My first pictures.

[Admiral Huddy]

I started a Photography Btec course in September.

Thought I'd share a few as I go along.


Sorry I admit I lack originality and have been inspired by what I've seen here, in particular Devrij's water circle and a few others to say the least.

I used a 1/200, 100 ISO, f16 exposure. Tripod and remote.

I used a 2", 100 ISO, f16 exposure. Tripod and remote used.

I used a 2", ISO 100, f16 exposure. Tripod and remote.

Couple of St Micheal's Church, Galleywood, Essex

Played around with bracketing and HDR. The church tower need adjusting slightly which I'll do t but otherwise, I'm happy with the results.

 

[Sh4rkie]

Are you after some C&C?

 

[Columbo]

Excellent start, well done. A bit of feedback below for you.

3 of the first 4 look a little soft and flat (not the Xbox pad), I'm not sure if this is because of jpg compression, cropping or something else but the could certainly do with a kick of colour / contrast / sharpness in post.

I think 2 of 4 could also benefit from a wider field of view but that's purely a personal thing!

The 2 of the church are fine but when processing HDR's watch out for the 'halo' effect. You can see it on the transition between the sky and the trees and it's generally something to try and avoid.

Also when using HDR, look for scenes that would benefit from the HDR method. This could be any subject / scene that has a huge difference in contrast from extreme dark to extreme light, this is where HDR should really be used as this is where most camera metering systems will struggle.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Are you after some C&C?

Always.. Can't learn otherwise

Excellent start, well done. A bit of feedback below for you.

3 of the first 4 look a little soft and flat (not the Xbox pad), I'm not sure if this is because of jpg compression, cropping or something else but the could certainly do with a kick of colour / contrast / sharpness in post.

I think 2 of 4 could also benefit from a wider field of view but that's purely a personal thing!

The 2 of the church are fine but when processing HDR's watch out for the 'halo' effect. You can see it on the transition between the sky and the trees and it's generally something to try and avoid.

Also when using HDR, look for scenes that would benefit from the HDR method. This could be any subject / scene that has a huge difference in contrast from extreme dark to extreme light, this is where HDR should really be used as this is where most camera metering systems will struggle.

Cheers. I've only just noticed the "halo" effect so will try correcting that.

as for the 3 pics you mentioned, I wonder if it's anything to do with the 90mm Macro i used? I shot them in RAW and used Elements RAW to make adjustments.

 

[Columbo]

as for the 3 pics you mentioned, I wonder if it's anything to do with the 90mm Macro i used? I shot them in RAW and used Elements RAW to make adjustments.

Possibly although macro lenses are normally tack sharp, is it the Tamron 90mm you've got?

Things like shutter speed and ISO would also affect the sharpness as well as lighting conditions. Did you use a tripod or were you handheld?

 

[Zogger]

My opinions, quite similar to columbo I think

1. It's a water drop! I've never been a massive fan of these but they are a good exercise, they have to be really special to stand out because there are so many of them in the world. I find the lower drop being out of focus a bit distracting and it lacks punch - probably needs a bit more processing imo.

2. I like the idea of the mints and the leaves, there is something lacking again, the green seems quite dark (I guess mint is dark really). As columbo says it just seems a bit flat and would possibly benefit from being a bit further out. It may also benefit from experimenting with different lighting and seeing how it affects the result.

3. not much to say, but the colour balance, contrast etc. look good but it's not an extremely inspiring subject

4. I think the white balance is a little too warm, either the jpeg compression is a bit high or the rings look a bit out of focus (not sure which). I would have it a bit wider.

5. Decent effort and composition - it doesn't quite look level? I don't feel this kind of shot really needs HDR as a lot can be done just by adjusting the various levels if shooting raw and a polarizer would also help reduce the dynamic range of the scene.
I would consider trying it out in B & W as well.

But still decent for first pictures.

 

[Sh4rkie]

All good efforts for first pics.

1. Feels flat, a little lifeless. You could do with adding in my more light which will help, an off camera flash (ocf) would help a lot. Reduce your F stop, something between f8 - f11 will give you the sharpest image, f16 or above might be needed for depth of field (dof) but has a trade off in image quality (explained 2). Also increase your shutter speed to make sure you capture the action, 1/160 to 1/250. Play and see what gets you the best results. I say all of that because your top droplet seems sharp enough but the one below is soft. Increase dof and shutter speed and you'll produce a better capture, and with liquids it's a lot down to luck without triggers (audio, laser etc.). You'll take 100 photos and 1 will be perfect.

