Photo-taking-spree.I need YOU(r opinion, please)

congratulations on your first camera!
I like the bamboo (because it's black and white and diagonal).
And the table and chairs. I wonder if it looked better or worse if the space above the table was bigger. Maybe the fact that it makes me uncomfortable is what makes the photo interesting

---------- Post added 26th Dec 2013 at 02:34 PM ----------

I have seen some very nice photos similar to your "grass" one. That's some ground covering plant, not grass, right?
But there was something to focus on - a drop of dew on a leaf of grass, a tiny flower or a leaf lying on the grass. With your picture, my gaze goes to the twig in the background which I don't think was your intention.

 

I particularly like the table, just because it seems so misplaced and odd.

I also like the tree trunk, because I have a fascination with trees (not an obsession).

 

Interesting angles! When you're starting, try to get acquainted with your camera and don't worry about the finer aspects, like composition and lighting – you'll have plenty of time to get to those as you progress.
I suggest moving on to P, S, A and M-modes as soon as possible and learning to expose your shots manually. Experiment with all kinds of settings and see how your photos turn out!
Don't worry about collecting paraphernalia like lenses and filters and whatnot, you'll know what you need as you get better!

 

The angles on these are brilliant, I especially love the one with the table and the two chairs, then the one of just a plain of grass, its pretty darn beautiful.

I dont know much about photography or how to edit photos, but these are pleasing to the eye, well done!

 

:lol: Wow, how much are lenses in Finland? I wish I could "collect" them too :icon_wink But lately, I have been searching for something universal. Like 18-200 or so :icon_redf Right now I have only Canon EF 50mm f/1,8 II and it's a bit limiting.

 

^ they cost A LOT. I suppose their pricing is pretty universal, and all the good ones are a fortune.
My NIKKOR AF-D 50mm f/1.4, the lens that I pretty much shoot with exclusively, cost about 350€ (480$ according to google). It's a brilliant full-frame lens with a solid build, but it still ate half of my savings. I also have a AF-S DX 35mm f/1.8G which I'm thinking about selling. I'd like something with a wide angle; I borrowed a DX 12-24 f/4 from school and it was brilliant, it's like 600€ or something but I want it ;__; (Kameratori.fi — Suomen kattavin käytettyjen kameroiden nettikauppa that one's used)

And yeah I actually meant that instead of "collecting" a ton of lenses you should only get the ones you need, and you'll know what you need once you know what you want to photograph.

 

What kind of camera do you have?
Very nice pictures! My favorite one is the flowers

 

I looked it up at our shops, niiiice :lol: But I suppose it is a bit tricky to use this kind of lens, isn't it? If you are not careful, the people or buildings will be deformed, right?

With my 50 I couldn't take a picture of our Christmas tree (our room is too small to stand so far away from the tree :lol

TheMailman: look up the ways how to organize your pictures I believe there will be tons of them in the near future

 

You clearly have an eye for composition. The only thing I'll say is that last picture is very boring compared to how nice everything else looks. Crop it into a better composition if you can. If you can't then it's not worth saving.

 

Those are great!

 

Nick: Well yeah, distortion is easy to fix on the computer if you're so inclined. I like it as much as I like noise.

MailMan: Well, I didn't plan on going expensive either... Now the camera's like an extension of my arm

 

Very nice! I love the flowers, the colors are really vibrant.

 

This is just my opinion, of course, but here's my thoughts:

- The one with the table bothers me just a bit, because the close up and distant grass line acts as a "horizon" of sorts and it's not quite horizontal. Similarly, the trees in that picture aren't quite vertical either, so it doesn't seem as though you sacrificed anything for that angle... just that it doesn't match up. That's a quick fix though.

- The trunk and grass-shrub ones are nice in terms of depth-of-field, but they lack a strong focus. I find myself looking at the trunk one and not really knowing where my eyes should go... they float towards the little leafy things, but they're pretty weak for a focus. Same idea for the grass-shrub picture.

- With the bamboo one, particularly on the lefthand side, in parts where it gets really whited out you lose some of the depth of field you worked so hard to achieve. Just something to keep in mind, particularly if you're shooting monochrome/have a really heavily-lit area

All in all they're pretty nice though. And what's most important is that you have fun.

 

These are lovely!! I love the one with the table and chairs.

 

Wow, that's really cool. I love the tree trunk especially.

 

I made this image to help me explain (hopefully):



In that picture, I'm using the red lines to show the "rule of thirds". It's really a guideline, but what it says is that if you divide up the space in which a photo lies into thirds horizontally and vertically, the photo will be more naturally appealing if you have focal points or other important aspects following those lines (or intersections of lines).

What I was trying to describe previously was that the close up, blurred grass doesn't follow the line, which makes it feel a little awkward (indicated by the curved blue line). Similarly, the trees (green lines) don't follow the vertical red lines either.

The other thing I was talking about was breaking ("sacrificing" is what I said before) the rule of thirds. Since it's just a guideline, there are many photos you'll find that don't follow the rule of thirds that are still very pleasing to the eye. One of the reasons you might avoid following the red lines is if you have a strong focus (or equally-important aspect) that draws attention. The focus you have in this picture isn't bad by any means, but I feel it (the table/chair) is a little too understated, at least for my liking. Taking all that into account, the focus is present and I know I should be looking at the table and chairs, but there's no use of other visuals present that "leads" your eye to the focus. So without that lead, I naturally go to the rule of thirds, and the picture also doesn't follow that.

And by "leads" your eye, I mean something like this:



In this picture, even though the coastline and the railing don't follow the horizontals for the rule of thirds, they help in leading the viewer's eye right to the focus (the surfer). And then the horizon follows the horizontal for the rule of thirds, which just adds to the pleasantry of the photo.

That turned out to be way more of an explanation than I thought, hopefully that helps! If not, let me know and I can try again