My first outing with the 400D! C&C Welcome . .

DarkShadow

DarkShadow

DarkShadow

Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2004
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I recently had my first day out with my 400D recently, I'm using the kit lens in all the pics.

Just a bit of background info; I have absolutely no previous photography skills. That said I've only used a digital camera a handful of times in my life :o

I'd appreciate any C&C as I can only learn from my mistakes :)

I've only just got round to post-processing my pics and most of these were trial and error and I managed to fill the capacity of my cards. Here are a few selected ones that I found to be pretty nice (EXIF Embedded):

img0209ut2.jpg


img0088lh8.jpg


img0095or4.jpg
 
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The second and the sixth stand out for me from those. The fifth looks a bit soft to me and I would say the third might look a bit better in colour, if the graffiti is any good.

You're obviously using a polariser or doing the sky in PP, which looks great. One thing I would say is that make sure you're shooting in RAW, as CS2 is far more powerful when editing RAWs than JPEGs - you're probably doing this already. Also, try to steer-clear of the programmed functions and do it all in AP, or even M if you're feeling adventurous. Any photos you do take, you can view with the camera and then take again if necessary - use the histogram function and check out the clipping on highlights etc.
 
I agree with A.N.Other. #6 is by far the best shot, it's a nicely composed shot with the railway lines drawing you into it. I'm afraid the others don't really offer me much but i'm glad you've tried to get some shots of graffiti. It's a subject that doesn't get covered a lot and can make some very interesting shots.
 
1 and 8 for the win! My only crit with 8 is I suspect a little much fill light has been used, the rails look a bit funny to me. Try a HDR of it instead if you need to get the foreground exposed properly.
 
Some good pictures in there, keep taking lots of pictures! I think the first one would looking stunning if you where to take a similar picture at sunset or sunrise.
 
Thats a very nice set of shots, the colours are very vivid which i do like. I think there is a lot of noise in them shots dont know if that has come from post editing to bring the colours out more or if it was due to strong light on the day, but if this is reduced across the set around the dark areas could be a very strong start in your photography expedition :D
 
I like the last one the best. The best of what is a good set of photo's.

I like your borders too. Especially the slightly lighter bit before the black border. How did you achieve that effect?
 
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Well you've obviously enjoyed taking them and of course asking for C&C is the one but not the only way to improve. Other replies have suggested that you take many more photos and I'd certainly agree.

My suggestion would be to read-up and practice the rule of thirds. Your last photo would certainly benefit if the the track did end NOT right in the centre of your photo, again your canal lock photo has the lock gates slap-bang in the middle too.

Nice to see you're enjoying what you are doing :)
 
nice photos. the 2nd pic would work better with more contrast i believe. i hope you dont mind but i had a play with the pic and came up with this:

img0095or4_2.jpg
 
would someone mind telling me how those borders are done?

i use PE5, and i know how to resize the canvas to get a thin white line, and then expand the canvas again to make a thicker black border, but these frames i really really like, with the slightly see through thinner line.
 
NorthstaNder said:
would someone mind telling me how those borders are done?

i use PE5, and i know how to resize the canvas to get a thin white line, and then expand the canvas again to make a thicker black border, but these frames i really really like, with the slightly see through thinner line.
Click to expand...

If PE5 is PhotoShop Elements 5. Here's what I do in Photoshop to make frames (although I have a 3rd party programm for more elaborate frames).

Make a new layer (Ctl+Shift+N)
Click on the new layer (in the pallets) and the (Ctl+A) moving ants around the whole layer. Name it Frame
Use the eye dropper to select a colour from your art work (or any other colour by any means)
Menu Bar - Select Edit, Stroke, choose pixels (just trial and error) say 8, inside
Double Click on the Frame layer to bring up the layer style helper and tick Bevel and Emboss.
You will now have a frame on a separate layer!

Obviously this is not the only way but this way you are able to make frames using gradients, patterned, shadowed, the list is endless. More importantly because it is on a separate layer you can make as many alterations as you like - including the trash can!

Hope this helps
 
Thanks for the superb feedback guys, it really has encouraged me to carry on :)

I did take 200 photos which was rather shocking and I took these into lightroom and whilst 'trying' to crop and apply the rule of thirds are the results you can see. I was rather impressed with the stock version of the last photo, no straightening or cropping . . . t'was a random shot whilst walking.

Ichabod - The light was very strong on that day, it was rather humid and the sun was just above the cooling towers.

NorthstaNder said:
I like the last one the best. The best of what is a good set of photo's.

I like your borders too. Especially the slightly lighter bit before the black border. How did you achieve that effect?
Click to expand...

Simple really;

New layer > CTRL + A > Edit > Stroke > 10 pixels white > 20% opacity
New layer > CTRL + A > Edit > Stroke > 8 pixels black

Hope that helped :)
 
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