critique my photos

[djmodifyd]

Hey all,
I've started getting interested in photography,

Here are a few pictures I took at our zoo a couple months ago, I haven't edited them at all (mainly cause I don't really know how to do that very well)

The red birds are through glass and kinda dark, so I couldn't use a flash.

What pointers can you guys/gals give me? Any and all comments welcomed!

Thanks

 

[CrackedButter]

The very first one has a dramatic feel with the light falling on the bird's chest. It emphases how the bird is caged, it's your best shot. The other images are just pictures of birds, nothing special at all.

You'll learn faster and get better if you started to document something in your area, get to know people and learn how to craft a picture essay. The traditional essay focuses on how different images work together to tell a story but hold a reader's interest.

Follow photojournalists on twitter, read www.photojournalismlinks.com, read Time's Lightbox section otherwise you'll just add to the cruft that exists out there.

If you don't want to take a journalist approach, shoot an a diary format. Take pictures of the same things, build up a collection of pictures of bins or road signs, figure out why some are better than others. Build up collections and over time you'll progress, you think, 'I shot it this way before, what if I tried this'. Use one focal length and exhaust it of all its possibilities.

Importantly, it involves spending time with your subject, don't be a tourist who snaps and moves on, take the picture and ask yourself if you could have done it better.

Oh and don't shoot at 5 foot 8 inches either. Get on your hands and knees, stand on a box, anything that says you didn't just stand there and press click. Again look at journalists and notice how they have framed their images.

 

[Jong Tong]

Yup pretty much looks like some caged birds

 

[Schtumple]

Framing is nice and you've left some good breathing room around the subjects, could probably have done with a bit of touching up in post, they all suffer the usual blue shadow tinge that P&S cameras have when shooting at greenery. The red parrot shots are nice though, but they don't have the nice DOF the others do, which subtracts their presence and also brings out the dreary brickwork.

 

[djmodifyd]

Thanks everyone for the replys!

I have aperture, what kind of touch ups do you guys reccomend?

As for the camera it's a Nikon 1 J1. Bought it for its size.

I appreciate anything else! Thank you

 

[CrackedButter]

Thanks everyone for the replys!

I have aperture, what kind of touch ups do you guys reccomend?

As for the camera it's a Nikon 1 J1. Bought it for its size.

I appreciate anything else! Thank you

Develop your own style, everybody who commented could do it a different way, there is many correct ways.

Sometimes I edit pictures based on a mood I want to create, sometimes I over saturate for effect, while others I deliberately shoot at night and only adjust contrast, in another project I slightly desaturated the images.

What's important is consistency.