2. Seems soft, it could be a number of reasons, limitation of your lens, maybe camera movement, open aperture e.g. f2.8 or wider. As above f8 - F11 should give the the sharpest image after that diffraction kicks in to varying degrees (and a number of factors) either way you're probably past your lens sweet spot. But you need more light the smaller the aperture or higher iso (google exposure triangle).

With macro work you can have issues of dof, because even with a small apeture of f16 you might have less than 1mm of in focus elements depending on distance to subject and focal lenght. Keep a dof app on your phone or get a rough idea in advance using http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html .

3. Is sharp enough if a little noisy, best one from a technical point of view.

4. Is nice, could just do with tweaking the framing / composition slightly (give the ring on the left a little more room to breath). What it does need is to be colour balance as it's too warm due to your camera getting the white balance wrong. A quick shift in sliders post product will sort that.

5. As Columbo said watch for your halo's. The image itself is ok, just a little uninteresting as it's very busy with the church, trees obscuring some of the view, the hedge, the road. There is nothing that really pulls you in.

6. Could be a strong image. It's just a little blown out towards the top where the light is brighter vs the in shaded portion. A graduation filter could help even it up or simple bring down your highlights in post. The problem with the image is it isn't straight, easy to sort in post and get the brick work straight at the bottom of the image. You also look a little off centre even if a hair. I personally love BW images and this this would look nice converted as you can pump up clarity and sharpness to bring the texture out from the brick work and add a strong vignette.

All in all really good efforts and solid start

 

[D.P.]

Great first effort!


I like them all except the last one which is uncomfortable to view.
The rings and the church tower have much stronger subjects and compositions, water drops are always fun.


There are some slight technical and processing issues. Some of them don't seem sharp, this might be the port options. The church tower shows some halos around the trees.

I really don't think HDR was required for these shots. HDR has its place in scenes with massive dynamic range that cannot be photographed in other ways, but if you can get the lighting right then you will get a much more pleasing and natural image. Try the lighting at sunrise or sunset for example. TBH, don't touch HDR until you are really sure of what you are doing and why. Instead concentrate on understand standard expsoure techniques and working on compsositions. When you have mastered all the basics and have a reasonable compositional toolset then it can be worth experimenting with specialized techniques like HDR.

 

[Hyburnate]

Heh, I'll have a go at critiquing .

1) Personally I think it would benefit from a bit more exposure although it may be because I'm currently on an non-calibrated screen

2) I'm not sure but towards the back objects I think I see a bit of camera shake but I can't check because you've stripped the EXIF out so can't see the shutter speed/focal length.

3) The background in this is distracting. That could be fixed with a wider aperture or a plain/less busy background.

4) I don't feel it tells enough of a story, plus I'm not really sure on the composition, looks more like an editorial image so if this is what you were after great

PS: Feel free to ignore me, amateur myself

 

[Cleisthenes]

Heh, I'll have a go at critiquing .

1) Personally I think it would benefit from a bit more exposure although it may be because I'm currently on an non-calibrated screen

2) I'm not sure but towards the back objects I think I see a bit of camera shake but I can't check because you've stripped the EXIF out so can't see the shutter speed/focal length.

3) The background in this is distracting. That could be fixed with a wider aperture or a plain/less busy background.

4) I don't feel it tells enough of a story, plus I'm not really sure on the composition, looks more like an editorial image so if this is what you were after great

PS: Feel free to ignore me, amateur myself

I'm ignoring you

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Thanks for the comments guys. All duly noted of course. I've updated some of the images with exposure details.

tbh sometimes I get little confused when preparing my shot and forgot stuff, like the ISO, or the the WB etc..

I forgot to mention that I'm in my first year at photography college (evenings) so the images you see are really just playing around. I have an assignment due to start next week which ends in April.

Images 1 to 4 where taken with a Tamron 90mm lens using a tripod and a remote. I Took them using natural light but this disappeared fast so had to compromise a bit. There is a pattern emerging that i do appear to be shooting out of focus. The guys at work have spotted it but don't know what I'm doing wrong.

