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Amatuer Photos - Opinion

J

joe.cavers

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2008
178
0
Hey guys,

So I'm taking a fairly serious interest in photography these days, and I've started playing with manual mode on my Kodak compact. I've taken a few photos of things on my desk just to practice manually focusing and getting the exposure right, was just wondering what you guys thought? Obviously these photos are a mile away from professional, but it's a start :rolleyes:

My parents are pretty serious about their photography, and my dad reads Digital Photo magazine. I've been reading about photos with long shutter speeds in low lights, some of them look incredible! HDR editing/blending also really appeals to me :)

100_1915.jpg

100_1917.jpg


Cheers
JC
 
gkarris

gkarris

macrumors G3
Dec 31, 2004
8,301
1,061
"No escape from Reality...”
Nice job!

What Kodak do you own that allows you to do this?

I had two Kodak digital cams back in the day, a 640x480, and then one of the first 2 Megapixel small pocket ones. Both had Schnieder lenses and had good photos.

I've always admired Kodak cameras, even to this day.

Gotta start somewhere. Mine was a Kodak Pocket 110 :) (still have it!)
 
1

103734

Guest
Apr 10, 2007
723
0
The photo doesn't really have any feeling to it and isn't very interesting, it's cool that you are getting into photography and messing with the manual settings but you really need to find more interesting subjects, and look up the rule of thirds.

Also don't just HDR anything, some people seem to think that HDR is a good subsitute for bad photography, HDR should only be used where are very bright areas (like the sky) and dark areas (shawdows) one shot.
 
J

joe.cavers

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2008
178
0
Thanks very much! It's a Easyshare C875, one of my parents old ones. They use Lumix DMC-FZ18's now, although the way my dad is going about it, I think a cheap DSLR will be his next step.

I'm going to practice some still life when I have some free time, just things in my room. One of the Digital Photo mags I have has a "How-To", I'd love to put some of those techniques to practice.

SUPERSTEVE9219 said:
The photo doesn't really have any feeling to it and isn't very interesting, it's cool that you are getting into photography and messing with the manual settings but you really need to find more interesting subjects, and look up the rule of thirds.

Also don't just HDR anything, some people seem to think that HDR is a good subsitute for bad photography, HDR should only be used where are very bright areas (like the sky) and dark areas (shawdows) one shot.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the feedback. In regard to the photo, I realise the composition is terrible, this was more an exercise in focus and lighting, just to begin with. I have read a little about the rule of thirds, I'll definitely try and make some properly composed photos soon.

The ideas I wanted to try with HDR were some stuff I saw where photos had been made to look almost like video-game scenes, I think because everything was in focus. I like the idea of distorting reality with photography :)

JC
 
gkarris

gkarris

macrumors G3
Dec 31, 2004
8,301
1,061
"No escape from Reality...”
joe.cavers said:
Hey, thanks for the feedback. In regard to the photo, I realise the composition is terrible, this was more an exercise in focus and lighting, just to begin with. I have read a little about the rule of thirds, I'll definitely try and make some properly composed photos soon.

The ideas I wanted to try with HDR were some stuff I saw where photos had been made to look almost like video-game scenes, I think because everything was in focus. I like the idea of distorting reality with photography :)

JC
Click to expand...

Hey, I liked your photos - don't get bent out of shape if it's not "Rule of Thirds". Take photos and capture the moment... :)
 
G

Gita

macrumors newbie
Jan 14, 2009
3
0
Great start! The best way to learn photography is to take lots and lots of photos. Keep practicing and experimenting.
 
S

stevo8

macrumors 6502
Jul 3, 2007
333
17
Focus seems fine but maybe a tad under exposed. Now go shoot something of interest.
 
C

ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,581
1,697
Redondo Beach, California
SUPERSTEVE9219 said:
The photo doesn't really have any feeling to it and isn't very interesting, it's cool that you are getting into photography and messing with the manual settings but you really need to find more interesting subjects, and look up the rule of thirds.

Also don't just HDR anything, some people seem to think that HDR is a good subsitute for bad photography, HDR should only be used where are very bright areas (like the sky) and dark areas (shawdows) one shot.
Click to expand...

I agree with the above. But the above is just a long way of saying

Photography is not about technical stuff. It's about images​

It is the same in other areas. "Audiophiles" are people who like stereo equipment and music is just something you use to show off the equipment. Photographers can fall into this trap too. Don't. How to aviod it? Wonder the art section of the library and spend time with big, large format picture books. Get some cryons and paper and sketch images you'd like to make with your camera. Scribbles are good enough, just that you are planning not reacting.
 
J

joe.cavers

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2008
178
0
ChrisA said:
I agree with the above. But the above is just a long way of saying

Photography is not about technical stuff. It's about images​

It is the same in other areas. "Audiophiles" are people who like stereo equipment and music is just something you use to show off the equipment. Photographers can fall into this trap too. Don't. How to aviod it? Wonder the art section of the library and spend time with big, large format picture books. Get some cryons and paper and sketch images you'd like to make with your camera. Scribbles are good enough, just that you are planning not reacting.
Click to expand...

I can definitely relate to that in regard to music equipment. It took me a few years to realise I was always obsessing over equipment, but not writing. Thankfully I'm finally over that and now I write music fairly regularly :)

Cheers for the advice/feedback

JC
 
J

joe.cavers

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 16, 2008
178
0
miles01110 said:
Sure, but one should recognize that a scene is not lit properly when learning, because post-processing can't fix everything. Admittedly this is hard on P&S cameras which don't have metering.
Click to expand...

I was doing a bit of reading about metering, I think I understand it. How can you tell if a shot is correctly lit (or is that really just as easy as looking at it)? My camera does have a Histogram but that's more for exposure right?

JC
 
1

103734

Guest
Apr 10, 2007
723
0
I don't know if those are all your photos in the flickr account linked to in your sig, but the Microphone picture is cool.
 
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