The Kitchen

[gparr]

As in: If you can't stand the heat, move on down the road.

Receiving objective, constructive critiques of photos and applying those suggestions to future images is the best way to improve your photography. This thread is the place to submit a photo for constructive criticism/feedback so you can improve. Anyone can offer a critique, but it must be constructive or it will be deleted.

Some basic ground rules:
--Images can be any subject matter, i.e., submissions are not limited to aquarium/marine life
--You may enter only one image at a time for feedback. If you enter more than one in a post, the first one will be accepted and the others deleted.
--You may not submit another image until you've received at least one feedback post for your previous image.
--The longest side of your image cannot be more than 800 pixels. Images that exceed this size limitation will be deleted.
--Comments such as "good shot," will be deleted. Those comments don't help people improve.

Gary

 

[returnofsid]

Great idea!! I'll start this out, I suppose. Last summer, I was asked to shoot a wedding, for a family friend. This photo is from the reception portion, the bride and groom dancing. This wasn't THE bride/groom dance, just an informal dance, during the reception.

 

[gparr]

Return,
The composition is fine for this type of shot, but the timing is not very good. It looks like a kiss that missed. People shots are also much more effective if you can see their eyes. I prefer dance shots where the couple is looking at each other. Seeing the eyes draws the viewer in and helps provide a sense of the people and their love for each other. For those two reasons, this one doesn't really work. I'm more bothered by what I assume is an attempt at a sepia treatment. The point of a sepia treatment is to make a "new" photo look like an old, yellowed black and white. The coloring on this one is strange and really detracts from the image. I did some levels adjustments with the image and it actually works better as a straight black and white. I'm no sepia expert, but I do know that it can easily and quickly be overdone, making for a strange look. The lightbulbs in the background are also distracting and I find them pulling my eyes away from the couple. Though it's not always possible with wedding/dance photos, keep an eye on the background and choose an angle that minimizes anything that might be distracting.
Gary

 

[returnofsid]

I completely agree with the Sepia, I hate it! She wanted it, for that particular picture...lol. I do still have the original, in color. I also have a few dance photos, with them looking into one anothers eyes. Those photos aren't uploaded to the net. I'll get some uploaded, so I can post them here. Thanks for your critique! I learn so much about how to improve my own photography, by critical examinations, by others!

Now for something, completely different...lol.

 

[returnofsid]

The close green leaves, in the upper left, seem very distracting.

 

[fragthat]

The bridge appears ever so slightly off level. Moving over to the right may have strengthened composition to lead your eye to follow where bridge goes to.

 

[gparr]

As already mentioned, your horizon line is not level and the leaves on the upper left edges are distracting.

The apparent purpose of the image is to show the bridge and its reflection. For this type of shot you do not have a strong subject because there is too much clutter on either side that draws the eye away from the reflected arch you're trying to show. The best thing you can do to help the image is to crop it tighter to eliminate as many of those distractions as possible. You also have that tree trunk that is reflecting in the water and really breaking up the tranquil reflection you hoped to show.

From an exposure perspective, you have blown highlights throughout the image, particularly on the bridge. As a rule, blown highlights ruin an image and send it to the deleted folder. If it's easy to re-shoot the image, I'd go back and try again, reducing the exposure by a stop and/or trying different/better light. If not, consider reworking this image to improve it as much as possible.

Gary

 

[returnofsid]

This is fun! We need more people to get involved! I may have to try that image again, sometime. That image was taken a couple years ago, at a local park.

 

[KSzegi]

 

[gparr]

There are several things preventing success in this image. The primary factor is it's not in focus. An image that's not in focus should be rejected. While your exposure on the hummingbird moth appears to be OK, the colors and detail are blown on the Dianthus. Your subject is centered, i.e., doesn't use the Rule of Thirds, and the split background color is distracting. You can fix, to some degree, the composition by cropping, but the background problem is only fixable by choosing a different position/angle. You shot at 1/390 sec. at f/4 and ISO 100 without flash. which suggests you were shooting with some type of automated setting. For these types of shots, you need to control your shutter speed such that it is as fast as possible so you "freeze" the motion. Automated settings are rarely going to do a good job of handling the extremes in this image, i.e., the dark moth, bright flowers and two tones of background color. Unfortunately, this image is not a keeper.
Gary

 

[revsgirl]

I'm no photographer, but great thread!!

