C&C please on these photos. Want to know some tips to get better

swingking

How would people rate these photos I took yesterday. I'm just getting started with photography and I'm looking for some C&C. Thanks

oshead

Simple suggestion, Change your perspective. For the dog shot, fill the frame a bit more and get down low with the camera. Another thing, the dog is dead centre frame. Put her to the left or right and you can't go too far wrong.

Heres a similar shot I took of my sisters dog Abbey. Notice the dogs gaze is looking into the frame. Helps make the picture.



For the mountain shot you could take the shot from the edge of the road and maybe with a rock or hedge in the foreground to give some depth to the image. Use the road to lead your eye up to the mountain top. The sky is not very interesting and is not worth having in the pic. So crop the top a little lower.

Just my simple suggestions. Hope they help.

David OS

jpfahy

For the dog to stand out in the picture you also need a shallow DOF. If it's a SLR switch to Program or Aperture Priority to better control DOF. BTW it looks like you've a dust spot on your sensor appearing a third down from the left side.

i71jskz5xu42pb

I'd say pick up a book on composition. Photo's with subject dead centre rarely work well (there are exceptions of course). oshead's photo with pretty much the same subject and a good perspective, lines into the frame & depth of field (or photoshop blur?) comes out a bit better.

Two good ones

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-Photographs-Digital-Updated/dp/0817463003/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

http://www.amazon.com/Photographers-Eye-Composition-Design-Digital/dp/0240809343

swingking

thanks for all the great advice. I'll find a way to improve the composition.

Anouilh

You could crop the existing photos to tighten them up a bit:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic42360.html

There are some ideas on using Irfanview (freeware) here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055669110

You have a pleasant, open style of seeing. Thank you for sharing.

smelltheglove

We all start somewhere and I think it is important to master the simple things before going onto anything else. So as said previously start with composition first, I would suggest to move onto focus afterwards. Your exposure is fine with both of these so there is no need to worry about that yet. I assume you are working auto and I would suggest stay with this until you are comfortable that you have the basics covered.

swingking

I shot both pics using program mode on the camera. I do understand about all the different modes on the camera and about exposure. If you look at the other photos in the album I have some photos that are shot using manual exposure and I have changed the DOF in some of those.

I think I need to work more on the photo composition ; that's where I lack the skills and experience.

Thanks again for your great advice

oshead

smelltheglove wrote: »

I assume you are working auto and I would suggest stay with this until you are comfortable that you have the basics covered.

What? I can't believe you just told a budding photographer to put the camera into auto mode until they got comfortable with the basics. :eek: Rachael, What do you consider to be the basics? Pointing the camera and clicking the button. Cos thats what putting the camera in auto is all about.

The best piece of advice you can give any 'new' photographer is to try as many new things as possible. Learn the machine you use and don't be afraid to experiment with new settings. Open the aperture wide as you can, take a photo, see how that comes out. Change the white balance, take another, see how that works. Change the shutter speed....... etc, etc, etc..... Don't worry too much about composition at this stage. That will come with practice as your eye develops.

Above all, Don't leave the camera in auto mode.

smelltheglove

oshead wrote: »

What? I can't believe you just told a budding photographer to put the camera into auto mode until they got comfortable with the basics. :eek: Rachael, What do you consider to be the basics? Pointing the camera and clicking the button. Cos thats what putting the camera in auto is all about.

By the basics I mean composition. The first thing you think about when taking a pic is how to compose it and this should be one of the first things to learn when getting into photography. There is no point knowing how to use every function on a camera if you dont know how to compose the picture.

We need to learn to walk before we can run and there is no point in trying everything altogether, master one bit at a time to perfect technique.

oshead

smelltheglove wrote: »

By the basics I mean composition. The first thing you think about when taking a pic is how to compose it and this should be one of the first things to learn when getting into photography. There is no point knowing how to use every function on a camera if you dont know how to compose the picture.

We need to learn to walk before we can run and there is no point in trying everything altogether, master one bit at a time to perfect technique.

Interesting you should say about the first you think about is composition. For me it is light and is it any 'good'.

You are advocating not learning the main tool of the trade in favour of spending months maybe years trying to figure out what makes a good composure from bad one. It would take even the most non technical person less than a week to figure out what all of the nobs and buttons do on the camera.

Learning to walk before you can run translates quite simply, learn to use the camera before you can be creative......

smelltheglove

oshead wrote: »

Interesting you should say about the first you think about is composition. For me it is light and is it any 'good'.

