will definitely be more to come...I'm really starting to enjoy this

 

[compuwar]

At any rate, any feedback would be much appreciated. These pics are milestones ahead of my first pic (lol had a shutter speed of 1 second and didn't understand why my pics were always blurry) One of the guys on the board told me what I could improve on and these are the end results:

They're ok. Composition is sort of bland, but good architectural photography is a very specialized skill-set. Exposure might be a little off. I like bright rooms, and for most people to feel "comfortable" in a room, it takes light from two directions. That takes having multiple flashes or balancing flash with ambient from different directions.

The lighting was my biggest challenge. The ceiling fan gives a warm ambience, not necessarily the greatest lighting for photography, which is why i ended up using the flash. But there will definitely be more to come...I'm really starting to enjoy this

Read strobist.blogspot.com for some good low-budget lighting fun, and if you can pick up a copy of "Light: Science and Magic," then do so. Learn to light well and you'll never look back- and you won't have to take poorly-lit pictures with fast glass.

You can simply put an old exposed piece of film over the front of the built-in flash and use optical triggers for an external flash or multiple external flashes. Canon's external flash for the S3 is optically triggered, you also may be able to adjust the onboard flash down enough to be a slight fill. I'd probably go with Wein triggers and Vivitar flashes rather than the Canon one- read the strobist stuff and see if it's interesting.

 

[steviem]

I have to say, the picture I like the most is the front on of the M3. The cloudy sky looks great and the angle you took it at was great too.

 

[HomeingPigeon]

I like the picture that is the front of the M3. The colors (to me) look nice. How did you get that angle? Did you look out the back of a car that was in front of the other car. It looks like the M3 is moving. The angle makes it look really intriguing as well.

 

[PCMacUser]

I don't think the OP took the photographs of the BMW.

As for the photos of the room, they are let down by the lack of a distinct focal point. Are we looking at the couch or the wall or the hanging posters? If it's supposed to be all of them, then you need a much wider angle lens to get away with that.

 

[euanmackie]

I believe the M3s wernt your snaps?

The orange rooms have good potential. and colour wise for the camera are very good, the lighting is good-moderate. Did you use a flash? but a flash can sometimes make it worse..

But as people have said its about composition. try setting your self some basic rules, they may seem cliche but all photographers started with them.

The rule of thirds is good to start, imagine that you have draw a tic tac toe board on the viewfinder, try to keep things out of the middle . place objects off center along one of the lines for instance if a street scene is needed, i would put the kerb on the bottom most line of the board. the street light on one of the upright lines. it helps the eye move through the piece.

Secondly try not to cut things off. this is a good place to start however when you start to develop an eye, cropping things can be very successful,

with the sofa for instance include the all the legs or none of the legs.

A very good effort, ive seen much worse, well done with being creative with the angles. just needs a little refinement...

 

[SpaceMagic]

I just love the naughty fruit. Made my day. Hehehe.

 

[Mpulsive81]

I appreciate all the feedback! I can definitely see where the composition needs an improvement. In all fairness, I never even took that into consideration since I just took those to send to a couple family members who haven't flown into town to see the new house. I'll see if I can find some good rules to set up, I like the idea of the rule of thirds.

I wish I could take credit for the pics of the M3, but that's definitely not my work.

compuwar - can you elaborate on the 'exposure' issue? Are you referring to the flash used in the pic? I'll take a look at that blog to get some ideas on how to get better lighting.

(and yeah, the naughty fruit is awesome! lol)

 

[compuwar]

compuwar - can you elaborate on the 'exposure' issue? Are you referring to the flash used in the pic? I'll take a look at that blog to get some ideas on how to get better lighting.

No, the flash isn't overpowering, so that's good- it's just that the walls probably aren't middle-toned so the exposure isn't great, but more importantly (to my eye) isn't where I'd have put it- I've have put in somewhere around 2/3rds or so of positive exposure compensation to increase the overall tonal levels. You can do it in post-processing, but I find it better to do in-camera. It may also have just been a bit of a white balance issue, and white balancing manually may just bring the levels up enough. Either way, thinking "How do I want this scene to look?" will generally take you further than "How does this scene look?" if you're not a photojournalist. Ansel Adams was one of the best practitioners of that, especially as he got better at printing his B&W negatives.

 

[CarlsonCustoms]

You gotta do more of the naughty fruit pics! That is hilarious.. you could do a whole set on them.. they need some whitebalance work but good start.