Good pics. Next time bring someone with who can take pics of you goin around those nice turns

 

Here's the deal....too busy, too basic.

If your camera has a PASM dial - use it. Learn how to use different aperture and shutter settings so that your subject (car) is the centre of attention.

Right now, its a car sitting amongst a lot of background, and takes away from the vehicle itself.

 

Thanks BMG! I definitely want to get some rolling shots.

GD7- I tried to see what settings I have, and from what I gather, I can change the exposure, "long shutter", and ISO. I am really new to this, how do I change the shutter speed to make the car the center of attention.

Is it my location that is bad, or is it the focus in the shot?

 

Ok so I thought I would try editing a few in Picasa2. Let me know what you think.

 

Ask yourself the same questions you're going to ask us before you post. Do you like these photo's? Do you like that the back tire of the motorcycle is chopped off? How about the smoggy look to the city pic? What about how cramped your car is on the top, but there's plenty of dirt to stare at?

Don't take this as me being on your case, I'm NOT, I'm just trying to get you to see that you don't need our CC, you just need to look at your photo's closely before you post them. Give them what they need, and if you can't, don't post them at all. I took nearly a THOUSAND pictures this past weekend...and posted 16. Posting great pix isn't rocket science dude, it's photographic survival of the fittest.

 

Its not necessarily the background, its how its focused, and how much of the shot is taken up by your subject.

Look at these two shots. While the subjects are relatively boring (a fence and a hydrant), I've used the blurring of background to bring your attention to it anyway. So think what you could do if your subjects weren't as boring, like an STi!!

 

Thanks UL. I do appreciate it. I was just trying to figure out if there are specific things wrong with the way I take pictures, so I could start with fixing those. I am not trying to post amazing pictures, as I can't take them yet. I am just try to make sure that I don't keep reinforcing bad habits, and hoped you guys with more experience could point them out.

GD7-I see what you mean. I will definitely try to incorporate that in my pictures. Is there a way to focus your camera to do that, or do you did you edit that later?

 

Thanks UL. I do appreciate it. I was just trying to figure out if there are specific things wrong with the way I take pictures...

Yeah, there is; you're not thinking about it enough. Trust me on this one, I used to have the same problem!

Tomorrow after you get off of work, I want you to take 200 pictures, and post the nicest 5, then I'll show you how to make those even better.

 

I'll give you my 2 cents...quit worrying about settings and concentrate on COMPOSITION!! It has always been my thought that composition can ruin an otherwise great picture, and likewise, composition can actually help a pic with other issues....

google "RULE OF THIRDS"...it should help immensely in your final objective of taking great pics. Also, go buy the biggest card you can fit into you camera, and start taking an a$$load of pics...10 or so of the same subject with different angles and settings...take notes about what looks pleasing and build off of that.

remember, composition!!, and have FUN!!!

update us on your progress....

 

Using only Picasa2:

I'm quite a noob myself, but you definitely want to have your pictures level...this is one of my favorite features of picasa is the grid they give you to rotate. Plus your subject (car) was off center and too small for the bland background. So I recommend a crop. I went with a blur effect originating at the STI logo, but I don't care for it much. That glare on the front just kills the whole thing IMO. You should try to shoot so that doesn't happen...as far as editing software. Adobe is the only way I can think to go...it is just a super versatile program.

 

thanks SlobberJaw and solovus. This is exactly the reason I posted these pictures up. I will go start reading up on the rule of thirds, and try and take as many pix as I can.

 

Deal UL!

 

Pharo, it looked like you took your shots at the wrong time of day. Something to notice is: do you have to squint? if you do, you're dealing with harsh lighting conditions, a killer in the photographic world. when the sun is coming straight down, it's not very flattering to whatever subject you're shooting, flattening the colors out, and it's also more difficult to expose properly. the best times to shoot are in the hour and half after sunrise, and before sundown. colors will look richer, the entire scene will be better composed, and your contrast won't kill you.

if you absolutely have to shoot at the crappy time of day (high sun) then try to find natural shade for your subjects, so they get reflected light instead of incident light. it'll be softer and generally look better.

 

Excellent advice!

 

Thanks XL, I tried out your advice.

I took about 120 pictures, here are my favorites.

I really tried to incorporate all of your tips, so please let me know what specifically I can improve on.

 

Rule of 3rds, almost all your pictures centered the subject.

 

I took a few pictures off-center, but found that your eyes don't directly go to the object. I mean unless I make the background out of focus, your eyes won't go where I want them to.

