A few from a beginner - comments please

[pikey]

Hello,

Despite having my first DSLR (Sony a100) for a month, I've hardly used it. Having no time to read books or (find and) attend a course I'm floundering somewhat but on Sunday I had a go to try and get some shots I was happy with.

I think my first problem is time to think what I'm shooting and spend time doing it. With Mrs.P in tow, time was actually extremely limited and had a fair few nags to "hurry up" and "stop playing with your new toy".

Hmm.. Oh well, I have a few days off this week so maybe I'll spend some time alone, pick a subject and try and make the best of it. Any tips on "how to start with some reasonable equipment and little clue" would be gratefully received!

All these were shot in RAW and some fettled with in some minor way (probably should have had the before & after on here). It's the first venture into RAW for me and I was quite impressed with the amount you could change... however I found that the camera's setting was the optimum unless I was trying for a specific effect. (PS. I found my powerful desktop PC wasn't so powerful anymore!!)

I think I really do need to get into some books, but (whispering quietly), that's a bit like a man reading a map or asking for directions!

Anyway, these are a few I'm quite happy with. Note they've been reduced from 10m monsters into something much more bandwidth friendly.. but I think I've gone over the top and taken too much quality out.

Any comments gratefully received, thank you!

Ben


1


2


3


4


5

[GravelBen]

To me it looks like your composition needs more work than anything - not in any way an expert btw, colour exposure etc looks fine to me but most could probably do with a bit more thought when deciding what to take the picture of.

The first 2 I quite like, the first I think would be very good without that red square thing poking in on the right, (perhaps you could photoshop it out?), using b&w in the 2nd helps simplify the scene a little and gives a nice feel - IMO would be better without the cars in the background but sometimes you can't avoid things like that.

The 3rd and 4th to me are just too busy and messy (no offense), theres just too much going on for anything to be a clear focal point of the image (from an artistic pov, you may be better to zoom in on something more specific). I guess they look more like holiday snapshots than deliberate 'photographs'.

The 5th is a nice idea with the sun coming through the trees, but the splash of light in the top-right corner sortof drags the eye away from the central focus of it which I think is supposed to be the sun in the middle.
ETA: thinking about that one again, if it was me I might try zooming in and focussing more on the fence, its shadow and the reflection in the puddle front of it, perhaps framed by the trees on either side. Just an idea.


Not sure if thats the sort of comments you were looking for but I hope they're helpful, not intending to be too critical or anything. There are some very nice photos on your website, perhaps you find it easier to compose a photo with an obvious target like a car (I know I do), so it may help if you try to think about what makes those successful and relate it to non-car photography.


Disclaimer: I haven't had any photographic training, but have had some artistic training and experience (painting and sculpture) so I've learnt a few things about composition etc over the years.

Edited by GravelBen on Monday 12th February 10:15

[pikey]

Thanks for the feedback.

I've been told a few times before about composition - so perhaps that is the number 1 element I should try and learn... then work on getting the best out of the equipment.

Regarding the other comments on my site, all previous cameras have had the picture on the screen and this is the first (proper!) one without. I'm finding that difficult to adapt to.

[_dobbo_]

For me the problem is when I go out with the express intention of getting good images, I dont get any! If I come away from any particular outing having taken one good picture I am usually pretty pleased with that. I have had a DSLR for about 4 years and in that time have taken well over 15,000 images - out of that I would say (excluding studio stuff for other people) that I have about 50 I am happy to have on display, the rest are just using up hard disk space.

So I guess my point is not to worry too much at this stage whether you are getting great results, just keep practicing, and enjoying it! If you come away from a day out with nothing, try not to let it bother you. What you like now and think is good, you might hate in six months time and think "what on earth was I doing"?

[pikey]

_dobbo_ said:

For me the problem is when I go out with the express intention of getting good images, I dont get any! If I come away from any particular outing having taken one good picture I am usually pretty pleased with that. I have had a DSLR for about 4 years and in that time have taken well over 15,000 images - out of that I would say (excluding studio stuff for other people) that I have about 50 I am happy to have on display, the rest are just using up hard disk space.

So I guess my point is not to worry too much at this stage whether you are getting great results, just keep practicing, and enjoying it! If you come away from a day out with nothing, try not to let it bother you. What you like now and think is good, you might hate in six months time and think "what on earth was I doing"?

Thanks for the reassurance!

The thing is that most of the pics on my site (that I am quite proud of) are candid, social, spur of the moment and tell a story and were taken with a cheap pocket camera that's light enough to make no difference to my enjoyment of an event.

Now I've spent a great deal of money on a DSLR, and bother to carry the hulking great thing and specifically spend time to try and take pictures I like... I expect results!

I'm going to Snetterton at the end of this month and snapping away at cars static and moving should produce results I'm happier with. At the end of the day, I've never tried to make a tree or a tea shop interesting

[stuart b]

It's difficult to combine practising with a family trip .

Two suggestions for working on composition. Try picking a subject and then taking as many different pictures of it as you can (but think about each one). Also, as a generalisation, when moving from taking snaps of where you've been to something that stands up as a picture in its own right, I found that I usually need to get in much closer than I initially think. I think there's a true-ism somewhere which goes something like frame the shot and then get in twice as close and try again. It's not a blanket rule like anything else, but when I look back at a lot of my shots that's often the issue.

The first for example, might be more interesting if you get in so the coloured things completely fill the frame with some in the background out of focus. It's good that you've spotted the interesting subject in the first place though and these all see thereabout technically.

Stuart

[_dobbo_]

Pikey, for what it's worth I was exactly the same. I had hundreds of social and holiday snaps all over my website which I really liked - then I made the leap to a DSLR and found it hard to get images I liked at the beginning.

Ultimately you will get better and better results if you continue to practice - but it's a completely different type of photography to what you are used to, and requires a totally different approach.

If you think about it, your objective is completely different - at a party you fire away with a P&S camera and get great images recording an event. When you go out with your new DSLR, you are for want of a better phrase looking to create photographic art. Whilst the medium is the same the approach couldn't be more different.

On the plus side - once you start getting better, you will find your social photography comes on in leaps and bounds as well, because you will be thinking more about lighting, composition, etc.