[renns]

Critique me! The day was pretty overcast but I think these came out reasonably well. I took about 50 and narrowed it down to these 3. I wish I had a tripod, today would have been a killer HDR day.








Alex

[Parker]

1. ricer angle = :thumbsdown:
2. too much going on in the photo. great idea but the actual execution needs some work. Look for an area where you don't get so many distractions.
3. would have been much better if it was post processed.

All of the images are very bright and lacking contrast. don't forget to adjust the colors before doing the BW conversion.

[CJCAMERON]

I think if you would have used #1's angle on #2's picture so you see the car with a missle coming over top. it might not have been as bad. I'm no photo expert but i kinda agree with Parker on 1 and 2. 3 i think was alright, I just wondered where was the woman in the sun dress dancing on the shore

[renns]

I appreciate the advice.

This one any better?

[CJCAMERON]

I think so but Parker may say otherwise...lol

[tyler_sti]

The last one is much more clear, and looks like the car is the "main" object in the shot. Good job on all the shots!

[Parker]

Originally Posted by renns

I appreciate the advice.

This one any better?

better? not really. I like the look of the car but the missle/fence is just killing the shot all together. if there wasn't anything in the background except for the trees, the shot would look better if you were at a lower angle to where the car didn't look like trees were growing out of the top.

[UltimateLurker]

Originally Posted by renns

I appreciate the advice.

This one any better?

Ask yourself some questions.

1. Is the background nice or uneventful without the main subject?
2. Is this one of the most flattering angles of your car?
3. Is the subject centered in the shot?
4. Is there anything "growing" out of the car?

The answers should be YES, YES, NO, NO. Yours are NO, NO, YES, YES.

Hard to make a pic look good like that.

Here's a good example...



In this case the background is uneventful, drawing attention to the car itself. Nice backgrounds are great, but a background that's too eventful can ruin a shot quickly...



Niether of these shots are awesome, I'm just giving you some general pointers with some general shots.

[Parker]

Great advice! my only caveat to that is you don't always have to use the rule of thirds. as with most of photography, it is designed as a guideline for how to compose a shot. usually if you follow it, the shot won't look horrible but generally, centered shots tend to look weak compared to one using the rule of thirds.

[UltimateLurker]

Agreed, I think rules in general are made to be broken...after you know them well enough to know when they need to be broken. That's what we have you for...lol.

[renns]

@UltimateLurker: Thank you very much for the advice, I appreciate it.


I took a lot with more subtle backgrounds, I'll put some of them up when I get back on my home computer.

What do you recommend as far as photo editing/post processing software? I've been using irfanview.

[UltimateLurker]

My recommendation is definitely Photoshop, it's hard to learn at first (which I'd be happy to help you with), but after you get the hang of it you won't use or need anything else.

[Parker]

photoshop is the most well known but for simple adjustments and greater control over photography specifically, Lightroom takes the cake. I use Aperture and there are pieces of it that I feel are better and then there are features in Lightroom that are better.

Photoshop has similar features but it isn't as dynamic as the other two. I did hear somewhere that Lightroom isn't destructive like photoshop is (and if you don't know what that is, don't worry about it! )

[renns]

I used to use photoshop a few years ago but haven't had the software since then.

Do you think it is worth picking up? In other words, should I buy photoshop elements before I buy a DSLR, which I am planning to get sometime soon?

edit for Parker:

How steep is the learning curve on lightroom? I have heard of both but never looked into either. Aperture is Apple software, correct?

[Parker]

Elements is a decent program to start with but isn't as powerful as Photoshop. Aperture is Apple only.

Lightroom is actually quite easy to use and doesn't have a horrible learning curve because you can make adjustments on the fly and remove them at your leisure. the only thing I don't care for is how it manages the files (mainly because im old school). the book that comes with lightroom is very easy to read and understand so you should be able to get a general understanding from it.