The critique thread!

How about this.. Let's use this thread to post some shots that we have taken. Please critique others, but do so in a kind, constructive, and informative manner. No need to rate every image a 9/10 or 10/10... but if it's a 1/10... maybe call it a 5/10 and explain what things a person could do to make it better.

I'll start with one of the first photo's I took with my new XTi... Not the very best picture, but I thought it was cute, and showed the personality of my dog.

What do you think? What pictures do you have? Post them!.



Title: "Licking her chops!"

Hey there Ride, great idea for a thread

Now your picture, take what i say with a grain of... your favourite garnish since, im no professional!

I feel that perhaps the table is taking up far to much of the frame up, resulting in not enough focus being applied to the rather amusing dog! Simple repositioning when you was composing the shot could of changed it.
Please once again take my opinion based on the theory that I just enjoy my
photography. One mans art is another mans... well... you can choose hehe!

Ive always worked on the theory NO art is wrong. YOU may not like it but im sure someone does, and with that, critques can only be taken in a way that you might later apply it to future work but not be told your work is wrong. There are no rules when it comes to art, Art is what you make it.

Ive attached a quick crop of your photo, which I think makes for a very cool avatar, hope you didnt mind

~~ TS ~~

The latest from my camera...

Here is a shot I took this evening, looking for some general feedback as this is an area of my photography that I dont have much experience in

Here are some basic details of the photo of which ive attached:

Shutter Speed - 15 Seconds
Aperture - F5.0
Focal Length - 70MM
ISO - 800

Resized from 3008 x 2000 for browser friendly-ness

~~ TS ~~

Thanks for the input TS!! I appreciate it. I agree.. the dog looked too small in the original. I think I'll use the Avatar you made!

Your pic.. I really like it in abstract art type of way. Great shot of what looks to be a river bank. Did you add any color to it?

Hey glad you liked it Ride

No colour or photoshopping in anyway has been done to this photo. I took it straight from my Nikon onto my mac then onto M-F

~~ TS ~~

Tender, here's my 2¢:
The color is good, and the exposure is surprisingly good for a 15-second shot. Was the shot moonlit?
The main drawbacks are lack of depth and having no focal point. It would make the shot 10 times better to have something in the foreground (adding depth), or something in the water, adding turbulence and interest to the shot. Raising the field of view (FOV) would help a lot too, since a horizon adds a lot of depth, and it would be interesting to see what else is on the bank or what is around the curve there.

Hey thanks for the feedback buddy

Yes the scene was indeed slightly moonlit, which i think helps with the cool colour given off in the river.

Unfortuntly there wasn't much of a focal point to grab hold of, This river goes through a stretch surrounded by nothing but fields, and nowt in the fields either I kinda chose it here though cause i feel, perhaps the real lack of anything IS the focal point. The river just seems to flow... nothing stopping it nothing drawing away from it... allows you to wonder what might be "around the curve"

Thanks once again Neo

~~ TS ~~

RIDE said:

How about this.. Let's use this thread to post some shots that we have taken. Please critique others, but do so in a kind, constructive, and informative manner. No need to rate every image a 9/10 or 10/10... but if it's a 1/10... maybe call it a 5/10 and explain what things a person could do to make it better.

Click to expand...

Two suggestions, at least critique one un-critiqued photos if you post a photo (as well as critiquing others if you so desire) and if it's truly a 1/10, telling them it's a better photo than what it is will not help the person grow as a photographer.

You shouldn't post photos here if you can't take the heat, but that doesn't mean name calling and shameless degredation. If I think your photo is bad, that just my opinion and I'll provide reasons for my opinion and what I think can make the photo better.

You don't have to listen to me, but by posting a photo in a critique thread means you're looking for reasons to improve it.

If you really want people to go easy on you, providing information that you're new to photography will help.

A lot of places suffer from the "good job" syndrome where everyone will leave a comment like "good job" regardless of how good/bad the photo is.

Just ideas...

Older shot of mine.



EXIF:
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV

@TS - Multiple exposures may have really helped this. I like the water's texture from the long exposure, but the grassy area on the bank looks blurred as in from camera shake. Taking a short exposure of the bank and a long exposure of the water and mixing them together may have a better effect. Also, you can get decent flowing water shots without having to use super long exposures. The only problem you may face at that point is available light as it looks like it was fairly dark out from the above picture.

VI,
I like the focus and the subject! Excellent focus, in fact. Love the background color and lighting too. But...the framing is slightly high. Doggy's head is at center and would be better in the top third of the frame. Dropping the view would also avoid cropping Doggy at the ankle (always very awkward-looking, no matter the subject). Are we giving ratings? 8/10

I'm pretty new to photography as well, but I'm pretty understanding in what a lot of the terms are.

I cannot remember the settings I used for this photo, but it was taken on my Kodak Z710

heres my problem ive got a huge car shoot coming up soon and ive lost the will to live, heres a few pictures ive taken recently using flashes but im not having much luck any ideas??

with the above sky shot i feel the sky is exposed perfetly but the ground is not ,im not sure if thats what you were going for but if thats how you ment it to be i feel theres a lack focal points, and the lense flare is a bit much, i think siloets are best done with a great back ground to look at.

fozthedevil said:

with the above sky shot i feel the sky is exposed perfetly but the ground is not ,im not sure if thats what you were going for but if thats how you ment it to be i feel theres a lack focal points, and the lense flare is a bit much, i think siloets are best done with a great back ground to look at.

Click to expand...

As I've said in previous threads about lighting cars with flashes, you need to light an object to reflect on the car's surface. Just using a flash will cause the light from the flash the reflect off the car's paint without much effect.

You need to either bounce the flash off an object to reflect in the car's paint, or shoot the car where something bright (the sky) reflects off of it's paint or else the car will seem dark and poorly lit.

Here is mine I have been doing this for a long time. I have several pictures. This is a real picture titled "Living Water."

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg229/kc0ngg/DSC_0276.jpg

kc0ngg said:

Here is mine I have been doing this for a long time. I have several pictures. This is a real picture titled "Living Water."

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg229/kc0ngg/DSC_0276.jpg

Click to expand...

Beautiful! I've got nothing to say except it's a strange aspect ratio. You cropped out something distracting, I'm guessing? Where was the picture taken? Reminds me of mountain streams.

Villiage idoit; check this out a guy shooting with just 2 flashes and for every one else wow!!!

clicky

Planning my move to Mac within in the next couple of days

I am more into close-ups and here are a few of my pictures. All are made with my Nikon D200 DSLR coupled with 200mm Micronikkor and of course a sturdy tripod.

Let me know what you think of these pics.

Great shots Ram!!!!!! Very sharp, very detailed!!! great job!

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/2684/whatareyoulookingatbyawbd5.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/7999/maroonedbyawpticsie7.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4763/thecrossingbyawpticstf1.jpg

Sorry these are so big, i will re size them if it is an issue. (kinda short on time now)

I will be back in an hour to comment on others stuff! ;D