You are advocating not learning the main tool of the trade in favour of spending months maybe years trying to figure out what makes a good composure from bad one. It would take even the most non technical person less than a week to figure out what all of the nobs and buttons do on the camera.

Learning to walk before you can run translates quite simply, learn to use the camera before you can be creative......

Ah but as I said already his exposure is fine which suggested to me since op said he was just getting started that he was using auto.

I'm sorry if this is causing you irritation but op asked advice and my advice would be take one thing at a time, he wants nice pictures so start with composition. Maybe you would start at lighting but I would start at composition. If my eye is seeing something i.e. a photo opportunity it is the composition I think of first, then the dof that I require in order to create the shot I want. You may think of the light first so that would be your advice to the op.

Nebezpeci Mys

...Reading all the different opinions I would say, take the road which you are more comfy with; if you want to stay in auto mode for a while and get used to the camera, that's fine. If you feel like you need to master its settings first, that's fine too. You have to be comfy with it. If you are not, the pix will show it.

I only got my first DSLR last Oct/Nov, which in my case meant the start of taking pix... Even though I was really looking forward to getting the camera first, then I felt really intimidated by it. The first shots I took with it were far far away from being usable; composition, focus, DoF, exposure - there was always something that went wrong. It took a lot of persuasion and convincing from certain people, so I would go and try again and again until it kinda came together...

So, my advice would be go out and shoot and read some book about photography, or maybe the other way around. Understanding Exposure, by Bryan Peterson, is great, or The Photographer's Eye, by Michael Freeman, could be good to you too... I've read both of them and can't recommend them enough.

Hope this helps...

oshead

smelltheglove wrote: »

Ah but as I said already his exposure is fine which suggested to me since op said he was just getting started that he was using auto.

I'm sorry if this is causing you irritation but op asked advice and my advice would be take one thing at a time, he wants nice pictures so start with composition. Maybe you would start at lighting but I would start at composition. If my eye is seeing something i.e. a photo opportunity it is the composition I think of first, then the dof that I require in order to create the shot I want. You may think of the light first so that would be your advice to the op.

lol, I'm not being irritated by this. I just don't agree with you. :P

smelltheglove

oshead wrote: »

lol, I'm not being irritated by this. I just don't agree with you. :P

We all have our differences. again my advice is one step at a time. I was well able to compose a shot before even attempting anything else.

elven

People are too handy with the scissors round here. The first shot only needs to be cropped if you want a picture that looks like every other camera club competition winning picture of a dog. I like how it's small in the frame, because it's a small dog. Dave's comment about getting down to eye level might be ehlpful, if only because the OP didn't think about it so far - next time, try both - take one standing up then get down on your knees and take another, then look at both and decide which works best for you.

The comment about using a shallower depth of field also seems like a standard response rather than an actual thought out suggestion for that particular picture. If there was lots of distracting stuff going on in the background, yes, you want to have the dog in focus and have all that blurred to draw the eye to the subject. But here, there's nothing that's distracting from the subject and the background works quite well as it is, it gives some nice context.

Same goes for the automatic "put the subject on a third" advice. Why? why would you do that in this particular picture? The symmetry has something going for it, and you need to know why you're following or breaking a particular 'rule'.

I think the second shot shows a natural understanding of composition as well, with the placement of the small figures within the landscape. Something to point out about that one is that the sky is a bit bland and there's quite a lot of it in the frame, a composition with less of that might work better. A basic question to ask yourself when you're shooting is what are you trying to show? Figure out the important elements and concentrate on showing those, and try to eliminate everything that distracts from that.

Composition is something best done and learned instinctively - look at your shot, then go looking at other pictures of dogs and see what you think is good about yours and good about those and what's different between them. You'll start to know what feels right when it comes to placing your subject within the frame.

The thing that will give you the most creative control over your photographs is using depth of field and focal length, so instead of using P mode, use aperture priority and play around to see what difference it makes when you change the aperture. The camera still does the rest of the work for you to produce well exposed pictures so why wouldn't you? Then try taking the same pictures at different zoomyness, and you'll start to see what works and what doesn't - get in close with a wide angle to emphasise a foreground or step back and use a telephoto to 'flatten' the subject. All those books mentioned above will give you great ideas about trying that sort of stuff.

Most of all, don't come looking for people to tell you if your photos are 'any good', because then you'll end up taking pictures that look like what other people think is good. All you can do is tell people what you were trying to do, and ask them if they think you managed it. But if you try to work out what it is you're trying to do, chances are you'll be able to look at your pictures and see if you have managed it, all by yourself...