The water shots was taken with a window to the back, and a spot light to the left hand side. I used the cameras built in flash too so i could get the 1/200 exposure. The other 3, i concentrated on the composition, using a related background but one that didn't interfere with the main focal point.

Definitely learnt quite a bit but wonder at times if what I have learnt will ever fall in place.



Thanks for the HDR tips D.P. I've had a retry.

 

[Zogger]

Thanks for the comments guys. All duly noted of course. I've updated some of the images with exposure details.

tbh sometimes I get little confused when preparing my shot and forgot stuff, like the ISO, or the the WB etc..

I've never bothered with WB.. it's a processing step really, you will get the same results adjusting it in the software later on as adjusting it in camera.

Your shots all seem to be f/16 which will possibly introduce some softness due to diffraction -although it depends on some factors. Personally I avoid anything over f/11 unless there's a very good reason (normally for proper macro the ridiculously small dof means a little diffraction is better than everything being totally out of focus).

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Took some flower pictures over the weekend using natural light in our conservatory.

1) f/1.8 1/40 ISO 100 50mm

2) f/4/5 1/6sec ISO100 50mm

3) f/1.8 1/20sec ISO100 50mm

4) f/14 0.8sec ISO 100 50mm

5) f/14 6sec ISO100 90mm macro

6) f/16 5sec ISO 100 90mm macro

7) f/13 1.6sec ISO 100 50mm

8) f/3/5 1/20sec ISO 100 50mm

f3.5 1/2sec ISO 100 90mm macro

 

[Sonea Fifer]

Hi there

I'm not really in any position to offer advice as I'm still learning photography myself but I like your first set. The water droplets strike me as quite tricky to get right? I also like the bokeh effect you've managed to capture on the Polo / mint shot.

 

[Rexxar]

Nice, very vibrant, No.4 could benefit from a bit of distance and brighter lighting, but all quite nice shots

 

[Zogger]

I like number 8 as it is simple and the water droplets add interest. Some of the earlier ones are imo perhaps a little busy, which can detract from the main subject given the flat lighting.

However I think the jpeg compression is still compromising the images as the edges are losing their definition - what setting are you using?

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Hi there

I'm not really in any position to offer advice as I'm still learning photography myself but I like your first set. The water droplets strike me as quite tricky to get right? I also like the bokeh effect you've managed to capture on the Polo / mint shot.

I was hard.. I tried different lighting sources to get a reasonable speed. I've got a spot light the side, natural light from the window behind . The shot is a dripping tap. I took about 200 shots to get this one over and 2 sittings. My first attempt was with a 50mm prime but by the time I cropped the shot I lost too much quality so the second sitting was done using a 90mm macro with greater success and hardly any cropping.

I like number 8 as it is simple and the water droplets add interest. Some of the earlier ones are imo perhaps a little busy, which can detract from the main subject given the flat lighting.

However I think the jpeg compression is still compromising the images as the edges are losing their definition - what setting are you using?

Thank you.

Compression rating 9 or 10 but still in the highest compression range ... I have to admit I have been having problem with focusing..

Had a play with colour on an image I took at college a few weeks back..

 

[a1ex2001]

Love the egg shot, lots of people will slate selective colour but for me it definitely still has it's place and this shot is a great example. For me the one thing you could do to improve it is symmetry if you had just six eggs full in frame it would be much better balanced in my eyes.

The flower pictures are nicely exposed in general but for me you really need to concentrate on a subject and decide what you aiming for. 7 and 8 illustrate this well, I think 7 would be a better shot if the flower head was in the lower third and the stem ending in the frame so it doesn't lead the eye out of the picture. The last one needs a touch more DOF as the centre isn't sharp enough for me.

Keep trying though it's great to see someone journey unfold.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Thanks for the comments alex.. Point taken on pictures 7 and 8. Picture 7 is copped so I could do that.. for picture 8, maybe between f/8 and f/16 as in picture 5 would have been better?

edit// it's early days for me but I sometimes wonder if i'll ever take great pictures as some of you guys. Some of the pictures a chrips, clear and tack sharp. I just don't seem to be able to get anywhere near.

 

[a1ex2001]

It will all click one day ie you'll get lucky!

99% of my photos are rubbish i just got lucky a few times!