Finally getting some use out of my camera....

liam08

liam08

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Liam
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With some gentle persuasion, I finally took my camera out yesterday. I'm very very new to photography still, I basically just put it in AV mode and snap away. These are a few I took yesterday and some I took this morning. I'm quite ignorant when it comes to PP, so most of the photos are just exported as a JPEG and uploaded. I ask for constructive criticism, it's what I need to point me in the right direction. Thanks guys.


Untitled by Liam McGlynn, on Flickr


Dandelion by Liam McGlynn, on Flickr


Jake and Jon by Liam McGlynn, on Flickr


Untitled by Liam McGlynn, on Flickr


Jake and Jon by Liam McGlynn, on Flickr


Untitled by Liam McGlynn, on Flickr
 
West Woods?
Im hoping to go down there this week so it s good to see the bluebells are looking OK.

Critique? OK here goes;

No. 1 - The central position of the tree is too dominant

No. 2 - Well composed but the light is a bit flat and the background is a bit cluttered

No. 3 - Well they are both involved in something but to the viewer who was not there I have no idea what that was, the image is nice and sharp on the faces and the background is nicely out of focus so you have used depth of field intelligently. A good effort but one for the personal scrap book.

No.4 - The best of the bunch for me, I would be tempted to crop out the tree on the left border and see how that looks but this is a nice image.

N0 5 - No idea what is going on to be honest

No 6 - The stump in the foreground spoils it but if you take that out you have tried to use the path as a leading line to the subject of the pile of sticks. The path of bluebells is nicely sharp but the subject matter is out of focus and not that interesting from this viewpoint.

No. 7 - Nope

No. 8 - light too flat and tree too dominant, no real point of interest as I assume the tree was the focal point

No 9 . Cute but the light is flat

OK so one decent one out of the bunch in my opinion, which you should not be upset about, if I get one keeper from a days shoot I am happy enough.
 
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Incidentally I find woodland photography one of the most challenging of subjects and quite difficult to get a good composition, so don't be dischuffed.
One way to photograph a subject like this is to keep it simple and the lighting is everthing.
Try early morning.
Take a look here from a master of the subject there is a good bluebell shot there. http://www.dougchinnery.com/galleries/arboria-i/
 
I appreciate all of your comments. Thank you! If I can't take criticism from people that know what they're talking about, I may as well just give up. I'll be honest, I struggle with composition. I'm not good with working out where light is perfect etc.
 
We have all been there, I still struggle with composition its just with experience you get to have a better idea of what you are looking for I think. As far as light is concerned it is often about being in the right place at the right time, but nobody can tell you when the right time is going to be, that is often down to chance, the more you are out there with the camera the more chance of getting some spectacular light.
Woodlands for instance often look good when there is a little mist around, it helps isolate the trees and gives atmosphere.
The best times for landscape are often in the 'golden hour' before and after sunrise and sunset. But not always and not necessarily in woodlands.
But in woodlands if you see a nice golden light streaming through the trees causing long shadows then that may be a good light as just one example. Detail shots can also work well in the woods.
Just keep taking photo's, and reading and studying others work and you will improve.
 
That's what I'll be doing. I study a lot of different exif data too, just to get a rough idea of the settings people use. Although, it's not quite that simple when people change so much in PP.
 
Download a trial copy of Lightroom 4 (or the beta of Lightroom 5), shoot in RAW, watch a few Youtube guides (I like a guy called Serge Ramelli) and just have a play with them - contrast, sharpening, etc.

I hope you don't mind, but I had a play with the last one.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Zs1Y3TZeU8LTFQbnYtMFZIWDA/edit?usp=sharing

I'm really no expert, but I do think 30 seconds of fiddling produced a nicer, livelier image.
 
abdoujaparov said:
Download a trial copy of Lightroom 4 (or the beta of Lightroom 5), shoot in RAW, watch a few Youtube guides (I like a guy called Serge Ramelli) and just have a play with them - contrast, sharpening, etc.

I hope you don't mind, but I had a play with the last one.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Zs1Y3TZeU8LTFQbnYtMFZIWDA/edit?usp=sharing

I'm really no expert, but I do think 30 seconds of fiddling produced a nicer, livelier image.
Click to expand...

I've got Lightroom 4, I'm just not really sure how to use it.
If course I don't mind, that does look very nice. :)
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13kDBgRQSm8

Here's a Serge Ramelli video. You can ignore what he does later on with the brushes to change the colours, but his basic workflow is what I did to your duckling - lower the highlights, raise the shadows, raise the whites until they almost blow, lower the blacks until they clip, raise the contrast, apply a little sharpening. It might not be to everybody's taste, but it's a nice start.

(When he says "option key", that's Alt on Windows)
 
I need to start somewhere, so I'll give this a look as soon as the football has finished. :)

It's okay, I've got a Retina MacBook Pro.
 
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I think you might have overcooked the saturation a little, but it's definitely a more dynamic image, and the left crop has taken away a distraction away from the focus of the composition, so that worked well.
 
Thank you for your input, I really do appreciate it. I have to admit, it feels a little too much like I've 'Instagram'd' it.
 
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