Another Call For Criticism

[Chimpy]

I've just gotten into photography and have been loving it. I'm looking to up my game, and was hoping you all might take a look at my photos at give me some criticism. I have a thick skin, so don't worry about offending me, I'm just looking for honest critique from some seasoned eyes.

My flickr page is here.

 

[Everythingisnt]

I *really* like "Koi"..

But don't trust me, I'm just a 'newb' as well .

 

[Aldaris]

Really good Pictures- seriously, not sure exactly what you were going for, but I think ya' got some skill. Thanks for sharing!

 

[uMac]

Not a bad set of pictures you have there. Your on your way!

 

[tony-in-japan]

Great pics - keep up the good work!

Hey,

you have a good ability for composing your shots! Keep up the good work.

You know, photographing children is one of the hardest things I find in photography. To capture that moment of spark that a child expresses is difficult (most of my shots become blurred because they move so much!).

I think I need to explore more of the quick-fire continuous shooting mode on my camera.

p.s. by the way, what camera do you use?

 

[Chimpy]

Thanks for the comments, guys, I really appreciate it.

Tony-in-Japan, I use a Canon 40D.

 

[liveexpo]

I think you've captured some nice moments in your shots, particularly the kid shots. Although, the composition of the pictures doesn't strike me as a strong point. You could argue that with certain subject matter, it's more important to capture the emotion (like with children) but you also need to be thinking about creating powerful composition. Although I like the shots, the composition is a little too weak, and fails to make my eyes 'read' the image.

I think your strength in his series is definitely your technical skill. You demonstrate the ability to achieve good quality pics, despite shooting in somewhat difficult situations.

As a side note, the spot colour of the eyes in BW Eyes looks a little over done. This is totally down to individual preference, but personally, i would reduce the saturation a little more, so that the effect doesn't look as obvious.

Hope all that helps!

 

[Chimpy]

I think you've captured some nice moments in your shots, particularly the kid shots. Although, the composition of the pictures doesn't strike me as a strong point. You could argue that with certain subject matter, it's more important to capture the emotion (like with children) but you also need to be thinking about creating powerful composition. Although I like the shots, the composition is a little too weak, and fails to make my eyes 'read' the image.

I think your strength in his series is definitely your technical skill. You demonstrate the ability to achieve good quality pics, despite shooting in somewhat difficult situations.

As a side note, the spot colour of the eyes in BW Eyes looks a little over done. This is totally down to individual preference, but personally, i would reduce the saturation a little more, so that the effect doesn't look as obvious.

Hope all that helps!

Excellent, thanks for the feedback! I'm a total beginner - could you perhaps pick one shot and give me an idea of exactly what you mean about the weak composition? If that's too time-consuming I understand, so please feel free to say no.

I agree about the eyes - my wife said they were over-done too.

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

You're new to it? Really? Pretty dang good for even an experienced photog.

One suggestion - look to the light in some of those photos. For instance, 'Spring', 'Bark' and some of the other similar photos. The light is very flat. You might want to try some of those with improved light, accentuating the tonalities of the subject, and improving the contrasts.

Some may require better existing light. Others could be improved with a flash, or with a reflector card.

 

[Abstract]

The only ones I really disliked were Spring, and the close-up macro shots. The macro shots of "stuff" seem like test shots, as though you just learnt what "depth of field" is, and are just experimenting. If these were test shots, I wouldn't say anything, but since you actually wanted criticism on the shot, you probably were implying that they're shots you like. Personally, I don't enjoy them, but some people will enjoy any shot with a shallow depth of field, so those would seem appealing.

Also, in the last photo (on the 1st page), "Slid", the light in the girl's hair is VERY distracting. That's it.

In the photo "Golden", I would have preferred it if her face was in focus. You can choose to focus on her hair, or her face, and you chose the hair. I would have chosen the face, but that's my own preference. Her face is what's interesting to me, not her hair.


As a general thing, check your white balance. Some of the photos are well off mark in terms of WB, but that's easily fixable in any photo application. I guess there's no such thing as a "perfect" WB, as it's all down to preference. However, there is a certain range of acceptable WB, and some of the photos fall outside of that, IMO.

 

[Chimpy]

@AxisOfBeagles - Yup, completely new to it, maybe a month or so now. Thanks for the kinds words. I've *just* started playing with the flash - I was shooting without it because quite frankly I didn't know how the hell it worked .

@Abstract - Good call on the test shot/depth of field thing. You're right - as someone new I'm a little too enamored with the whole DOF thing. I was focusing (no pun intended) on the coolness of the DOF more than anything.

I'm still learning about WB as well. I recognize that it's off, but didn't know enough about it when shooting. Still don't, actually

I'm reading as much as I can and checking out other people's stuff on the net. Slowly but surely learning the ins and outs.

 

[Abstract]

@Abstract - Good call on the test shot/depth of field thing. You're right - as someone new I'm a little too enamored with the whole DOF thing. I was focusing (no pun intended) on the coolness of the DOF more than anything.

Hey, don't worry about it. People love shallow depth of field, and close-up shots. I still take shots like that occasionally for fun. In fact, I took a photo of some straw 4 months ago, just like you did. I just wouldn't ask people to criticize it. I've included the photo just to show you that I seriously still do the same thing when I'm just sitting around, not doing anything.

I'm still learning about WB as well. I recognize that it's off, but didn't know enough about it when shooting. Still don't, actually

Just try to make sure a photo, especially a photo of people, doesn't look too green, too blue, too yellow, or too pink-ish. Some people make their photos look like that on purpose, but I dont think you were intentionally going for that "look", so....

 

[Chimpy]

Some people make their photos look like that on purpose, but I dont think you were intentionally going for that "look", so....

No, you're exactly right, it's not my intention.

In fact I'm jealous of the vibrant colors of the shot you posted. Do you do a lot of post-work on your shots, or is it generally all in-camera?

 

[wakerider017]

Chimpy instead of me giving you some advice, how about you give me some advice.

Those pictures were AWESOME!

P.S. I just got a D40 this week and I am new to SLR. If I could get my pictures to look half as good as yours I would be happy!

 

[Abstract]

In fact I'm jealous of the vibrant colors of the shot you posted. Do you do a lot of post-work on your shots, or is it generally all in-camera?

I just took the photo and played with the tone curve a little bit to bring out some extra details in the darker bits of the photo. That's it.

It's not a great photo, but I just liked the dark background and the brighter straw. I thought the straw would stand out a lot more, but it didn't turn out the way I had hoped.

 

[Chimpy]

Chimpy instead of me giving you some advice, how about you give me some advice.

Those pictures were AWESOME!

P.S. I just got a D40 this week and I am new to SLR. If I could get my pictures to look half as good as yours I would be happy!

You're too kind :blush:

An awesome book (for me at least) was Peterson's "Understanding Exposure." It really helped me understand focal length, aperture, shutter speeds and how they all interrelate. I also read up on the camera and learned all of the controls and then practiced so that I could easily change those things without too much thought.

Now that I have those (kinda) down I need to focus on the things Abstract is talking about; composition, color/temperature, etc - the more ephemeral aspects of photography.

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

I just took the photo and played with the tone curve a little bit to bring out some extra details in the darker bits of the photo. That's it.

It's not a great photo, but I just liked the dark background and the brighter straw. I thought the straw would stand out a lot more, but it didn't turn out the way I had hoped.

If I may be so bold, Abstract - had the straw been much brighter, you'd lose much of the quality of that photo. I find getting the right contrast, good color saturation, and clear subject difficult with a darker image like that - kudos to you for an excellent photo, and what appears to be great work with curves.