Newbie From Manchester seeking to improve

[jinjohninjoh]

Hi everybody
I'm new here and new to photography
I'm looking to improve every aspect of my photography skills and I am looking forward to showing off my pics.
Any comments, criticisms and tips would be much appreciated!!

[jinjohninjoh]

Here are a few of my very first pictures with my Canon 350D

1


2


3


4


5


6

[Dave Humphries]

Hi John (?),

Welcome to the CiC forums from me, great to have you join our community.

I'm looking to improve every aspect of my photography skills and I am looking forward to showing off my pics.
Any comments, criticisms and tips would be much appreciated!!

You will find the first post in this thread helpful for attracting comments to improve your photography:
How to Get Effective Feedback for your Posted Images

For example, the Meet the members forum, where this was originally posted (being an intro), isn't one that will attract much comment, since we have two other forums for critique;
Nature & Architecture
People & Pets
... and if you're not sure which one, pick the first
(where I have moved this to)

I have numbered your pictures also, since it makes life much easier for others.

There's quite a mix of subjects there which certainly shows a desire to explore the possibilities of your camera - well done.

1 and 2 are good record shots of a car, but hardly do it justice, given the (photographically nasty) sodium vapour lighting - but good exposure, although unfortunately it looks like the camera may have focused on the more contrasty (than the subject) backgrounds

3 Good focus - if mine, I'd crop about 5% width off the left hand edge

4 Excellent focus - if mine, I'd crop a little off the bottom edge and clone out the bright yellow foliage top and bottom left - which brings us to the subject of post processing and I'm wondering what you have and whether you've ever tried any techniques such as cloning before?

5 This again would benefit from judicious cropping - there's quite a bit of the frame without anything that contributes to the image, particularly the very out of focus foreground things between you and the subject.

6 If you could have got a shot where the sun was shining on the face, that would have been better - here we have great texture and bright colour on the tree trunks, which distracts us from the subject's face, since that's not well lit. The texture of the hide on her(?) flank shows what could have been possible.

So in summary; these are a very good start, but two things to take away are that when shooting, try to ensure that everything in the image is contributing (watch your framing and backgrounds) and that your timing (of pressing the button) is presenting the subject 'in the best light' - sometimes literally, other times; metaphorically

I hope you find that useful and show us some more in due course.


Could you do me a favour please?
Could you click Settings (right at the top),
then Edit Profile (on left)
and put your first name in the Real Name field
and where you are (Manchester, UK) in the Location field?
this helps everyone give you more personal and relevant answers - thanks in advance.

Cheers, Dave

[jinjohninjoh]

Hi John (?),

Welcome to the CiC forums from me, great to have you join our community.



You will find the first post in this thread helpful for attracting comments to improve your photography:
How to Get Effective Feedback for your Posted Images

For example, the Meet the members forum, where this was originally posted (being an intro), isn't one that will attract much comment, since we have two other forums for critique;
Nature & Architecture
People & Pets
... and if you're not sure which one, pick the first
(where I have moved this to)

I have numbered your pictures also, since it makes life much easier for others.



Could you do me a favour please?
Could you click Settings (right at the top),
then Edit Profile (on left)
and put your first name in the Real Name field
and where you are (roughly) in the Location field?
this helps everyone give you more personal and relevant answers - thanks in advance.

Cheers, Dave

Thanks Dave,
your help is very much appreciated, I hope I have correctly done what it is that you wanted me to do
thank you.
Sam

[jinjohninjoh]

Hi John (?),

Welcome to the CiC forums from me, great to have you join our community.

~

Could you do me a favour please?
Could you click Settings (right at the top),
then Edit Profile (on left)
and put your first name in the Real Name field
and where you are (Manchester, UK) in the Location field?
this helps everyone give you more personal and relevant answers - thanks in advance.

Cheers, Dave

Oo and btw I'm Sam Dave , I've only just noticed your original post

Cheers,
Sam

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[jinjohninjoh]

the two photos of my car at night are the first time I have used my Canon 350D DSLR at night, looking at the photos is there any advice you could give to me to try and improve these pictures thanks,
Sam

[davidedric]

Hi Sam,

I can't help with the car photos, I'm afraid, though as (the other) Dave pointed out it is very difficult lighting. Suggest you start with daylight and work it from there.

A further comment. Your camera adds a lot of information to each image file, such as exposure, aperture, shutter speed and so on, commonly referred to as EXIF data. These can be very useful to the folks here when you ask for comments and suggestions. Unfortunately, some programs (I believe Picasa is one) and some web sites strip out the EXIF, which is what seems to be happening here because I certainly can't see them. So, what software are you using, and how are you getting your photos to display here?

BTW I was born in Oldham - Boundary Park Nursing Home to be precise!

Cheers, Dave

[jinjohninjoh]

Hi Sam,

I can't help with the car photos, I'm afraid, though as (the other) Dave pointed out it is very difficult lighting. Suggest you start with daylight and work it from there.

