Took some outside shots of my son
Discussion
Dunno how to format the images to post so will link it, my fav 3 and 1 thats slightly blurry to much movement, i find alot of them looked very dull, and grainy. although dont know why.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38172070@N05/35132587...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38172070@N05/35140769...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38172070@N05/35140641...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38172070@N05/35140796...
My fav is obviously the posed one with the football, looks like a right little pose, lucky photo i think for sure.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38172070@N05/35132587...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38172070@N05/35140769...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38172070@N05/35140641...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38172070@N05/35140796...
My fav is obviously the posed one with the football, looks like a right little pose, lucky photo i think for sure.
I'd be pretty happy with those as my first ever attempt with a camera! I started a thread on here a while back to ask people what percentage of the shots they took were worth keeping. The general consensus seemed to be less than 5% on average. This is probably the single best thing about digital photography - the 95% you chuck away don't cost you anything but time!
Interesting to see on the last one you'd jumped from program mode to manual. Was this deliberate, or an accident which just happened to give the right exposure?
Either way, the single best piece of advice I got was to ignore all the program modes and just keep to aperture priority (where you set the aperture and the camera automatically sets the shutter speed) for probably 90% of your shots, with manual for when you want to do things which the camera isn't programmed to agree with.
Interesting to see on the last one you'd jumped from program mode to manual. Was this deliberate, or an accident which just happened to give the right exposure?
Either way, the single best piece of advice I got was to ignore all the program modes and just keep to aperture priority (where you set the aperture and the camera automatically sets the shutter speed) for probably 90% of your shots, with manual for when you want to do things which the camera isn't programmed to agree with.
I like the one with the bench. The side lighting brings out more texture and looks better than flat, head-on light. A little bit of tweaking and that'll be a cracking shot.
The last one you posted is pretty good, too - the wood makes a nice frame and adds a bit of interest. For the others, basically, you need to watch the background. The large amounts of grass and sky are a bit flat and boring - try cropping the image much more tightly on the subject.
I'd agree with Kermit, though, for a first attempt they're very creditable.
The last one you posted is pretty good, too - the wood makes a nice frame and adds a bit of interest. For the others, basically, you need to watch the background. The large amounts of grass and sky are a bit flat and boring - try cropping the image much more tightly on the subject.
I'd agree with Kermit, though, for a first attempt they're very creditable.
I took the liberty of having a quick muck about with one of your images. I only used Picasa 3 for this, and all did was to crop, darken the shadows a bit, tweak the white balance slightly and add some sharpening.

Compare that to the original:


Compare that to the original:

Edited by Major Bloodnok on Saturday 9th May 13:43
Major Bloodnok said:
and all did was to crop.....
It just goes to show how subjective photography is. Although the other tweaks undoubtedly help, I actually prefer the space around the OP's boy on the original...It's a nice setting of boy, football and space to run around - would probably look good large and on canvas?The one with him looking through the fence (?) is nice too and a little bit of straightening would be another nice one to keep as a 'first out of the camera'
cirks: yep, I know exactly what you're saying. We all bring different preferences to an image, so it will strike people differently. I saw the pose and considered the background a distraction, you see the open space in combination with the football. No-one's right or wrong.
To the OP: the important thing to remember (unless you're on commission) is that it's what you like that's important. When you ask for (or give) C&C, just remember that it's only an alternative viewpoint. Sometimes that will jibe and you'll discover something new to experiment with or incorporate in future projects, other times you'll think "no, I disagree". But at least you'll be thinking about your pictures, and that'll give you loads of pleasure on top of providing memories in the years to come.
To the OP: the important thing to remember (unless you're on commission) is that it's what you like that's important. When you ask for (or give) C&C, just remember that it's only an alternative viewpoint. Sometimes that will jibe and you'll discover something new to experiment with or incorporate in future projects, other times you'll think "no, I disagree". But at least you'll be thinking about your pictures, and that'll give you loads of pleasure on top of providing memories in the years to come.
Kermit power said:
Major Bloodnok said:
tweak the white balance slightly
How did you do that? I didn't think this was an option unless you had the original RAW file?Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff



Well, with my compromised crop and improvement of another major factor in the photo - it's just about perfect now 
