C&C for recent photo's from Porto

SdoowSirhc

I'm just home from Porto city in Portugal and I took some photographs of the city and the area around it. I'd like some critiques and maybe some advice from some of you guys on here if ye don't mind :P Bear in my mind I don't have a DSLR yet and I'm still a total noob

Dog in Espinho

Vespa :cool:

Espinho sunset

Buildings aren't exactly my forté

Can't find the rest of them to upload, they're on a SD card :P Hope I can get some constructive C&C/advice

jonniebgood1

I think the Vespa has the most potential. It perhaps could do with more of the wall in the photo to give some context of where the photo is taken. The graffiti gives it some type of social commentary type association and more of it would add to the photo.

The 4 photos are quite diverse, i.e. there is no relation between them other than they are from the 1 city.

SdoowSirhc

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

I think the Vespa has the most potential. It perhaps could do with more of the wall in the photo to give some context of where the photo is taken. The graffiti gives it some type of social commentary type association and more of it would add to the photo.

The 4 photos are quite diverse, i.e. there is no relation between them other than they are from the 1 city.

I have the original shot of the Vespa actually with lots more of wall, that's just a cropping of it. I was really trying to show how graffiti and decay exist along with the "ideal" urban icons like scooters and clean streets (a sort of contrast)
Yeah these photos really have no relation but they're just a few I picked at random to put up

SdoowSirhc

Anybody else?:P

AnCatDubh

Oddly enough (when you consider your comments on each photo), photographically speaking, i'm getting more out of your building shot than the others It's a pity about the sign in it (might be able to clone in the other window if you wanted some photoshop practice )

The others, #1 and #2 are kinda ok-ish, depending on what you'd think you might do with them i'd suppose. With other images from your SD card they may document something of the area or, they might be just be touristy snaps. Can't decide which - check the eggplant thread by sarkozy. That's kind of not seeking perfection of the image creation process, but more says something about the place, the people, and photography as it constantly evolves. As presented, they don't grab me for any particular reason.

The sunset #3 is not untypical of such an image, but lacking clarity / sharpness and is technically challenged in terms of the dynamic range and the highlights. Such a scene can be challenging to capture properly. Again, its ok but isn't anything with a wow factor for me.

The only other thing i'd say on #4, re: the building, is there is more to it - ie. get back out there but not too far that you lose the perspective.

Hope that helps.

SdoowSirhc

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Oddly enough (when you consider your comments on each photo), photographically speaking, i'm getting more out of your building shot than the others It's a pity about the sign in it (might be able to clone in the other window if you wanted some photoshop practice )

The others, #1 and #2 are kinda ok-ish, depending on what you'd think you might do with them i'd suppose. With other images from your SD card they may document something of the area or, they might be just be touristy snaps. Can't decide which - check the eggplant thread by sarkozy. That's kind of not seeking perfection of the image creation process, but more says something about the place, the people, and photography as it constantly evolves. As presented, they don't grab me for any particular reason.

The sunset #3 is not untypical of such an image, but lacking clarity / sharpness and is technically challenged in terms of the dynamic range and the highlights. Such a scene can be challenging to capture properly. Again, its ok but isn't anything with a wow factor for me.

The only other thing i'd say on #4, re: the building, is there is more to it - ie. get back out there but not too far that you lose the perspective.

Hope that helps.

Wow thanks for the great reply Thanks for the advice/criticism on each shot. The sign annoyed me too on the church but I couldnt have gotten between the sign and the church as the sign was only a few feet away from the walls. I'd love to know if I could use GIMP for cloning? No photoshop for me :rolleyes: " depending on what you'd think you might do with them i'd suppose" Any chance you could explain this?
Thanks for the help

lisatiffany

I like the 1st and 3rd images the most. The dog looks relaxed and the framing is quite nice. Also though its a little noisy it gives the pictures character. The sunset is quite nice too and I like the warm tones and I like the reflection cast across the water. The vespa and background are nice but the wall to the left is closing in too much and makes my eyes wander too close to it. A small crop would fix it right up but other than that its a nice shot. The last picture isn't too bad but the shadows make certain parts of the building almost pitch black and its a shame because I'm betting the glass looks very picturesque. Well done

tororosso

I quite lilke the Sunset photo. Quite pleasing on the eye. I'd be interested in knowing the technique and settings for the photo?

An Cat Dubh has also mentioned some things about this photo and, not meaning to hijack the thread, but was wondering if anybody has any comparitive sunset shots? (hope this is ok by the way and don't want to detract from SdoowSirhc's C+C)

AnCatDubh

SdoowSirhc wrote: »

I'd love to know if I could use GIMP for cloning? No photoshop for me :rolleyes: " depending on what you'd think you might do with them i'd suppose" Any chance you could explain this?

Ah, just saying if you were going to get it onto your living room wall or framed or anything like that as a holiday memory perhaps, then it would be worth spending the time on it (learning/doing the cloning). I just wasn't sure were you posting to learn from what others thought or if you got a little encouragement that you'd go further and print up some of the images.

The Gimp is excellent by the way for most stuff. No photoshop for me either. A very capable image processor. It does cloning - yay ! :pac:

SdoowSirhc

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Ah, just saying if you were going to get it onto your living room wall or framed or anything like that as a holiday memory perhaps, then it would be worth spending the time on it (learning/doing the cloning). I just wasn't sure were you posting to learn from what others thought or if you got a little encouragement that you'd go further and print up some of the images.

The Gimp is excellent by the way for most stuff. No photoshop for me either. A very capable image processor. It does cloning - yay ! :pac:

Woooooooooooo! Go GIMP But how do you clone, that's what I needa know

AnCatDubh

SdoowSirhc wrote: »

Woooooooooooo! Go GIMP But how do you clone, that's what I needa know

Youtube will be your friend

(or here's a basic tutorial which I came across a long time ago which does a step by step cloning - its mostly practice after that)

SdoowSirhc

tororosso wrote: »

I quite lilke the Sunset photo. Quite pleasing on the eye. I'd be interested in knowing the technique and settings for the photo?

An Cat Dubh has also mentioned some things about this photo and, not meaning to hijack the thread, but was wondering if anybody has any comparitive sunset shots? (hope this is ok by the way and don't want to detract from SdoowSirhc's C+C)

Thankyou, you wouldn't be hijacking my thread! I love learning and others learning on my thread, so I hope others will give some comparative shots

To answer your question: I don't have a DSLR or anything, just a "bridge" type Fujifilm. It was on my custom setting:
ISO 400
Ratio 4:3
F stop 3.1
Shutter Speed: 1/60
It's zoomed at about x7 or x8 to really capture the red tones, don't ask why that happens :P
Hope I helped

SdoowSirhc

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Youtube will be your friend

(or here's a basic tutorial which I came across a long time ago which does a step by step cloning - its mostly practice after that)

Thanks! :cool: