Snapping away with my new toy!
Discussion
I bought a new Canon digi-cam yesterday. I went from an AA battery powered Canon Powershot A400 (3.2 Megapixel) to a Canon Digital IXUS 75 (7.1 Megapixel).
Now, I'm just a simple "point'n'press" photographer (ie. no training and no skill
), but even I can tell this new camera is SO much better!
My A400 only had a basic zoom on it, but with one seems to have a 12x zoom
I've been snapping away with this new camera, a done something I've never done before - taken photos of flowers.
So, what do you all think for a first attempt? Open to criticism of course!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Darren
Now, I'm just a simple "point'n'press" photographer (ie. no training and no skill
), but even I can tell this new camera is SO much better! My A400 only had a basic zoom on it, but with one seems to have a 12x zoom
I've been snapping away with this new camera, a done something I've never done before - taken photos of flowers.
So, what do you all think for a first attempt? Open to criticism of course!
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Darren
Edited by iluvmercs on Tuesday 27th March 21:25
OK, first off, they're all pretty good efforts for a first go with a new camera.
1, 3, 6 and 8 are OK, but they don't really say anything. They're pictures of flowers, nothing more, although the insect in number 6 does add a bit of interest.
Number 2 I rather like. There's a sort of "threatening" feel to the flowers - that probably doesn't make sense, but the way they're facing puts me in mind of triffids on the march.
4 is a nice composition, but I'd have moved slightly right to lose the partial flowers on the left and down a bit to bring the flower that's disappearing out of the bottom into frame.
5 is similar - move slightly to the left to bring the right-hand flowers into the picture fully.
With 7, the main flower doesn't really stand out from the background. I'd probably try lifting it into an overlay layer and then fully desaturate the background.
Keep it up - you've got a good eye, there. It just needs developing (pun not intended).
1, 3, 6 and 8 are OK, but they don't really say anything. They're pictures of flowers, nothing more, although the insect in number 6 does add a bit of interest.
Number 2 I rather like. There's a sort of "threatening" feel to the flowers - that probably doesn't make sense, but the way they're facing puts me in mind of triffids on the march.
4 is a nice composition, but I'd have moved slightly right to lose the partial flowers on the left and down a bit to bring the flower that's disappearing out of the bottom into frame.
5 is similar - move slightly to the left to bring the right-hand flowers into the picture fully.
With 7, the main flower doesn't really stand out from the background. I'd probably try lifting it into an overlay layer and then fully desaturate the background.
Keep it up - you've got a good eye, there. It just needs developing (pun not intended).
Major Bloodnok said:
OK, first off, they're all pretty good efforts for a first go with a new camera.
1, 3, 6 and 8 are OK, but they don't really say anything. They're pictures of flowers, nothing more, although the insect in number 6 does add a bit of interest.
Number 2 I rather like. There's a sort of "threatening" feel to the flowers - that probably doesn't make sense, but the way they're facing puts me in mind of triffids on the march.
4 is a nice composition, but I'd have moved slightly right to lose the partial flowers on the left and down a bit to bring the flower that's disappearing out of the bottom into frame.
5 is similar - move slightly to the left to bring the right-hand flowers into the picture fully.
With 7, the main flower doesn't really stand out from the background. I'd probably try lifting it into an overlay layer and then fully desaturate the background.
Keep it up - you've got a good eye, there. It just needs developing (pun not intended).
1, 3, 6 and 8 are OK, but they don't really say anything. They're pictures of flowers, nothing more, although the insect in number 6 does add a bit of interest.
Number 2 I rather like. There's a sort of "threatening" feel to the flowers - that probably doesn't make sense, but the way they're facing puts me in mind of triffids on the march.
4 is a nice composition, but I'd have moved slightly right to lose the partial flowers on the left and down a bit to bring the flower that's disappearing out of the bottom into frame.
5 is similar - move slightly to the left to bring the right-hand flowers into the picture fully.
With 7, the main flower doesn't really stand out from the background. I'd probably try lifting it into an overlay layer and then fully desaturate the background.
Keep it up - you've got a good eye, there. It just needs developing (pun not intended).
exactly 
Thanks for the encouraging summary, Major Bloodnok
I'll keep on practising and have a play with all the different functions, see what they do.
As I said, I'm at the photographer level of "total novice", so what's the layering/overlay thingy you mentioned, and doing what now the background?
Sorry! 
I have to say I was a bit surprised by the comments about photo 2, but studying it again, I think I can see where you're coming from!
Darren
I'll keep on practising and have a play with all the different functions, see what they do.
As I said, I'm at the photographer level of "total novice", so what's the layering/overlay thingy you mentioned, and doing what now the background?
Sorry! I have to say I was a bit surprised by the comments about photo 2, but studying it again, I think I can see where you're coming from!
Darren
Edited by iluvmercs on Tuesday 27th March 21:29
Darren, if you don't have decent photo manipulation software yet, you will soon want some. Paint Shop Pro XI is very good - it's about the same price as Photoshop Elements, but I prefer it. You could enter a life of servitude in order to pay for the full Photoshop, but that's OTT. There's always The Gimp, which has the best price of all - it's free. I haven't used it, so can't comment, but it may be the way to go while you find your feet.
Also, as you improve, you'll want to start shooting RAW images, if your camera supports it. I don't know if The Gimp can handle RAW, but the others certainly can.
As for layers, think of them as transparent sheets that you can place over your main image and then draw on, or copy selected bits of the image to. What I'm suggesting above is that you copy the main flower onto a new layer. At this point, nothing obvious has happened. However, if you desaturate the background layer, you get a black and white background, but with the original (colour) flower laid over the top. The trickiest bit of this process is selecting the flower so that the edges, where it goes from colour to black and white, don't look harsh or fake.
This image should give you an idea of what I'm getting at:
Also, as you improve, you'll want to start shooting RAW images, if your camera supports it. I don't know if The Gimp can handle RAW, but the others certainly can.
As for layers, think of them as transparent sheets that you can place over your main image and then draw on, or copy selected bits of the image to. What I'm suggesting above is that you copy the main flower onto a new layer. At this point, nothing obvious has happened. However, if you desaturate the background layer, you get a black and white background, but with the original (colour) flower laid over the top. The trickiest bit of this process is selecting the flower so that the edges, where it goes from colour to black and white, don't look harsh or fake.
This image should give you an idea of what I'm getting at:
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