Your sincere thoughts about my photos

I have been using Lumix G7 for about 8 months. I have only a kit lens with me(14-42mm). I always use manual exposure for filming.

I am sincerely requesting you to share your thoughts about my photos and camera settings(positives and negatives). Also some tips for improving my photography. Kindly look at some of my photos attached below.

aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/60s

ISO 400

Focal Length42.0mm

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/320s

ISO 400

Focal Length 42.0mm

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/500s

ISO 400

Focal Length 35.0mm

Aperture ƒ/6.3

Shutter Speed1/60s

ISO400

Focal Length 42.0mm

Aperture ƒ/8.0

Shutter Speed 1/80s

ISO 200

Focal Length 42.0mm

Aperture ƒ/5.1

Shutter Speed 1/125s

ISO 800

Focal Length 23.0mm

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/60s

ISO 400

Focal Length 42.0mm

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/30s

ISO 400

Focal Length 42.0mm

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/60s

ISO 800

Focal Length 42.0mm

Aperture - ƒ/5.4

Shutter Speed - 1/200s

ISO - 400

Focal Length - 34.0mm

Hi,

I think you have made a good start. Some of these pictures are very pleasing but there are a few points which would improve them. Two things occur to me:

1. Composition. In some pictures, the subject needs to be a little larger in the frame - those nice red chilli peppers are quite far away and would have more impact if you move in a bit. The same applies to the pictures of the white flowers and to that vine or creeper tendril. When I was a novice photographer, my dad would say, "that looks like a pea on a drum - get closer and fill the frame!"

2. Your pictures of the white flowers suffer from something which often happens with white subjects in photographs- they are underexposed. Your camera's metering system is exposed to such a subject and thinks, hey, there's a huge amount of light coming from those white flowers - I'd better go for a faster shutter speed in case they picture is overexposed. This is why the whites are a little dull. This often happens with pictures taken of snow scenes or on a sunny beach and is why most cameras have 'beach or snow' among their 'scene modes'. It's to tell the exposure metering system that there really is supposed to be lots of bright light! To correct this for white subjects, adjust the exposure compensation to something like plus one, or if you use raw files instead of jpegs, adjust the exposure until those whites are nice and bright.

Best wishes and have fun!

dark_matter wrote:

I have been using Lumix G7 for about 8 months. I have only a kit lens with me(14-42mm). I always use manual exposure for filming.

I am sincerely requesting you to share your thoughts about my photos and camera settings(positives and negatives). Also some tips for improving my photography. Kindly look at some of my photos attached below.

Next time, please put in a little description of each, so comments can easily distinguish which they're talking about. If I have nothing meaningful to title them, I'll at least use "#1", "#2", ...

My opinions are meant humbly.

#1 Peppers

Tasty! Excellent lighting, perhaps a tad too much on the 5th one.

aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/60s

ISO 400

Focal Length42.0mm

#2 Buds

Honestly? Uninspiring. Move in closer & remove the bottom & right to accentuate the stem and highlight the flower bud? IDK?

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/320s

ISO 400

Focal Length 42.0mm

#3 Coleus

No distinct subject. Eye wanders and it all looks too much the same.

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/500s

ISO 400

Focal Length 35.0mm

#4 White Flower Pair

Underexposed and too centered, add 0.5 stops in post & crop to recompose

Aperture ƒ/6.3

Shutter Speed1/60s

ISO400

Focal Length 42.0mm

#5 decapitated buds(?)

Nice. I'd brighten it a bit and add this to my background folder to rotate in occasionally

Aperture ƒ/8.0

Shutter Speed 1/80s

ISO 200

Focal Length 42.0mm

#6 Leafy Thing

Composition could work but don't know why I'm not impressed. Fuller lighting? Deeper DOF? IDK

Aperture ƒ/5.1

Shutter Speed 1/125s

ISO 800

Focal Length 23.0mm

#7 Fern

Like. I would crop off some of the semi-distracting right area

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/60s

ISO 400

Focal Length 42.0mm

#8 Blueish Purplish Flowers

Nothing spectacular

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/30s

ISO 400

Focal Length 42.0mm

#9 Red Plus

Nothing spectacular

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/60s

ISO 800

Focal Length 42.0mm

#10 Moody flowers

Like. I'd crop out some of the background & try brightening highlights a bit

Aperture - ƒ/5.4

Shutter Speed - 1/200s

ISO - 400

Focal Length - 34.0mm

I like the buds because the composition works and the execution is good. It would make a nice restful print in a meeting room - good work.

