Some very much beginners shots, advice appreciated.

[Streeteh]

Hi guys, i've received my very own DSLR, the first SLR i've ever owned no less, for Christmas. I've dabbled with my dads middle-end film SLR in the past but never really had a chance to get stuck in and play. Naturally over the past two days i've played extensively, taken many terrible photos, learnt little but had a lot of fun in the process. I've picked a couple of the very few keepers out of the pack and was wondering if anyone could give any advice as to how to improve on my technique or how to improve these existing shots.

Nothing has been done to modify them in any way other than converted to JPEG and shrunk a little for web usage. I decided to shoot them in raw, which i imagine is overkill for a beginner such as myself, but i hate JPEG compression artefacts and i can easily convert them when i need to. The album can be found at:

http://s967.photobucket.com/albums/ae155/streeteh/

Here's a sample, i know it's cliche but we've all got to start somewhere!



For those that are curious, it's a Sony A230, very mediocre compared to the kit many of you have i'm sure but i'm incredibly pleased with it. All photos were taken with the stock lens, i've also inherited a old 300mm sigma lens which i haven't had a chance to really get to grips with yet.

[EDIT] Bah, the background of the photo has been decimated somewhere in the conversion/uploading process but you get the point. The background was far less messy in the original.

[Kitten]

OK I've had a quick look - I'm no expert but these are my thoughts

1. The candle - I'd like to see the wick area a little sharper - perhaps a slightly slower shutter speed to get some more movement, but not much - with a little more focus on the wick I think it'd be a fab pic.

2. I like the contrast between the white in the graffiti and the snow. I'd probably darken the green background a little to bring up that contrast, and possibly do a PS sharpen.

3. I like the motion in this one, I prefer that to the slower speeds on water - they always seem to look a bit fake and clichéd to me. It's hard to do without motion blur - Vix always seems to do a really good job of these shots, so she can probably advise better than me.

4. I like the idea of this one, but I think it loses impact because it's all too dark. I'd play with the brightness & contrast levels and see if you can get a better contrast between the lightness of the knife and the darkness of the letters. Need to watch that light edge doesn't get blown out though. Also a bit of sharpening in PS might help with clarifying the letters (can you tell I'm a big fan of sharpness? )

5. I'm not sure about this one, It just doesn't work for me. I like the composition a lot - it's a lot more imaginative than the 'dead centre flower' that so many people go for. I think it's the background colour I don't like too much - it seems to make the flower have less impact if that makes sense? THe detail is good on the petals too, though I'd probably want a bit more blur on the middle of the sunflower near to the front of the shot as it detracts my eye a bit from the petals, which are the focal point.

6. Same as the last shot really, I'm not sure whether it's the texture of the actual flower (it's fake, right?) that doesn't do it for me, but it seems a bit flat. THe more I look at it, the more I think that's down to the subject and not what you've done with it. Maybe darkening the green middle would help as it would probably lift the colour of the petals around it. Brighten them up a bit too.

7. I actually really like this one. I can see what you mean about the focus not being perfect, but composition wise again, I really do like it. Again, I'd reduce the brightness/play with the contrast so that the glass is darkened and you don't see as much of the smearing on it, and by then saturating a little, or brightening, depending on which works best, you'll bring out the colour of the wine and you'll see a better shot. Oh, and of course, a little sharpening on the wine itself (the focus is really good right in the middle of the glass!) and you might get a slightly noisy shot, but a creative one. Unfortunately by sharpening you might find it shows up other imperfections you don't like.

Hope you don't mind but I just had a 2 minute fiddle with this in PS (I'm no expert there either!) and this is just saturating a little and playing with the contrast/brightness:



I'd also advise standing off to the side so you don't get the light reflections quite so badly

As I said, I'm no expert, but I hope that helps

Edit: Also just did a 'sharpen more' on the candle to show you the effect Some like it, some don't.

[Streeteh]

That's some really great feedback, thanks. I do agree with the sunflower, it just doesn't work probably because the flower itself is ultimately fake. I was proud of it more because the stock lens brought out so much detail (and because i used manual focus and actually managed to get it to focus!).

I'll have a look at getting a copy of photoshop to play with the photos, the original RAW shots are mostly better than the heavily compressed JPEGs on photobucket, the candle for example is a bit sharper and the knife shot is a bit brighter. Are there any webhosts i could use that don't decimate the picture quality so heavily?

Thanks again for the great feedback, i understand they are very much amateur so it can't have been a very interesting task looking through them, but hey, i'm less than a week into owning my first SLR so i'm sure i'll get there eventually!

[Kitten]

I love looking at photos and I've been plugging away for a few years now, only getting better with feedback and crit, although I often think I am not expert enough to give c&c! So post away! Don't be put off by lack of replies either, most of the hobby togs are busy with the holidays- you'd usually get more feedback

[Aboobie]

Excellent Streeteh. I really like what you've done; great first efforts. And as you say at this point it's really just about playing.

I'm somewhat in the same boat. I picked up my first SLR yesterday. I'd been after one for a long time and always found an excuse (usually financial) not to jump in but something in the heavens converged and before I knew it I'd gone from idea to research to purchase in half a day.

I took a few pictures last night and went to East Park in Hull this morning and I hope you don't mind but I thought I'd throw some of my own very weak efforts in. I want to get into the habit of showing off my pics so I can get into feedback loop which will hopefully push me to keep at it and help me learn what it is I'm actually doing.

http://cid-0ec6c8ae5cc17041.skydrive...se.aspx/Abooie

Ok they're family shots but I like the composition and depth in the first and colouring in the second.

I took them as JPGs and looking at the last one I'm wondering if I should really have used RAW. The camera is a Canon 500D with an IS 18-55 lens (I feel I'm a lucky boy getting this past the mrs).

Like you I've not fiddled about with the pictures in any software; is this something people would recommend? I've downloaded paint.net and GIMP and I'll have a play.