Beginners critique!

[kya]

Beginners Only!
Just for fun!


Ok chaps and chappesses new thread for beginners..

Post one pic that you like and a beginner can critique it that beginner then posts a pic and another beginner can critique it...

Its to help beginners learn so please do not take the critique harshly please see it as a learning process..As its a beginners section we do not expect anything highly detailed just do your best!

[StuG]

:offtopic:Is that photo taken at Hatchets Pond?

[kya]

Yes a couple of years back! :)

[Earl53]

I'm not a beginner but would like to comment on this photo.

With the sun behind the subjects you lose the features of the horse’s faces. Flash- fill might have scared the horses so that wouldn’t work. If the shot was set up then maybe a reflector would have worked.

I also feel that the photo would look better if cropped to a vertical shot. There would be less wasted space on either side of the horses and put them as the main subject in the photo.

Paul

[kya]

I'm not a beginner but would like to comment on this photo.

With the sun behind the subjects you lose the features of the horse’s faces. Flash- fill might have scared the horses so that wouldn’t work. If the shot was set up then maybe a reflector would have worked.

I also feel that the photo would look better if cropped to a vertical shot. There would be less wasted space on either side of the horses and put them as the main subject in the photo.

Paul

I will leave it for now Earl but as said this is a beginners thread! :)

[Resin42]

All right, both feet time. Feel free to correct me if this is total guff. :)

The main problem for me is the over exposure in the clouds so maybe a slightly faster shutter speed. I'd probably correct this in photoshop myself, fiddle with the contrast to make the most of the dark clouds and use a bit of light fill to bring out the water a little more as it looks slightly flat. Composition wise I'd bring one of the boats into the centre of the shot to draw the eye more.

Anyone who'd like to tell me how to make more of it at the point of capture then I'm eager to learn.


This one is me starting to experiment with manual mode yesterday.

[The Magician]

I would like to see a little more of the sun, as in a few rays radiating from your bright spot. Perhaps moving, or waiting for a leaf to curl in the wind would have done it? To me, that makes a wonderful shot, but then, who am I?

Your exposure could have been increased a touch so the under side of the leaves didn't show so harsh.

OK, now I get to be critiqued by a newbie. The pros have been doing such a great job on the technical stuff so far. http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m163/The_Magician_2006/Smilies/worthy.gif

[acrybb]

i have to be honest i found it difficult to criticise truth be told i spent around a good 5-10 minutes trying :crazy: but i think the only things i could come up with were either the light was a bit low (but there is no button for the sun) or that i felt myself drawn to the wall rather than the woman in the picture maybe that was your plan? sorry if im way off. (complete noobie). also this image was taken with a point n shoot (DSC-W50) so image quality may be not that great i am asking for critisism on what could have been done to make the image better i.e. composition white balance iso etc.

[Raffaz]

I like this pic. The only thing i would have done to make it a bit more interesting would be to lower the shutter speed so that the water was blurred. Heres mine, its worth mentioning that i took this with an ixus 430, this is one of the reasons ive bought my SLR as i think i could have got a much better shot with that. Id also be interested to know if theres any editing i could do to this pic in CS3 to make it better. Cheers.


http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/Raffaz/Picture423.jpg

[paulrushton]

After having a close look at the picture there is quite a lot of noise and by your own admission a dslr would have produced a better shot. Possibly increase contrast a little and maybe sharpness and consider cropping the image a little. Overall though a nice image and one you don't get the chance to take everyday. My turn now... Took this last weekend at Tropical Gardens in Leeds, I wanted to take lots of shots but coming in from the cold the lense steamed up and unsteamed just as we were leaving. I took this out of desparation of having to take a picture of something and had a play in photoshop.

[acrybb]

Nice shot looks as though you used a dslr as for the photoshop skills better than mine not really learned how to use it yet like the pic sorry about the quality had to squash it down to get it on the site

[acrybb]

Hi

i took this picture while out walking and i was playing with my cameras settings i was going for making the water blurry look to make it look in motion if you get my meaning so i left the shutter open longer but didnt close down the aperture size meaning it was massivly overexposed. anyway i thought i would use the opportunity to play with PShop to try resue the image if anyone thinks (knows which will more than likely be the case) they can do better please let me know and i can e-mailthe original image to them

Thanks
Andy

[The Magician]

This is just a note, and not a submission for the next offering.

After perusing your original, and your edit, I see no saving grace in that shot. There is no way an edit can bring back any detail in the falling water due to the overexposure. Of course, this is only my opinion. Next time, use one of the automatic features on your camera to gain the motion, instead of relying on a beginners intuition? Closing in on the water itself, and setting the camera feature to natural light would increase the exposure time while balancing the light at the same time. It is amazing what brains are built into our modern cameras. We just have to learn to understand and trust them.

[acrybb]

thanks magician would this be the intellegent scene idea of things?

[acrybb]

Hi just thought i would introduce you all to daisy the heelan coo how could could i have made her look better?

[acrybb]

anyone?

[mogawowo]

sharpen her!!! watch this space...,

[mogawowo]

hmm not sure i like it i tried to sharpen it but it looks crap see below...

i guess focus on the cow not the wall!

I would like to submit this image for worst
edit ever award ;)

eeek massively over sharpened

[acrybb]

was going for soft focus :) ha ha nice edit lol

[montysmum]

isnt daisy a donald??:confused:

It looks a bit out of focus to me and it would have been nice to see it with the depth of field (listen to me going all technical!!!) so that the background was a bit blurry. Lovely little creature though :)

OK, so here's one of mine and a problem that I seem to have a lot. What can I do to stop getting washed out skies? Even when the sky looks a nice blue, when I look at the photo I have taken it always looks either slightly bluish or just a silvery white.

Would really appreciate some comments, thanks

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa28/kirkby1red_photos/20080824-BLUNDELLSANDS011-2-1.jpg

[acrybb]

circ polarizer gives greater definition/contrast between blue in the sky & the white of the cloud also gives greater saturation so your sky will look really blue and clouds really white?

[montysmum]

Thanks acrybb. Time to show my ignorance here though - what exactly is a circ polarizer and how does it work?

[acrybb]

its a lens filter and im not entirely sure how it works just know it does :( maybe one of the pros could help with how it works also i have pic on page two that no one looked at yet :( the one with the guy on top of the rock fancy a go at that? an i think donald has horns doesnt he? i have one of don too although i do see where your coming from

[montysmum]

its a lens filter and im not entirely sure how it works just know it does :( maybe one of the pros could help with how it works also i have pic on page two that no one looked at yet :( the one with the guy on top of the rock fancy a go at that?
an i think donald has horns doesnt he? i have one of don too although i do see where your coming from

I have had a look at your photo of the man standing on the little pile of stones acrybb, and for what it is worth I cant see much wrong with it. I like the way the man looks small amongst the scene, and the scenery is magnificent.

Perhaps he is a baby donald - lacking the horns but with some of the other necessary accessories :)

[acrybb]

yeah maybe.....the pile of rocks is th top of The cobbler a hill in arrochar in scotland there is quite a substatial drop behind him :):wacko:

[mogawowo]

Thanks acrybb. Time to show my ignorance here though - what exactly is a circ polarizer and how does it work?

Any light that is reflected is polarised a polarising filter does its best to block reflected light.

Imagine a set of louvres if you shine a light from behind it from certain angles you can see the light from befind it and other angles not so generally will filter out reflections .


Check out my diagram light reflected directly from the tree is pretty straight
and light from the water is reflected so it kinda gets wavy the polorising filter has a microscopic grid which in essence blocks out this

So a polorising filter can be used for:

A: cutting reflections out of water or not metalic surfaces
B: increasing the contrast of the sky.


another way to increse the sky is to meter the sky instead of the ground then take the photo.

also using the burn tool on the sky can darken it!
or use the photoshop burn tool to darken the sky a little.

[montysmum]

I am really sorry to keep asking questions about this, and thanks a lot for your help and info on this - I really appreciate it.

When you say meter the sky instead of the rest of ther scene what exactly do you mean? At the moment all I do is point the camera, (on AV normally), decide what f stop it should be, focus and that's it. I have tried making a difference to skies by fiddling with exposure compensation but while that makes the general scene darlker, it doesn't really improve the skies at all. Would changing the ISO make an improvement - that would also darken the whole image I guess.

Apologies for harping on about this, and thanks in advance for any replies:thanks:

[mogawowo]

hmm iso wont do diddly squat for skies its just used for taking pictures in darker places.

by meter i mean rtfm/ tell me what camera you have and i'll explain how

[montysmum]

Thanks a bunch!

I have a Canon EOS 30D camera. I really apppreciate you taking the time:)

[BarryM]

to meter for the sky basically point cam at sky, half press shutter button which will set exposure for the sky, keep it half pressed then move your cam down to get the appropriate composition you want, the sky then will be exposed but as its brighter you will find the land or sea will be under exposed as its darker.

[montysmum]

Thanks MyrraB, I appreciate the info, I will have a go at that on Sunday when I go to the Lake District:)