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11/21/2004 04:41:38 AM · #1 |
I'm really new at taking photographs but have been practicing to get better. Some things still bother me though and need some help and honest answers. I'm going to use the pictures I took of everglades wildlife. Here are the pictures:
  
  
Now the questions:
1) When people look at the photgraphs I take they usually are very impressed. When I look at them I see them as average shots that really aren't that good. Am I being overly critical of myself, or are shots like above pretty ordinary? If they are what one would consider ordinary, then what sorts of things would help improve them? (please be honest)
2) When I take pictures I often have it on the highest resolution. When I get home and loot at them at 50% of their normal size they look clean and crisp. When I look at them at 100% of their normal size I notice quite a few things that aren't right. Is there a trick to getting things to look clean and crisp at full size, or is resizing pretty standard?
3) As I am learning when I take pictures I try many different combinations of appature and shutter speed. The problem is that when I get to download them I have no clue what is what. How important is it to note that information? Is that information needed to submit anything for one of the contests?
I think that about covers my questions. I am enjoying my camera and I do enjoy taking pictures. I'm just trying to get an idea of how good or bad my pictures really are. |
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11/21/2004 06:29:40 AM · #2 |
Greetings,
Let me tackle one of your questions, may I suggest you download "thumber" ( //www.tawbaware.com/thumber.htm ) its a utility program that lets you view your exif data for each file, heck of a lot easier than trying to remeber all that stuff, you should keep your original file (i.e. right out of the camera) when submitting to DPC challenges, that contains all the exif data, however, whether or not you choose to enter that data with the picture is up to you. Hope this helps....
Mike
"3) As I am learning when I take pictures I try many different combinations of appature and shutter speed. The problem is that when I get to download them I have no clue what is what. How important is it to note that information? Is that information needed to submit anything for one of the contests?"
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11/21/2004 06:57:39 AM · #3 |
1) Ordinary imho, not bad, but not impressive
Ways to improve:
a) Catch action: A bird that grabs a fish or is about to swallow it, animals fighting, animals approacing a pray, an animal that makes contact with the viewer (you as a the photographer and us as viewers) with its eyes or its pose, animals with 'babies' (teaching, chasing, defending, feeding, etc), interesting poses
b) Avoid dull full portraits. Try to get close and emphasize a feature or show the relation between the animal and its background. Try to apply some composition rules with that (avoid putting the animal in the centre). Some conditions and lighting can help with that too. For example the spider not in its web, but building it or working on a pray, dew drops on the web lines.
Warm light (morning, evening) works best and usually the exposure balance and shadows are better at that time too.
c) Try different angles, get level with the animal (sit down, lay down, climb up), this also creates ways to get better, more telling, backgrounds
d) special conditions: combine the subject with conditions like fall colors, winter wonderland, snow, rain, storm, dust, flooding, fog
e) study photos from others that you think are very intersting. Why are they so interesting? What did the photographer do? Don't copy something but ask yourself how you can use the information from studying that photograph to improve yourself
2) You need a very good camera (high resolving power from the cmos/ccd) and lens (sharp glass and the range where it works best) to get things crisp and perfect at 100%. Getting closer (physically or with a longer lens) is always better than cropping from 100% and using that on your screen.
Try things out like you do now, look at a lot of other work, read turorials, read books, experiment. Don't expect wonderful stuff fast, it may take months to years before you produce consistent good photography. Be aware that many good photographers take hundreds of frames and select only the very best, resulting in a 'few' keepers. National Geographic photographers take thousands of frames for one article (they experiment a lot), but only 5 to 10 will come in the magazine.
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