Have any tips?

 

This will seem counter intuitive to what I mentioned about the rule of thirds, but try bending the rule to make the composition more interesting...in other words, us interesting lines of the subject dictate what you take for a picture...try to understand and utilize negative space, shadows, and the general flow of the eye from one point to another on the pic.

as a side note, i am not just puling this out of my arse....although my main focus is not photography ( i do murals mainly, then vinyl graphics, and airbrush work), I do have a LOT of friends who are professional & successful photographers...they have always scratched their heads at how well i can compose a photograph....I don't do anything special, I just try to avoid the "hey look, I can take a pic straight on" result...I post some up if I get the chance....

 

I hate this is all i have on my laptop right now, since it is the human form (my little girl) versus cars, etc....but i still wanted to illustrate the use of shadow, light, and composition....i took all of these with my evolt-500...nothing special...I did add one of a church ceiling I took on my trip to Germany....have had a lot of comments on that....and one I took in Hawaii of a fire breather....i thought it turned out well...

 

Pharo -
1. Top Dog: great exposure, no highlights are blown out, there is ample detail in shadows (weren't many shadows anyway) and the horizontal is actually horizontal. That's a huge plus, but something that's easy to forget to pay attention to. The comp of the picture, itself though is what bugs me, not because of framing, you did a great job positioning the subject, but the background is super busy. Try cropping down to just around the sign though, and the image becomes static.

2. This should be shifted so that what is SUPPOSED to be horizontal actually is. Also, good time to explore different places to put the subject, rule of thirds style. Or, try taking the shot at a different angle, and letting that angle determine where you position it, as SlobberJaw suggested. Also, you clipped the smaller "Henry's " sign. either leave it out, show all of it, or have a good reason for what you chose to do. (not that you have to explain yourself to me, but just make sure you're attentive to these details)

4. I like it, you have lines that draw my eye around the shot, it's not stagnant, and it's exposed well. You have some trees coming in from the sides, that could be distracting. What would the image look like zoomed out a bit, with the whole tree?

Take what I say with a grain of salt. I don't get paid for my pics. Sometimes I analyze too much, it's ultimately up to you to decide what you like.

Centered subject, i liked it that way, others didn't:

Selective depth of field:

I cropped too much, and cut off some of the right fairing (left side of image). My mistake.

 

Dude, this picture is brilliant!!!

But it's not the way I see it. I see the tower as very lonely, so I made a few changes...

It's all in what you see.

 

SlobberJaw- I had no idea how effective using lighting could be. I mean I never thought that the darkness could direct my eyes like that. I appreciate the examples! That picture of the church in Germany is so beautiful.

Xlsupreme- how did you do the selective depth? I mean is there a function on the camera, or is it something I should do when editing?

I definitely agree that I should cut out the sign on the Henry's picture though. I didn't notice that till this morning.

UL- Thanks man! I never realized how many pictures I have to take to get just a few decent ones.

 

SlobberJaw- I had no idea how effective using lighting could be. I mean I never thought that the darkness could direct my eyes like that. I appreciate the examples! That picture of the church in Germany is so beautiful.

Xlsupreme- how did you do the selective depth? I mean is there a function on the camera, or is it something I should do when editing?

I definitely agree that I should cut out the sign on the Henry's picture though. I didn't notice that till this morning.

UL- Thanks man! I never realized how many pictures I have to take to get just a few decent ones.

True that man. On average of ~200 pictures i take, probably anywhere from 4-8 are actually ones that i thought turned out well.

 

No Problem dude! I forgot to share that during my trip to Hawaii, in which I was ther 2 1/2 Weeks, I took a total of 4263 pictures (the beauty of a DSLR and big memory cards IMO)...out of that, I would say only about 1000 were worthy of keeping, and out of that 1000, maybe 40 were really good....now, that being said, a better photographer's keep/trash ratio would probably be much higher...also, none of the pictures had any additional light introduced...I'll pm you my flickr url when I get a chance...

 

Thanks SJ!

Parker- I guess I will stick to picasa2 lol, I am using a regular digital camera.

 

parker beat me to it, and he's almost spot on. another couple of factors to juggle applicable to selective depth are 1) the distance the subject is from the lens and 2) the focal length used.

longer focal length, closer subject, widest aperture will yield the most narrow depth of focus. tweak the available variables as you can to vary that. (if your camera doesn't let you change the aperture, you can still narrow the depth of focus by moving closer to your subject, or by using a longer focal length)