Darkchild... newbie to photography

[darkchild]

Hi, I'm new to photography. I've always had an interest in it but didn't have the money to invest into good equipment. So I spent my time with art. I have another thread dedicated to my art. I've recently begun to read books and online tutorials on how to take photos. I wanted to share some with everyone and get some good feedback on my work. Thanks for your time!

Here's a few to start me off on:

Ok thanks for viewing. C+C very welcome! Like my art I take the comments seriously. I'm using a Canon Powershot A630 for the photos.

[ukanfoff]

the shoreline, its tilting a lil bit you might wanna watch for that next time.
and the macros, the blue cast is a lil distracting. are u next to a window or something?

[darkchild]

ukanfoff: Hi, thanks for the visit. Now that you've mentioned it I never noticed the shoreline was tilted. I didn't have my tripod with me at the time so I had to steady my self. I didn't actually line up the shot very well then. On the macros I wasn't by the window but maybe my camera was set to a blue color. I'll check that right now. Thank you for commenting

I was practicing night time shooting. I have never had any luck with low light situations because I didn't know the first thing about it. So I looked up some tutorials online and then went out last night and did these shots. I had a tripod this time. It's about 4am in the morning (I work the graveyard shift just in case you think I got up specifically to do this) and I found that the construction site next to my work had lit up the work area really nicely. Camera was at ISO 80, I think it was a 4 second exposure. The last one was from the 29th floor of my work. It was an extra long exposure so I got a lot of blurring of the head lights on the freeway. Anyways, have a look and let me know how I did:

Thanks for looking

[darkchild]

Macros of my Omas fountain pen:

[Nike]

I cannot see your pictures. Since ukanfoff obviously could, I'm wondering if I'm the only one?

[darkchild]

Sorry everyone. This has happened to me at my art thread as well. I've attached the photos in a different way now. So if you still can't see them let me know. Thanks

[Nike]

Now they're working

I agree with ukanfoff on the tilting and the blue-cast (exspecially in the 3rd pic from your first batch), but I really like those evening and night cityscaps. Exspecially the last one is very appealing in its colors and contrast. I think it would even improve more, if you'd crop that camera reflection in the window at the top (right hand) away.

And nice pen!

[purplerose]

I like the last one of the pen. It has really nice golden tones. Should try playing around with cropping on it though.

[darkchild]

Nike: Hi, thanks for the visit!! Yeah I wish there was a balcony or a window that opened. But unfortunately for our safety the windows don't open. I may crop or photoshop out that glare later on. That pen is the nicest one I own and to write with thus far. Thank you, I'm glad you noticed

purplerose: Thank you I'm slowly getting into all this. I'll be playing around with cropping and other things as I progress. I should really crop that weird upper left hand corner away though....

Here are two from a couple days ago. I didn't get the time to post these. The first is another night time city shot, again through a window. The second was a beautiful sunrise. I dropped everything I was doing and ran upstairs to take this photo before the color disappeared... but unfortunately the overall photo was marred by the window, yet again.

[darkchild]

I had this photo from this past Friday. I didn't know what to do with it, so I took an excerpt from my journal and filled in the empty corner:

[darkchild]

I just bought a new camera so I went out to give it proper shakedown. Here are two honorable mentions. The first was a test of the optical zoom. The second was the macro test.

[purplerose]

I like the mountains image. Just needs a little help in contrast to make it "pop" more.

[darkchild]

purplerose: Thank you for looking I totally agree. Those mountains are blending into the sky a bit. I'll work on that later.

Here is a black and white photo:

[purplerose]

Really nice tones on the last one. Wish the head and hands weren't cut off though.

[Mr. Mu]

hey,

you got so many good advice that I'll stick to a few subjective remarks:

- I really like your figurative work. It seems to me you should put as much consideration into your other shots when it comes to artificially lighting the scene!

- I think the shot of the pebble shore is much better without the writing (although I had to smile when I read it... or maybe you have to go for a bit more sophisticated layout/style of writing, you know?) Right now it just looks pasted in to me.

- I very much like your night and early morning shots. One of them looks like an establishing shot for a movie scene (and if you had numbered your images I could have told you which one...^^)

- on the mountain image: Don't make the mountains pop! Their melting in with the sky and low contrast is a very important depth cue as anyone can thus "read" just how far away they are, because of the atmospheric perspective (which is just haze). If you need to make parts of an image like that "pop" you need to include a very near object (say, a branch of a nearby tree or a wooden post on a lawn or something). This will be much darker and have a higher contrast (esp. compared to the distant mountains) and will give the landscape shot increased space and depth.

Which also means you would have to reshoot that one...

cya
Mu

[darkchild]

purplerose: Thanks for the visit Sorry I thought I was in the correct distance and I wasn't. But I did take several. There was a couple with my head in it but one was out of focus, the other the body position just didn't look right. The rest were just crap. So I scrapped those and kept this.

Mr. Mu: Thank you very much for the suggestions and critiques! I appreciate all of them. First off, I'm glad you like my figure work. I can repost that rocky shore with no writing if you want. I actually numbered all my phots at first but no one could see the images so I did the next trick that I knew would work. But unfortunately when I post images this way you can't add text next to them. So sorry. I can post them correctly on my art thread for some reason. I see what you're saying about the depth of field with my mountains. I didn't really have anything closer to give it that effect. The night shots are convenient since I work the graveyard shift in downtown. My only gripe is that for the higher shots I don't have an open balcony. They all have to go through a window. Since my company doesn't believe in cleaing them I'm struggling to get good shots.