The image EXIFs don’t have lens data but these look as though you took them handheld without stabilisation from the lens. You used quite short exposures and the images are quite noisy. I’d shoot these kinds of subjects on a tripod or set base ISO and rely on the IBIS in my EM1.2. For still life images indoors, you can control the lighting.

Several of the images look as though you missed focus. If you use a tripod, then you can get critical focus on the exact point in MF. I prefer that. Some of the images would benefit from either deeper depth of field or focus stacking.

The noise, focus and depth of field issues mean that most of the images only work at small sizes.

You had comments about composition from others. Note that what works for one person may not work for another. Unless you are photographing for someone else, then be your own critic - what do you like about each image and would you keep it for years?

Not sure if these are JPEG’s out of the camera or you shoot RAW. Some people believe in capturing the exact shot in camera, maybe using scene modes or jpeg settings to get the effects, tone curve etc they want. I shoot RAW and agree with many others who think that processing the image after capture is a key part of achieving the image you want.

I make no claim of excellence, but I admire you asking for feedback. Here is a flower image where I applied the approaches above (taken on a tripod).

Andrew

PS If you post in the weekly image threads, you will get feedback from far better photographers than me.

For a 42.5mm lens, you need a minimum of 1/90 sec to prevent camera shake that reduces sharpness.  Plus, in nature, objects are rarely completely still as breeze can cause them to move.

dark_matter wrote:

I have been using Lumix G7 for about 8 months. I have only a kit lens with me(14-42mm). I always use manual exposure for filming.

I am sincerely requesting you to share your thoughts about my photos and camera settings(positives and negatives). Also some tips for improving my photography. Kindly look at some of my photos attached below.

Some nice shots, you need to work on composition.

It's rare when a photo with the subject plopped dead center in the frame is very interesting compositionally. To me, that's catalogue or field guide photography.

Finding things that counter balance or oppose the subject or move the eye around the image help tremendously.

Look at paintings and photographs. And practice. Good start, though.

I think that some of the comments made in the other replies are useful. Don't worry too much about perfection. Some people insist on an image which is absolutely sharp from front to back, has no noise and which follows those rules of composition like not having the subject in the centre. I take a lot of plant and flower pictures and to achieve sharp pictures, I usually use a monopod ( not a big heavy one, just a collapsible walking stick with a camera screw on the top). I also make sure, as one of your other correspondents pointed out, that the shutter speed is at least the reciprocal of the focal length. If the light level is low, I turn up the ISO but I don't usually go beyond 800. I also tend towards wider apertures if I want to isolate flowers, so that the background is blurred. It is difficult to guess exactly what the best aperture is for any situation, as you do need to have all of the flower in focus but if you bracket your exposures, you should get it right. Wind is the flower photographer's worst enemy - I have heard of photographers using clothes pegs to keep plants still. Bear in mind that I have had 16 megapixel pictures published  all over the world and I use jpegs straight from the camera and have no idea how to do 'focus stacking'! Your camera is good enough.

You will read a different opinion from each of us. Sometimes, it just a matter of taste.  I'd say to join a photo club or camera club.  You can ask questions and learn from more experienced photographers.  Also, learn different techniques, as well as have fun.

That being said, I like the one with the white buds.  I find it pleasing.  Enjoy your new camera.

I would add that you need to be more careful with the background. For these types of shots, anything that doesn't contribute to the image is a distraction.

Strive for clean backgrounds and no distracting elements on the edges of the frame.

Images #2, #4, #7, and #10 would benefit from better backgrounds. I realize that this is difficult with limited focal length and max aperture.

Images #1 and #5 are nice.

