Critique My first 4 photos.

chrismisterx

chrismisterx

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chris
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As some may have read on my other post, I am a complete novice having only used a phone to take a few photos in the past.

So to cut to the chase, these are my first 4 photos ( that weren't too dark or light ) using my cannon 40d which I got a couple of days ago, I have been playing around with settings and trying to learn a few things from google and you tube videos.

But I need your help so I can learn not only what's wrong in a photo but how to put it right, if its not too much trouble, I feel its better to learn by being hands on so here goes.

1 by Christopher Telford, on Flickr

I tried to focus in on her eye ( big thank you to my wife Joanne, who hates her photo taken ) I was trying to make her eye pop don't think I managed it at all, but it is a pleasing photo for me at least. was a spur of the moment shot, just asked her to stay still while she was on the floor, another question, how do I convince her to model for me lol :)

2 by Christopher Telford, on Flickr

little bee on a flower.

3 by Christopher Telford, on Flickr

Tyke

4 by Christopher Telford, on Flickr

Ruby

thanks for looking.
All these were saved in raw and I had to use some free software to convert the image to jpeg so I could upload them.

My plan is to try and get some basics under my belt before looking at things like Photoshop, in the last photo ruby has a little bit of sleep next to her eye that I think would be better if that was gone, so that will be my first edit in the future I think.
 
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Hi Chris. Spotted this post yesterday but deliberately held off in the hope that someone with a bit more savvy would offer you advice. Anyway, if only to motivate others to respond, here are my thoughts for what they're worth.

#1 Joanne: Quite right with the centre of focus - always on the eye. I too have a wife with a similar attitude so you do have to grab opportunities as they present themselves. The background is nicely out of focus so not a distraction. Both the sleeve in the foreground and the furthest part of her fringe are blurred so the Depth of Field in my view is spot on - you could of course have gone for a higher f-stop and got a greater depth of field where everything is sharp front to back but that's a personal decision. I quite like as is.
#2 Bee: There is some loss of detail to some of the flower (lavender?) in the parts that show up as white and beyond that, there appears to be a colour fade overall. To me that suggests over-exposure, meaning you need to reduce the amount of light. That could either be by reducing the shutter speed (faster) or reducing the aperture (higher f-stop).
#3 Tyke: A very good shot, eyes are sharp and the image nicely composed with the angle of the head and slight offset from centre. Perhaps again, a slight over-exposure.
#4 Ruby: Nice exposure, maybe lower the frame so the jaw is not as tight to the bottom of the frame and try and position off centre so she has space to gaze into.

Just my humble opinions. I think you have done really well with these. There are many with more experience than I who I am sure will help guide.
 
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Thank you for the feedback, very helpful indeed. I am watching videos on exposure from you tube, it seems simple but I do struggle with it in practice, but like any new skill I am sure it will sink in with time.

I think I need to get some editing software so that I can change things after the shot to fix my mistakes like you pointed out for the ruby shot.

thanks again you have been very helpful!
 
chrismisterx said:
Thank you for the feedback, very helpful indeed. I am watching videos on exposure from you tube, it seems simple but I do struggle with it in practice, but like any new skill I am sure it will sink in with time.

I think I need to get some editing software so that I can change things after the shot to fix my mistakes like you pointed out for the ruby shot.

thanks again you have been very helpful!
Click to expand...
You're welcome Chris. It does seem complicated to begin with but does come together when you recognise the relationship between aperture and shutter speed - increasing the f-stop essentially has to be balanced by a corresponding reduction in shutter speed .... and vice versa.
 
Hi Chris. Just something to think about really... wondering why you're putting yourself through the pains of shooting raw if you're only just starting out? Raw gives you a lot of data to work with, but it also means you need to know what you're doing in post to 'develop' your photos so to speak. If I were you, I would work on shooting jpeg to start, and trying to get things right in camera, without relying too heavily on fixing things in post. I just think you're making more of a job for yourself than you need to. Get it right in camera, use your post for enhancing.

Regards to your images, I think your composition is probably what stands out most for me. All the rules are made to be broken in every instance, but it's probably a good idea to start with them and understand them before you begin to break them.

Image 1 - Don't get it, sorry. Other than the fact you got something in focus, which looking on my monitor appears to be her earlobe, I don't get the composition at all. Sorry if that sounds harsh.
Image 2 - Lovely tones and composition. The muted colours are lovely! But - upping up your ISO would have allowed for a faster shutterspeed, which would have helped to freeze the bee. 1/49th second for your exposure is crazy slow for taking something like that. Don't be afraid to up your ISO... I'm not familiar with how well a 40D copes with higher ISO's but I reckon you could pump it up quite a bit more without getting grain.
Image 3 & 4 - Eyes sharp, good job, that's where you should be focusing on... but it's the composition that lets it down here...for me anyway. Too tight of a crop and the dogs heads are too low in the frame.

Anyway, just my two cents worth in my opinion.

Hope that helps.
 
@sunnyside_up

Thank you for your input.

With regards shooting in raw it was on a video that I watched that said always shoot in the highest quality that you could, it explained that was raw I don't really understand the ins and outs of the file types, was just following that advice, I think there's a setting so it saves it as raw and jpeg on my camera, I think I will do that next time and see the difference.

Yes Image 1 failed for what I was trying to do, Joanne was looking at the dog and the dog was looking back, I couldn't fit both in the shot and the background behind the dog wasn't very good, plus the dog looked a little boring, but the sun was glinting of Joanne's eye, I was trying to focus on the eye and make that pop, didn't work but I quite like the photo as my wife hates her photo taken and was pleased she let me :)

image 2 seems to be the shutter speed that spoils it a little, I have added iso onto the list of things to read about, again I don't really understand it apart from it makes the chip more sensitive to light?

image 3 and 4 I am quite pleased with, could I crop in an editor to make the pictures better framed? I haven't done anything to the files apart from convert from raw to jpeg using some free software.

Again thank you for your feedback, all this is very helpful and not harsh at all.
 
Hi Chris, congratulations on being brave enough to post your first images for people to critique. It's a big step (or it was for me the 1st time) and it can be hard to take criticism, no matter how well it is intended.

For me you had the right approach with image 1, aiming to get the eyes in focus. This can be hard, especially when someone is wearing spectacles. Unfortunately I have to agree the out of focus shoulder is too much of a distraction.
The second image unfortunately, as others have said suffered due to slow shutter speed, but also if you look carefully the focus is slightly off as other parts of the lavender, away from the bee are more in focus.
Image 3 reminds me so much of a dog my brother and I had when I was younger. For me composition is good. You've given space in the frame for Tyke to 'look into'. The focusing round the eyes is fairly good, however the depth of field is too shallow (too large an aperture), resulting in his nose being out of focus.
The forth image for me is the best. If that was my first attempt at taking photographs I would feel pretty proud of myself. Nice composition, good depth of field, the eyes don't appear to be quite as sharp as her nose but still a great photograph.

Here's a pretty good tutorial on the basics of exposure, including ISO that may help.

http://photography.tutsplus.com/tut...eginners-introduction-to-exposure--photo-3028
 
Hi Chris
A good first effort, I agree with Carl regarding the individual photos so I won't repeat what has already been said, however regarding shooting in raw - yes it will be lossless in terms of editing but the camera doesn't apply anything and sometimes it can leave pictures a little flat. This is easily solved with processing but as your not using any soft where I would use JPEG at the highest quality.

If you use a Mac or iPad photos has some basic editing tools and it's free in fact if your using an iPad there are lots of free apps.

To help you understand what effect the camera settings have it might be worth taking a photo of the same subject in the same light with different settings to see what effect it has.

Good luck
 
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All pretty good! …like the first two and did very much the first: up close and personal, a great frame!
 
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