 

[KSzegi]

There are several things preventing success in this image. The primary factor is it's not in focus. An image that's not in focus should be rejected. While your exposure on the hummingbird moth appears to be OK, the colors and detail are blown on the Dianthus. Your subject is centered, i.e., doesn't use the Rule of Thirds, and the split background color is distracting. You can fix, to some degree, the composition by cropping, but the background problem is only fixable by choosing a different position/angle. You shot at 1/390 sec. at f/4 and ISO 100 without flash. which suggests you were shooting with some type of automated setting. For these types of shots, you need to control your shutter speed such that it is as fast as possible so you "freeze" the motion. Automated settings are rarely going to do a good job of handling the extremes in this image, i.e., the dark moth, bright flowers and two tones of background color. Unfortunately, this image is not a keeper.
Gary

Well, I won't give up my day job for photography yet! :wink: You're right, the picture was taken using automatic settings - I'm just learning and starting to play with the manual settings. Guess I'm still a little afraid since I don't know how to best combine the settings yet so was falling back on auto ......

Thanks for taking the time to critique the photo. Between reading, practice and help like this I hope to get better and better since I do enjoy it. Good thing we don't have to buy film anymore, have a feeling there will be lots and lots of non-keepers still to come!!

Probably a stupid question but the camera I have (Fuji FinePix S9100), not being a slr - will I still be able to get reasonably good photos (assuming my skills improve) or at least be a good learning camera ...... or is it worth it to start looking for a 'better' camera if at all serious about the hobby?

 

[gparr]

Technically, the S9100 is an SLR, i.e., single-lens reflex, camera. It's only real limitation is that you can change lenses. It is more than capable of delivering excellent images. You just need to learn the principles of photography and learn how to control aperture and shutter speed so you capture the image you want. It shoots in jpg and RAW formats, offers aperture and shutter priority settings, in addition to full manual control, and has ISO capability to 1600. That's more than enough capability to deliver excellent photos. The best advice I can give you, if you're serious about learning, is to use your camera daily, analyze the images to determine what you like and what you don't like about them, figure out how to improve things, and go out the next day intent on improving. As you said, you don't have to buy film. If your efforts fail on a given day, hit delete and try again.
Gary

 

[goat585]

Here's one from my recent trip to Colorado

 

[Murfman]

Was taking this picture when I re did my deck. Didn't even notice the lounge chair till I uploaded it.

 

[WrasseSandwich]

Here it is.

Sorry about the image size, I posted the pic using my phone. But here it is re-sized, I think its right...

 

[gparr]

Tom,
This one's rather well executed, showing three levels (water, land, sky), framed on three sides by the branches. The branches do an effective job of providing a foreground element that creates visual depth. Thank you for not splitting the frame with the water line. The primary critique I have of this image, and it applies to all landscape shots, is that you need to decide what you want to show the viewer. In this shot you've essentially given each element (water, land, sky) equal billing. The image would be stronger if you decided that, for example, you wanted to show lots of water leading to dominating mountains and a small bit of sky. Or, if you have a very strong sky (sunrise/sunset), minimize the water and let the sky dominate the mountains. When capturing landscapes, move the camera up and down to shift the horizon vertically in the frame. When you see the composition that makes you stop that's probably the stronger image.

It looks like your water line needs just a touch of leveling and it would be nice if you opened the shadows in the trees just a bit to show more detail.

Gary

 

[Reef Pets]

Taken a little over a year ago.

 

[gparr]

This is a nice shot. It's unfortunate you didn't notice the deck chair. If you had, it would have been more than worth it to line up the chair lines with the deck boards and square everything up in the frame. Would have made a very interesting shot. As it is, things are a bit too askew for my tastes.

On the plus side, even though you didn't realize it, you employed the Rule of Thirds and didn't put the chair in the middle of the frame. The lighting on the scene is very nice. In a re-shoot, I would either eliminate or crop out that knot in the upper left to keep all of the lines as clean as possible.

If you were observant this would have ended up being a very nice "art" shot.

Gary

 

[clowns101]

I can't post the actual image from my I pad, I honestly don't know how to.

Anyways, I took this picture for a senior shoot last weekend and used a fast 50mm on it to make her hands in focus, and her face out of focus. I used the fingers to create the year she is graduating, 2012, pretty common picture IMO for graudation shots, but she wanted it, and I had never tried it. This was my first try doing a image like this, even though it's not that advanced, I think the colors look good, BUT, I find the ring extremely distracting when I look back at the image.