Newbie (beginner photos)

Welcome Hannah :)

Some nice photos there.

I like the cat shot, though a bit of a crop to put it more to the left (just to get him/her off-centre) would do nicely and I really like the last image, love the show throw by the insect.

Not so fussed on the flowers, it might just be that I've seen a million flower shots, but I do understand you're getting to grips so maybe a closer crop because it looks quite busy and there's not one single focal point.

I had a play below, just to give you an idea (I added a bit of contrast and adjusted exposure a little to get the cat to pop a little more too)


Untitled-2 by Carl@CDHPIX, on Flickr

Untitled-3 by Carl@CDHPIX, on Flickr
 
Hi Hannah, I think you've done a good job there, In my opinion your pictures are just fine as they are :) You clearly have a good eye for a photo (y)

Focus is a little tight on the cat (large aperture no doubt) but you got the eyes in focus so I'm going to assume you meant it that way. If pushed to make one suggestion - and it would be based on my own taste and nothing more - I might put a subtle vignette on the cat picture to close it down a bit and keep the viewers eyes on the cats face.

But really, it's all about what YOU want that matters, not me (or us on TP) because it was you who took the picture in the first place so you must have been attracted to something in particular about how the scene looked?

The questions you might like to ask yourself are...
  • What do you like about your images?
  • What do you not like about them?
  • Can you change that with some post production?
  • What would you do differently next time?
When you have decided what you would like to do differently you will be in a position to try it, if you need any help with that we (you friends on TP) will be here for you.

Best of luck and I look foreward to seeing more of your lovely pictures, maybe you could consider the '52 project (a picture a week for a year) its a great way to get lots of feedback and it makes you shoot every week, that's never a bad thing ;)
 
Best advice I was given was when you are starting out don't edit or look at your photos for a week. It's enough time for you to have forgotten what you took and you can look it like it was taken by someone else.

My advice to you from what you have taken is to look into macro photography, you don't have to have a big expensive lens to start out learning it. A lot of the zoom lenses have a 1:4 macro feature and you can get close up filters for any lens as well. If you find yourself really getting into it then it's time to pool all your birthday money into getting one - the macro lens will make more of a difference than a newer body.
 
oh and in case someone who isn't related to you hasn't told you. You have talent. I've seen people who have been doing photography for 10 years that still haven't grasped composition or DOF and you seem to have that down. Finding interesting subject matter is hard for most people so keep doing challenges and set some for yourself. For example spend a day taking photos of things that are red, or "discarded objects" no one else has to see them and they don't have to be interesting but it will help you practice composition and looking at the world around you.
 
Looking at, and judging someone else's photography is always going to be very subjective, but of course, there are always the basic photographic techniques that need to be right irrespective. Focus and exposure just to mention two. When you asking for critique Hannah, its useful if you can include the exif information, including the equipment you are using, that will help us to make constructive suggestions.
There has been some useful comments already, but not knowing how much you already know about photography, I have to generalise a bit and assume your still learning the basics. It will be better for you to study and learn the basics before you consider specialising in in any one genre of photography, especially with all the costs that will incur.

Looking at the pictures, you do seem to be using a wide aperture, if that was intentional or not I don't know, but doing so has given you a very shallow depth of field, and that has been detrimental to your pictures.
The flowers are, as has already been said, rather too busy, and you can see by the flower you have focussed on, that its only partly in focus due to the narrow DoF. The cat looks like you have focussed just behind the eyes (look at the fur detail). The third one, again you have focussed slightly behind the subject, the rock is more in focus than the subject.

Please don't be disappointed with negative comments, there's no progress to be made if you are not told where things aren't correct. From here, I would suggest reading up and learning a bit more about the exposure triangle (aperture, shutter speed, ISO), and the effect that changing any them has on the final results. These are the basics that you need to master before you move forward. If you find yourself struggling with understanding anything, just ask on here, there are plenty of experienced members who will be only too pleased to help.

You have posted some good pictures to start with, and by following the advice given you can only get better, so well done.
Looking forward to seeing some more from you (y)
 
Hello,

Thank you !!! I am a complete beginner, I have read quite a few photography books and forums but I still am not 100% sure on what I am doing most of the time… These three photos were taken last year when I first started with my camera… So no none of the settings were intentional… My camera was given to me as a present, it is a Nikon D40, the lens I was using for all three photos (I think) was a Sigma 55-200mm… The focussing is most probably all over the shot, but I hardly understood my camera at that point… I know it a bit better now, but I still am stumbling my way through and guessing…

I don't mind negative comments, as you say Trev4 they can only help me progress !!!

I must admit I understand the basics of the shutter speed, but as for the aperture and the ISO, I understand what they could change in a photo, but I have no idea when changing them would be good for photos and how they balance each other out….

But anyway I am here to learn, so with everyones help I should be getting the hang of it quite quickly ;)
 
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