Eirebear

elven wrote: »

zoomyness,

:D:D

Amem...anyways.

The pictures: On both shots for me, there is far too much in the frame, the poor wee doggy gets a little lost in the expanse although the positioning of the mutt is pretty good.
Just slightly tighter and your on a winner.

The second one again has promise, although there is far too much sky above the mountain. I cant help but think a slightly lower perspective might help this one too?

As for the debate, im with STG on this one, composition should be first and foremost when learning photography. You need to know what looks right to you in terms of framing and composition before you can defend it to any critics.
After that you can learn the technical details.

oshead

Don't get me wrong about this. I don't believe that composition is something that can be learned over night. Learning to see with the camera is something that can only be developed over time. You can sit down with as many 'composition theory' books as you like and never pick up a camera till you know 'composition'. As if you could class it as one big thing that you either know or don't know. That's a total oxymoran. You can't know composition, you can practice better and varying compositions and hopefully over time begin to understand what works and dosn't for you and other people. Composition and your inner understanding of it will happen with time and a little supplement form books.

It's like learning to dance without ever learning to move your feet or your hips. There are certain mechanical things which need to be known before you 'do' photography. I would rather be out with the camera trying different things in any of the creative modes. Learning from trial and error how the camera works and thus learning how photography works. Nothing worst than being a situation where you think, Oh, I didn't know the camera could do that. Eg, setting the exposure on the OPs 2nd image above to be +1 stop. To properly expose the ground.

So I reiterate, Take the camera out of 'Auto Mode' and into the 'Creative Modes'. Learning to use the camera first will probably take you a week. It's also fun trying to figure out what all the settings do. The stuff relating to astetics will follow you naturally with time.

swingking

elven wrote: »

People are too handy with the scissors round here. The first shot only needs to be cropped if you want a picture that looks like every other camera club competition winning picture of a dog. I like how it's small in the frame, because it's a small dog. Dave's comment about getting down to eye level might be ehlpful, if only because the OP didn't think about it so far - next time, try both - take one standing up then get down on your knees and take another, then look at both and decide which works best for you.

The comment about using a shallower depth of field also seems like a standard response rather than an actual thought out suggestion for that particular picture. If there was lots of distracting stuff going on in the background, yes, you want to have the dog in focus and have all that blurred to draw the eye to the subject. But here, there's nothing that's distracting from the subject and the background works quite well as it is, it gives some nice context.

Same goes for the automatic "put the subject on a third" advice. Why? why would you do that in this particular picture? The symmetry has something going for it, and you need to know why you're following or breaking a particular 'rule'.

I think the second shot shows a natural understanding of composition as well, with the placement of the small figures within the landscape. Something to point out about that one is that the sky is a bit bland and there's quite a lot of it in the frame, a composition with less of that might work better. A basic question to ask yourself when you're shooting is what are you trying to show? Figure out the important elements and concentrate on showing those, and try to eliminate everything that distracts from that.

Composition is something best done and learned instinctively - look at your shot, then go looking at other pictures of dogs and see what you think is good about yours and good about those and what's different between them. You'll start to know what feels right when it comes to placing your subject within the frame.

The thing that will give you the most creative control over your photographs is using depth of field and focal length, so instead of using P mode, use aperture priority and play around to see what difference it makes when you change the aperture. The camera still does the rest of the work for you to produce well exposed pictures so why wouldn't you? Then try taking the same pictures at different zoomyness, and you'll start to see what works and what doesn't - get in close with a wide angle to emphasise a foreground or step back and use a telephoto to 'flatten' the subject. All those books mentioned above will give you great ideas about trying that sort of stuff.

Most of all, don't come looking for people to tell you if your photos are 'any good', because then you'll end up taking pictures that look like what other people think is good. All you can do is tell people what you were trying to do, and ask them if they think you managed it. But if you try to work out what it is you're trying to do, chances are you'll be able to look at your pictures and see if you have managed it, all by yourself...

Thanks so much for your comments. That's excellent sound advice and I will certainly consider everything said when I next go to shoot some more photographs.... only hard part now is trying to find the time to get out there.:)

Anouilh

Looking at the photos you already have and trying some copy and paste can also save energy:

http://www.photographymuseum.com/finearf2.html

swingking

I cropped the image and that meant I could put the subject to the far right. I forgot to mention that I am reading Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" ; it's a good read and thanks for the suggestions!