Hi,
In reply to your request for examples, here are three pictures which have been published several times. I do not pretend to be an expert, and the pictures are intended to be illustrations, not works of art. The pictures which I get published via a photo library are generally used on websites and for sizes up to a half-page in a magazine. I take them because I like them and just send the better ones to the agency. I will view them on a computer screen and occasionally print them at A4 size. They will never be used on a billboard or a cinema screen. None of them required specialist equipment. The ring of allium flowers was taken with a Fuji X100s, which was quite an expensive camera but it just had the standard 23mm lens. The other two were taken using very modest equipment. The butterfly picture was taken on a tiny Fuji XF1 compact with a small sensor and the picture of the 'bleeding heart' flowers was taken with an original Nikon 1 with a one inch sensor and the kit lens. As a recent correspondent says, you will get a different opinion from everyone. There are people who think you need the latest 100-megapixel marvel and a lens which costs as much as a car. This is not true. I will be moving over to Micro Four Thirds later this year and will probably buy an Olympus OM-10 with the 16 megapixel sensor, the same as your camera has. It's not about counting the pixels! I hope you enjoy your photography.

I put a few thoughts below. Overall, i agree with previous comments about the benefit of filling the frame. I would also encourage you to think about the subject and the reason why you decided to take a picture of a particular flower/object instead of the one next to it. You can use composition and light to emphasize those attributes.

Lastly, I love reading books on composition. It took me a few books before the concepts started to sink in 😂.

dark_matter wrote:

I have been using Lumix G7 for about 8 months. I have only a kit lens with me(14-42mm). I always use manual exposure for filming.

I am sincerely requesting you to share your thoughts about my photos and camera settings(positives and negatives). Also some tips for improving my photography. Kindly look at some of my photos attached below.

aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/60s

ISO 400

Focal Length42.0mm

This picture is quite good. The pepper arrangement looks good and the red contrasts with the black background. However, the peppers are quit small in the frame. I would crop in to emphasize the subject and maybe reduce highlights a bit.

even though your camera is "only" 16 megapixel, you should not be afraid big cropping. I have a 13x19 print of a 3 megapixel crop from a 16 megapixel camera on my wall. It holds up surprisingly well. (Though I typically try to keep 10 megapixels.

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/320s

ISO 400

Focal Length 42.0mm

I am not sure if I see what you were going for in this photo. If you are able to explain why you were drawn to this particular subject, it might help me better identify ways of modifying composition.

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/500s

ISO 400

Focal Length 35.0mm

This photo is quite pleasing and well exposed. It does lack a clear subject, which prevents it from being a great image.

I may have tried emphasizing one of the large clusters of flowers and then let the smaller ones fill in the background.

Aperture ƒ/6.3

Shutter Speed1/60s

ISO400

Focal Length 42.0mm

What is the story you were attempting to tell here? I see a flower in full bloom and a wilted flower, which may make a compelling story. I would have recomposed the shot to emphasize those elements by getting closer, changing the angle by stepping to the left, and likely only including a left white flower and the wilted flower.

With that said, the story you saw may have been different.

Aperture ƒ/8.0

Shutter Speed 1/80s

ISO 200

Focal Length 42.0mm

Fantastic! Nice use of a pattern.

Aperture ƒ/5.1

Shutter Speed 1/125s

ISO 800

Focal Length 23.0mm

This one is ok. I think it may have been better if there was enough depth of field to get the entire plant in focus.

I may have experimented with getting closer to make it more of an abstract image.

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/60s

ISO 400

Focal Length 42.0mm

The lighting on the leaf is quite nice, but I personally don't find the picture very inspiring. But I feel the same about most leaf pictures unless there is something special that adds to the image (e.g., color, texture, context, extraordinary composition, etc.).

I wonder how the picture may have looked if you placed the camera by the stem and shot along the stem (so the stem becomes a leading line to the rest of the leaf).

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/30s

ISO 400

Focal Length 42.0mm

This one is good. Maybe not a wall hanger, but I would be happy with it.

Aperture ƒ/5.6

Shutter Speed 1/60s

ISO 800

Focal Length 42.0mm

I would have gotten closer to emphasize the pattern of the buds with a flower in the middle.

Aperture - ƒ/5.4

Shutter Speed - 1/200s

ISO - 400

Focal Length - 34.0mm

This one would be fantastic if you got a bit closer (or cropped the image). Nice light! Notice how the flower pops out of the dark background.

Beautiful.  Well done you!!

I like them.  Keep shooting.

Peace.

John

Boost exposure, saturation and contrast levels, get closer and/or crop, focus on what you want to show, make the rest disappear.

Tried to quickly work on some of your jpegs.