1st time post and C&C

dmac120

I'm feeling brave today, so i decided to stop lurking and start posting., i'm new to photography and below pictures are from a trip to Berlin last week. I know you have to be cruel to be kind, so i'm expecting the worst.

Paulw

I love the polar bear image. Brilliant.

The penguin image is nice too. A little dull, but that might be my screen. Nice seeing them in some real snow.

The first image, well, it does nothing for me. There is no central focal point. Nothing really to grab your interest.

Just my opinion though. Photography is very subjective, so always remember that.

AnimalRights

Agree with Paul, although I wouldn't write #1 off completely.
They could do with more contrast/saturation/oommppfffhhh so to speak and thats were learning post processing comes in handy.
What Camera/software have you?

Paulw

AnimalRights wrote: »

What Camera/software have you?

Canon 450D and Picasa 3.0

dmac120

Thanks guys. i appreciate the comments. I have photoshop at home, just picasa in work so couldn't do much with them, i might have a mess around tonight to see how i can change them.

AnimalRights

Plenty of scope then....

dreamer_ire

I love the polar bear shot and I agree that the first photo certainly has something that can probably be emphasised. Well done

symbolic

Just wanted to say I love the first pic. My pick of the lot.

Nisio

Maybe a portrait crop on the first one around the person and the lamp post?

I like the polar bear pic; it reminds me of the old kit kat advert with the photographer and the pandas for some reason
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRM2ho2qHrU

mobileblog

I think that you could get something with the first one. There’s something there. Just with a little tweaking you could try and bring an Autumn feel to it.
Hope you don’t mind, but i just played with your image a bit and came up with this. My version is a bit dark but something along these lines?

AnCatDubh

Hi dmac120, welcome to the forum (at least the active part of it, I assume you've lurked for a while!). Congrats on your first post too. For a first post they're not bad at all but room for improvement as the other posters have been pointing out.

If I could add a few additional comments from a personal perspective;

#1 - the framing is unusual and not to my liking. Having said that I think the scene that you saw had lots of potential and to 'see' a scene can be the important part of setting up an image. Its the lower part which I find somewhat lacking - the crop that you've captured, in cutting off the lower part of the posts / poles leaves the overall composition unfinished. (imho)

#2 - I love penguins and this is a good attempt. Again I would suggest that the balance is somewhat off which is due to the tight cropping of the image at the top - a small bit more of the surrounds at the top would have worked wonders (to my mind). To achieve that I would suggest that if it were possible you should have dropped to your knees / hunkers and shot at a lower angle towards the penguins which would have enabled you to get more of the surrounds included.

#3 the bear is a wonderful creature but the composition troubles me slightly. My mind is expecting the bear to be located on the other side. I think because he is facing to my left, that I am expecting him to be on the right. This may completely be me but I do find that subjects like this can work much better sometimes when they are on the opposite side. This is something to watch out for when shooting. If in doubt then take a second shot and compare on your lcd or machine when you get home.

Good luck with your photographic journey.

bradnailer

AnimalRights wrote: »

thats were learning post processing comes in handy.

Yes learning how to use your software is "very" important

dazftw

hmm I actually really like the 1st image... is it cropped?

AnimalRights

bradnailer wrote: »

Yes learning how to use your software is "very" important

Owned I be.

dmac120

Cheers guys, thanks for all the help. I had learned a bit reading here over past few weeks, but you definitely learn alot more when it's your own pictures. I agree with comments on the 1st picture, regarding the crop etc, i like something about it I just have to figure out what