I went out to Matthews Beach again today and this time tried my had at moving targets... and these were some of the results:

[Mr. Mu]

But unfortunately when I post images this way you can't add text next to them.

ah, my mistake... sure, that's a pity.

Keep em coming!

[darkchild]

Mr. Mu: I know.... No prob here's a couple more

Downtown by night... again. This time from a different window.

[Nike]

Nice nightshots again!
And I totally love the light and the framing in the b/w figurative.

The ducks are nice, but the second and the third have a quite strong blue-cast - but they are more interesting in their composition than the first one - I exspecially like the third one. I'd really give it a try to remove the bluecast.
In all of them the water seems to be sharper than the ducks - that might be the focus having problems with the light situation though.

keep shooting

[darkchild]

Nike: Hey there! Thanks for dropping by again I'm happy to hear you like the night photos! I had to take them through a dirty window. I actually shocked at how well they turned out. There are plenty of spots that you can see the light refracting from the window. Yeah that blue cast over the last two photos were because I had the camera set to a light blue balance. I thought it would bring out a slightly richer blue... but unfortunately it made it too rich. I haven't really messed around with it in PS yet. I hate it that things look a lot different on the tiny viewfinder of the camera, then you get it on the big screen and it's like, WHOA!... Funny you should mention composition with the ducks because several minutes into shooting the male mounted the female. He go thrown off immediately, guess she wasn't in the mood Thanks for the critiques, I'm slowly getting into finding good photo ops and now cropping. I'll keep working on it!

Here are two test photos. The first is me playing around with the color accent mode. I like the right pic better because it's more mysterious and scary, also it looks like I'm walking towards you.

The second is a panoramic of Matthews Beach, the same place I took those photos of the ducks. This is the first time I got to play around with Canon's Photostitch program. This is 4 photo pan.

Thank you to all who have visited and commented. I appreciate all the help and critiques I'm getting

[darkchild]

Just some photos I took last night. The first one is an overly high contrast and saturated night shot... The second I was just messing around on an empty floor in at my work. I didn't know what the hell I was doing, just having some fun. I took 10 photos like this and this was the one that came out the most interesting. Anyways, everyone have a nice day

[darkchild]

It was a beautiful sunny warm day in Seattle...I know two things that aren't normally associated together in this city. I had the day off and took this opportunity to go out to Golden Gardens Beach this time. So this is a change of scenery because I've been shooting at Matthews Beach. Unfortunately the wildlife is the same. I think some of these ducks may have been the same ones posing for me at Matthews Beach I took 63 photos and here are the better ones:

[purplerose]

Nice work on the 3rd duck photo. Maybe slightly tighter cropping?

I like the last 2 as well. Hmm, I think a bit more work on contrast and they'd be better.

Awesome cityscape/skyline thingy.... (?) I like the colors.


Hmm.... I think I've exceeded my smiley face limit for this post...

[darkchild]

purplerose: Funny I was actually cropped the third duck photo but then decided not to because I didn't like it. Maybe I'll go back to crop it again. I'll work more on the contrast adjustments. I don't want everything to look too bright. Those night time shots were all high contrasts. I love the way they turned out as well, thanks And don't worry about the smiley faces. There's no limit in this book

Another beautiful afternoon in neighborhood. I ventured out to Issaquah for some photo ops today. I got some nice views.

[WoodstocK]

what a beautifull place u live... must be inspiring walkin around with all that mountains.
the last one is my favorite...
nice shots

[darkchild]

Woodstock: Hi thanks for the visit Yes it is a beautiful place. I actually don't live over here. I drove about 20 miles just to take this photo. But it's a very quite area with very few cars but a ton of houses. When I get the chance I'll take some pictures of the falls and go exploring around the area.

A photo from my office last night. I'm wondering how the cropping is? Any suggestions?

[Grumbledook]

The crop isn't bad, however you may want to consider the background more when framing the shot.

Was it possible for example to put it front of a window, or a blank wall? This would remove all the distracting elements behind it. Or using a flash would mean the background would get underexposed and make the subject stand out more.

Love most of the cityscape shots though, keep it up!

[Nike]

The last duck shots are really nice in its colors!

And beautiful landscape panoramas... seems like a nice place to live.

Regarding the last one I'm with Grumbledook - the background is kind of destroying the picture - it's too vivid. Besides Grumbledooks suggestions you could also just use a big monocolored board as a background - that's what I often do.

[darkchild]

Grumbledook: Thanks for the visit! Regarding that plant, I couldn't move it because it wasn't my property. I found this at someone's desk at work. I did realize that the background was very distracting. Unfortunately I didn't have a large sheet of paper or anything to use as a backdrop. Thanks for the suggestions, I will keep that in mind for the next time

Nike: Thanks for the visit! I had a hell of a time photographing that duck. He would stay still and was changing directions on me every second. I should have picked a more laid back one. The area around me are very nice to venture out to. There's a lot of country side as long as you are willing to travel to them. I'll be doing more of that during this summer. I on the other hand live within a large city, Seattle. So there's not much in the immediate vicinity that compares to those. I hear you about that background. I'll be more prepared the next time!

I was up in Snohomish County today for a birthday party. I took the opportunity to wander out to the backroads. I couldn't fine too many places to stop my car and take pictures because there weren't many shoulders. I did take this one of the open curves. I thought it was kind of nice. I wanted a diffused look to it. The other was a vase full of roses. Perfect op for a macro.

[MLlanes]

your last one is similar to one of mine.
http://flickr.com/photos/michaelllan...7603882491287/