Opinions, criticism and advice please!

[R8JimBob88]

Please can I have some honest opinions on these few. I'm very new to photography and still learning the basics. The majority of these are taken on Aperture priority mode. All taken free hand with a Nikon D40 :)

1
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w44/R8JimBob88/BrookbankPool042.jpg

2
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w44/R8JimBob88/BrookbankPool054.jpg

3
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w44/R8JimBob88/BrookbankPool075.jpg

4
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w44/R8JimBob88/CatandFiddlePub010.jpg

5
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w44/R8JimBob88/CatandFiddlePub037.jpg

6
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w44/R8JimBob88/CatandFiddlePub032.jpg

[CT]

I don't think there's a bad shot there so well done for a newbie. :)

Being critical you're just losing a bit of shadow detail in 1 and 2 - more so in 2
and the sky is a bit burned out in 5. Good effort all round though.

[G_Dem]

I like 4 and I think 3 would of been nicer with more depth of field so you can see the buildings and rainbow. Agree with the last comment about 5.

I also like 6 but I think I would of preferred it without the parachute and less of the sky showing. All just my own preferences though and everyone is different.

[R8JimBob88]

Cheers for the comments :)

I think number 5 is probs my favourite so far. As for "burning" the sky out, how can this be prevented? Bearing in mind I only have the standard package.... for now!

[oldgit]

1 not bad
2 the light is too flat/colourless
3 urm wierd, not sure that it works.
4 would be better without the whopping great pylon
5 not bad
6 is that focal point or sensor dust :D

Generally pretty good, keep it up.

[InaGlo]

#4 & #5 are my picks.

As OG said, the pylon isnt the prettiest of subjects but you have some good lead-in lines there and a nice blue sky.

#5 is my fave, shame the sky is burned out, I get that too!
Its hard to expose for the sky and gound at the same time, this where filters come in, ND Grads to be precise, as they help you maintain some detail in the sky.
In this case Id chop most of that grey sky off as its doing nothing for the shot.

Btw, the pics look a little soft to me, do you know about giving an image a quick sharpen after saving for web?
Appologies if you do and Im teaching you to suck eggs!

[R8JimBob88]

I know bugger all so any tips etc would be great :)

Number 4 isnt a pylon lol, its some kind of mast, i think i have shrunk the picture too much to notice it.

What and how is this sharpen business? I'm still learning to suck eggs!

[InaGlo]

If you use Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, or some such software to process your images, you'll find a they all have a sharpen tool (in PS its in Filters).

Some images can stand quite a bit of sharpening, you should be able to see if you overdo it as youll get lots of artifacts in the picture.
Dont worry if f you cant tell if you over cook it, someone will soon let you know ;)
Sharpening is always your final step in processing, and after you shrink/resize an image for the web, you always need to sharpen it as it will lose some image quality during the process.

[R8JimBob88]

I use (well try to use) PS Elements 5.0, still getting the hand of that too. The images above are straight from the camera, not been edited at all, just resized.

Again, thanks for the feedback and tips! Practice makes perfect. I have a week off work next week, and i live only a short trip from the peak district, hopefully weather permitting i'll be out there!

As for photo number 2, lets just say for example, if you took this picture and thought it was too dark/colourless, what would you try to make it brighter? Its easy enough to edit in PS, but what can you do whilst your out there?

[G_Dem]

I think its more getting it right the 1st time (having the right lighting conditions etc) and making sure the exposure is correct. Experiment with the manual mode on your camera. Play with the ISO, aperture and shutter speed to get different exposures for a certain scene and see what works best for different situations.

[R8JimBob88]

Thinking about it, i probably just point and shoot in every direction hoping that one turns out to be ok. I'll have to have an experiment taking shots of the same image using different settings, see what does what. Take more time for each one, not like a walking CCTV camera :lol: