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First shots, C&C please, all criticism gratefully accepted!

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steveharding

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Hi,

Finally got my D90 with the 18-105 kit lens. Please let me know what you think of the two pictures here. Anything I should have/could have done better, or should have done in PP?

Thanks in advance
Steve







 
These suck!!! J/K. Nice shots. Maybe you could take a hole box of new colored pencils and put them in the cup. This would give the photo... well... more color. The second one is kind of interesting. I have one that is similar and have seen many like this. Its a pretty cliche kind of shot.
 
Not bad for you're first try. There are some people on this with bad manners on this forum, just ignore them.
 
Well basically they are not great. But it is not your fault. The camera is incapabale of producing pleasant results at default settings.
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Jumbo Jet Ed
 
Without knowing what your original objective was, it is hard to evaluate your composition. As for colours, one of the other posters nailed when they suggested a curves adjustment.

As for the first reply, I agree with the earlier observation about some people with REALLY bad manners. He would have gone nuts if he saw the subjects used in my photography club's Available Light workshops.
--
Mark

Digital means never having to pay for your mistakes!
 
You are doing great with a new D90 and it will not take much to get to outstanding. Go to the menu and bump up the sharpness to 5 where a lot of us keep it set to. The default is extremely soft (way too soft).

Here's what I did:

1.) Landscapes...Aperature Mode...F 8....Remember the "rule of thirds" for composition. You can Google this. Set the camera menu to "landscape mode" you want to see colors of Mother Nature...green..greens...blue..blues..nice amber..ambers...this will make you happy..happy! Easy to do too!

(fyi)...some folks like taking people pictures on the landscape setting as well...people look real good without too much vividity. Try it out see if you like it...remember what you like is what you want in general.

2.) The picture of the pencils was most notably not quite in focus. Your F 5.6 was fine. I think there was some camera shake. just try a re-shoot. This shot would be great in the Shutter mode and the shutter set to 1/125. This will help reduce camera shake. Be sure your VR lens is set to on and normal.

One step at a time...pull away gradually from auto and try leaning on the Shutter and Aperature settings more..when experimanting...gradually. Your lens has a sweet spot that begins at f5.6 and peaks a little over F8.
 
For the pencils, I think that I would have preferred a vertical composition with them being held in an interesting cup. Also it seemed a bit grainy. Perhaps your ISO was a bit high?

For the second one, I think the shot is interesting (the hitch is coming), however, unless it's my monitor the whites are blown. The birch trees seem to have lost a lot of the detail. Maybe the highlights aren't blown and my monitor is too bright (Some confirmation on this would be great).

Keep shooting, I look forward to seeing more of your work!

--
My Blog :D
http://zachsphotographyattempts.blogspot.com/
 
1. The pencils don't quite have a pleasing or interesting arrangement. Play around with them a bit - consider showing the container they might be in, which can add another element of interest (opaque, clear, reflective, weathered, etc).

2. The trees themselves are over-exposed and have lost detail. Some of the information is still there and can brought back out in editing software.

3. Please sharpen the pencils before you actually use them to try and draw anything with them. Please, please, please.
;-)

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Hi Guys,

Thanks for all the help and advice given here. I was ok with the first post, as I knew he was joking :)

The advice about settings is great and I am looking forward to getting back home and experimenting again. I will have a play with the highlights etc and maybe repost another effort.

(and yes, I will sharpen the pencils!)

Thanks again

Steve
 
Pic 1: DOF seems somewhere in the middle to me. Not sharp enough but not blurred enough either.

Pic 2: Nice. Tree on RHS border is distracting. It's too big and creates a border on one side which is not on the other side. It also appears larger than the other trees. Background is a bit distracting, any reason why you couldn't step back and get more trees in plus green background smaller in the process. Side lighting is nice.
steveharding said:
Hi,

Finally got my D90 with the 18-105 kit lens. Please let me know what you think of the two pictures here. Anything I should have/could have done better, or should have done in PP?

Thanks in advance
Steve







Click to expand...
 
I really like them both. I think they could use a little cropping, in particular the trees. You see, the problem for me is that I know I have trees, ground, sky etc. There isn't much to leave to the imagination. For the pencils, I'd say keep the same vertical lines, or else really make them different. Right now, they are kind of in between. What about making them really lean out of the glass, so much that they may just fall out! Something that leaves the viewer a little on edge and wondering.

Technically, always use a tripod for still life. Set the ISO to 200, and give yourself as much shutter time as you need to match the DOF for the look you want.
 
Is the title of the first picture called "After", and the second picture called "Before"?
 
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