A further comment. Your camera adds a lot of information to each image file, such as exposure, aperture, shutter speed and so on, commonly referred to as EXIF data. These can be very useful to the folks here when you ask for comments and suggestions. Unfortunately, some programs (I believe Picasa is one) and some web sites strip out the EXIF, which is what seems to be happening here because I certainly can't see them. So, what software are you using, and how are you getting your photos to display here?

BTW I was born in Oldham - Boundary Park Nursing Home to be precise!

Cheers, Dave

Hi Dave,
Many thanks for your comments, I am currently using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7.1
And I am using Tapatalk which allows me to upload my pictures through that!
And ahh isn't it a small world haha
Many thanks,
Sam

[Wavelength]

Excellent images..... In that butterfly image the yellow plastic thing could have been cloned out

[deetheturk]

Hi Sam, welcome to the forum mate, great set of images, well done!

[bnnrcn]

Welcome Sam . Very good images for a start

[jinjohninjoh]

Thanks everybody all your comments are very much appreciated I just want to get better so don't be afraid to criticise them too haha
Cheers,
Sam

[deetheturk]

Hi Sam, now you mention it!

[jinjohninjoh]

Hi Sam, now you mention it!

Haha fire away, constructive criticism though, don't be bast about it
Cheers,
Sam

[jinjohninjoh]

A couple more pics I took tonight,
7.

8.

[jinjohninjoh]

A little bit of editing here too
9.

[JBW]

Hi everybody
I'm new here and new to photography
I'm looking to improve every aspect of my photography skills and I am looking forward to showing off my pics.
Any comments, criticisms and tips would be much appreciated!!

I can promise you one thing. If you post here and take the critiques seriously you will both learn and get better.

Welcome to the group.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Sam,

Thanks for filling in the 'bits and bobs'

The new car shots (7 and 8) have a much better white balance, well done.

However, I'm still not sure that the camera is focusing on the car - even though you have a good contrast registration plate usefully larger in these shots.

If I were to guess, I'd say the camera is using some kind of automatic mode and it is being allowed to select what it thinks are the best focus point(s) from all available. The camera is probably choosing something with high contrast edges that is surrounding the car. Another possibility is that it is not (auto) focusing at all for some reason; accidentally on MF? or faulty lens?

I am not familiar with Canon cameras, so I may not use the correct terminology, but I would suggest you look (in the camera's menu) at what Auto-Focus mode you are using and select "single point" - having ensured that AF is enabled (check lens and camera). Then choose a focus point that is over the registration plate when the shot is composed, half press and hold the shutter button to allow time for it to focus, before completing the picture taking.
Alternatively; set to use the centre focus point (only), which is usually better in low light, frame up with the centre point on registration plate, half press and hold the shutter button to allow time for it to focus and keep it half pressed while you re-frame to achieve the desired composition and complete by gently pressing the shutter button fully.

I don't intend the above to be seen as 'teaching granny to suck eggs', but I believe there is a focus problem that needs addressing and I'm trying to 'cover all bases' in one post.

Anyways, I hope that helps someone ...

Cheers, Dave

[jinjohninjoh]

Hi Sam,

Thanks for filling in the 'bits and bobs'

The new car shots (7 and 8) have a much better white balance, well done.

However, I'm still not sure that the camera is focusing on the car - even though you have a good contrast registration plate usefully larger in these shots.

If I were to guess, I'd say the camera is using some kind of automatic mode and it is being allowed to select what it thinks are the best focus point(s) from all available. The camera is probably choosing something with high contrast edges that is surrounding the car. Another possibility is that it is not (auto) focusing at all for some reason; accidentally on MF? or faulty lens?

I am not familiar with Canon cameras, so I may not use the correct terminology, but I would suggest you look (in the camera's menu) at what Auto-Focus mode you are using and select "single point" - having ensured that AF is enabled (check lens and camera). Then choose a focus point that is over the registration plate when the shot is composed, half press and hold the shutter button to allow time for it to focus, before completing the picture taking.
Alternatively; set to use the centre focus point (only), which is usually better in low light, frame up with the centre point on registration plate, half press and hold the shutter button to allow time for it to focus and keep it half pressed while you re-frame to achieve the desired composition and complete by gently pressing the shutter button fully.

I don't intend the above to be seen as 'teaching granny to suck eggs', but I believe there is a focus problem that needs addressing and I'm trying to 'cover all bases' in one post.

Anyways, I hope that helps someone ...

Cheers, Dave

Thank you for the feedback, I did try using single point focusing but it doesn't seem to have worked, hopefully I will be getting a new lens this weekend (28-105mm usm zoom) so it can try that and see if I get any better results.
I also have a friend who is very much into photography and so I will see if he can show me where I'm going wrong and how to correct these issues.
Thanks,
Sam