Photography - worth me carrying on? - 56k beware!

Started by Chicky, Fri 01/12/2006 20:27:38

Previous topic - Next topic

Chicky

So i'm considering getting a new digital camera, something decent like the Fuji S5600 SLR.

But i'm not really sure it's worth me putting my money into something if i'm no good at it.

Take a look at these photo's and tell me if it's worth me carrying on with photography. Be harsh, please. These photo's were taken with my old digicam before i sold it.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/oversizedchicken/IMG_0217.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/oversizedchicken/IMG_0213.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/oversizedchicken/IMG_0200.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/oversizedchicken/IMG_0201.jpg

And my fave one:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/oversizedchicken/boatpic1.jpg



So yes, critique please.

love x


Tuomas

I love it. Might be though because sea is the topmost turn on for me, and ships includd, I'm sold. Yeah, that's all I can say since I'm no pro. I especially like the one where you can see under water. Do carry on.

Evil

None of them really have an appealing composition. There's nothing that makes me go wow. It's all very ameteurish. The first one is the best of all of them, but there's still a lot wrong with it. Lens flare, bad value range, several focal points, bad cropping, dull colors.



I played around with it, but it's still not a whole lot better. Sunsets are something that can be very hard for beginners.

Keep in mind, though, a better camera makes a lot of these things easier. Sadly, a good camera can improve your skills if you know how to use them.Ã,  F-Stops, shutter speeds, flash times, etc.

Drop LGM a line. He could definitely give you some tips. He started with some awful stuff, and now he's doing professional stuff.

Chicky

okay, thanks. Well i havn't touched the photos since they came off the camera.

ildu

Crits:

1. Easily the best of these and actually a very good photo. The composition is great, it's got depth and the colors are pretty much perfect. There's also a great balance between the badly lit lower half of the image and the awesomely colorful upper half. Great :).

2. You can see the difference here easily. It's basically the same situation as the first one, but this is a much worse photo. The composition is poor, the depth is irrelevent since it has no foreground objects and it's blurry, the colors are pretty much the same, but they don't have the same impact without a good composition. Additionally, whereas the first photo emphasized the right parts of the area and directed the eye well, this one doesn't do a very good job at it. The wall and the boat, which I assume are supposed to be the most important objects in the scene become more intrusive than amiable.

3. This one is boring and and empty. There isn't much to see, that is there aren't any objects that stand out. The colors are also very stale and washed out. Also, there isn't a great deal of composition here. There is, however, some nice contrast going on at the bottom with the red rock and the green moss. You should've taken this image way lower, so that the rock and moss would've been the target in the foreground, with the sky fading in the background.

4. This, on the other hand, is great. The ridge-type thing on the rock with the sharp areas frames the image and emphasizes the caterpillar in the middle. The colors and depth are great and the sharpness is very effective. You could've still moved your camera to the right just a little bit, so that the little ridge would've added even more framing by denying people from wandering to the left side of it. If this is natural depth blurring and not photoshopped, I commend you on it. It could've been a little bit sharper still.

5. Another good one. You've got very nice framing with the boat and the row of barrels and the colors are very charming. There's perhaps a little lack of depth, but that's not really such a bad thing.

Best to worst:

1 > 4 > 5 > 2 > 3

I was pretty harsh like you wanted :).

CaptainBinky

#5
Quote from: ildu on Fri 01/12/2006 21:48:48
1 > 4 > 5 > 2 > 3

Bang on. I agree with absolutely everything ildu's said. The stuff in 3... frankly get closer to the rock with the seaweed on it and it'd make a great texture, but as a photo it's a bit... well... unemotional if you get me..?

Personally, I'm not fond of the red tint in Evil's edit - I much prefer the rich orange - I also prefer the heavy dark shadow to the left to balance the bulk of the ship. The only thing about it I don't like is the positioning of the streetlamps which is the council's fault and not yours ;) But they add an element of randomness to the scene - it would be better if they echoed the perspective.

I don't have an issue with the lens flare - these things (and others) have a tendancy to be written off as bad just because they can be avoided (and that they are often added inappropriately). But it doesn't damage your composition at all - in fact it adds to it.

Binky

A Lemmy & Binky Production

BOYD1981

one of the main reasons i wanted to get a digital camera was to take pictures of the sky, i tried a few times but never really quite got the hang of it, although my attempts at it were through my bedroom window.
i prefer your original boat image to the photoshopped one. the edit just looks too fake, the sky would have to be more red to make those red clouds believable.
i really like the shallow water photo.
i've actually found that i have a much harder time photographing flesh, it either turns out too shiny, too dark, too bright or very dull, never natural looking. or people just tend to end up looking very sweaty/greasy.

here are my attempts at capturing the sky, taken in october last year.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v738/BOYD1981/sunrise1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v738/BOYD1981/sunrise2.jpg

believe it or not those two pictures were taken on the same day within a few minutes of eachother at sunrise, i just angled the camera differently and as you can see, one is a lot darker than the other, and they are of the same area (if you increase the brightness/contrast you can see the outline of the houses).

Limey Lizard, Waste Wizard!
01101101011000010110010001100101001000000111100101101111011101010010000001101100011011110110111101101011


Evil

Quote from: BOYD1981 on Sat 02/12/2006 01:00:13
i've actually found that i have a much harder time photographing flesh, it either turns out too shiny, too dark, too bright or very dull, never natural looking. or people just tend to end up looking very sweaty/greasy.

Every photo ever put into a magazine, the subject has makeup on, and/or the skin is smoothed out in post.

And over all, I'm not saying they're bad, but they just need help. I'd argue the composition issue, but I can agree with the colors. They do look fake-ish, but in adjusting the values, the color hues get distorted. Most of the time you want your photos to stand out more then everyone elses. For something with bad values and composition, vivid colors make it stand out more.


CaptainBinky


A Lemmy & Binky Production

LGM

#11
Well, you certainly shouldn't give up. You're no worse than the common Flickr user, which isn't a bad thing. I can tell you have an eye for color at least. You DO need to work on composition, as Harry has pointed out. It's a tough gig, dude. BUt keep at it. I only learned by taking zillions of pictures every day. Also, look at other people's work. If you're intelligent enough, you'll start to pick up on new techniques and see how some things are done.

I believe in you!

Invest in the Fuji! If you get good enough, you can start making your money back. I paid for my first camera by selling a print I made with it. But, if you're gonna go SLR, I'd suggest getting the Rebel XT. It's only 600 bucks or so now. But if you really want to invest, get the XTi.
You. Me. Denny's.

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk