Need your honest opinions on these pix!

[Todd_H]

Hi everyone. I'm new to photography and to the board. I bought a Rebel XTi for my wife for Christmas 2006 and have taken a big interest in photography and am just starting to really learn/use it (really, she wanted the camera and I have always wanted to learn photograpy so it worked out well ). I did purchase the "plastic fantastic" 50mm/1.8 lens for shooting in very low light situations and the 24-70mm/2.8 L lens to carry for my (very heavy) walk around lens. I have learned so much just from this board (and a couple of books). Thanks so much to all of you for the great information and instruction that is here!

That being said, I took a trip to the World last week on business and found some spare time to spend in the MK to practice. I tried my best to get some good shots during the PPP fireworks. Here is a link to some of my favorite shots that came out of the 500+ I took. These are direct compressions from the RAW files and I have not cropped them or "cleaned" them up yet. Please let me know what you guys and gals think. Do you think there's hope for me ? I thought these turned out pretty well for a "pre-amateur," but I welcome any constructive criticism because I am really trying hard to learn. Thanks for taking a look!

On POTC using 50mm/1.8, Tv priority at 1/50, ISO 1600. I was just trying to get a good, clear shot on a dark ride. This one turned out the best as far as clarity and noise.

From Poly beach, 42mm/5.6 , 1/500, ISO 100. To me, this looked like a "wish you were here" type postcard. Or "one day we'll stay at the GF."

From Poly boat dock, 35mm/F22, 1/100, ISO 400. This was a practice of depth of field. I tried to focus the GF in the background and the lamp in the foreground

Pop Century, 32mm/F3.5, .8 sec, ISO 100, Exp comp -1. I was just trying to capture the vivid colors the way that I saw them from this view

PPP fireworks, 25mm/F11, 3 sec, ISO 200. Just practicing fireworks shots using bulb shutter speed, tripod, remote trigger

Sorry these are so large. I haven't figured out how to shrink them yet.

More of my pix can been seen at http://s255.photobucket.com/albums/hh152/thhurley/?start=all

Thanks for looking!


-Todd

 

[Master Mason]

Hi everyone. I'm new to photography and to the board. I bought a Rebel XTi for my wife for Christmas 2006 and have taken a big interest in photography and am just starting to really learn/use it (really, she wanted the camera and I have always wanted to learn photograpy so it worked out well ). I did purchase the "plastic fantastic" 50mm/1.8 lens for shooting in very low light situations and the 24-70mm/2.8 L lens to carry for my (very heavy) walk around lens. I have learned so much just from this board (and a couple of books). Thanks so much to all of you for the great information and instruction that is here!

That being said, I took a trip to the World last week on business and found some spare time to spend in the MK to practice. I tried my best to get some good shots during the PPP fireworks. Here is a link to some of my favorite shots that came out of the 500+ I took. These are direct compressions from the RAW files and I have not cropped them or "cleaned" them up yet. Please let me know what you guys and gals think. Do you think there's hope for me ? I thought these turned out pretty well for a "pre-amateur," but I welcome any constructive criticism because I am really trying hard to learn. Thanks for taking a look!

http://s255.photobucket.com/albums/hh152/thhurley/?start=all

-Todd

You have some nice shots there. Your right some of them could benifit from some cropping, but that will come as you develope your style of shooting and editing.

The only real piece of constructive critisism I have for you was on the 3 shots accross the lagoon, it apears to me that you did them hand held, or your method of securing the camera was not all that succesfull. There is a fair amount of camera shake blur, that really shows up in the lights. If you'll notice they are small blurs instead of sharp points.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Todd_H]

The only real piece of constructive critisism I have for you was on the 3 shots accross the lagoon, it apears to me that you did them hand held, or your method of securing the camera was not all that succesfull. There is a fair amount of camera shake blur, that really shows up in the lights. If you'll notice they are small blurs instead of sharp points.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. Yes, the night shots across the lagoon are a little blurry. I was using a tripod and a trigger, but it was very windy that night and I had just shot the fireworks... my eyes were really drying out and I had the camera on MF. As such, I think I was having a little trouble focusing my eyes and the camera and the wind may have been shaking the camera a bit. Also, I think the detail at the top of the longhouses at the Poly is overexposed.

Again, thanks for your reply!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Nice pictures.

I think you'd get more meaningful comments if you narrowed it down to just a few shots (1-5) and posted them in the thread rather than as links. It would also be great if you described how you took each shot and what you were trying to say with it. That would help some learn how you did what you did and give a starting point for others to provide ideas for improvements.

I'm not trying to pick on you. You've done a much better job narrowing down than others that have e-mailed me with a request to critique their 1,000 shot collection. It has been my experience that the more targeted you make a request for comments and the easier you make it for people to see what you did, the more useful the feedback is that you receive.

 

[Todd_H]

Nice pictures.

I think you'd get more meaningful comments if you narrowed it down to just a few shots (1-5) and posted them in the thread rather than as links. It would also be great if you described how you took each shot and what you were trying to say with it. That would help some learn how you did what you did and give a starting point for others to provide ideas for improvements.

I'm not trying to pick on you. You've done a much better job narrowing down than others that have e-mailed me with a request to critique their 1,000 shot collection. It has been my experience that the more targeted you make a request for comments and the easier you make it for people to see what you did, the more useful the feedback is that you receive.

Thanks, Mark. That is a great point. I'll pull a few of the shots and post them directly into this thread with some comments.

 

[DVC Jen]

I think you did a great job - especially for only having your camera since Christmas.

I would have never known you were that "new". Fantastic job.

 

[fitzperry]

You've done a much better job narrowing down than others that have e-mailed me with a request to critique their 1,000 shot collection.

I didn't know this was an option. I'll start working on my portfolio.

To the op: I think you did a nice job as well. Your fireworks shot is great. You might try doing a little post processing on the food/souvenir cart in the bottom right corner (maybe the burn tool or just clone it out) as the brightness of it distracts a bit from the subject.

 

[Todd_H]

I think you did a great job - especially for only having your camera since Christmas.

I would have never known you were that "new". Fantastic job.

Thanks very much, Jen! I appreciate those kind words

I didn't know this was an option. I'll start working on my portfolio.

To the op: I think you did a nice job as well. Your fireworks shot is great. You might try doing a little post processing on the food/souvenir cart in the bottom right corner (maybe the burn tool or just clone it out) as the brightness of it distracts a bit from the subject.

Thanks! I agree with you 100% about the cart. It is definitely a distraction. Funny thing, as big and bright as it is, I didn't even notice it was in the shot when I composed it

 

[Master Mason]

Thanks very much, Jen! I appreciate those kind words




Thanks! I agree with you 100% about the cart. It is definitely a distraction. Funny thing, as big and bright as it is, I didn't even notice it was in the shot when I composed it

It might not have been, you don't get full range of view in the viewfinder.

 

[Todd_H]

It might not have been, you don't get full range of view in the viewfinder.

Ahh, that's because it's not a full-frame camera, right? A light bulb just went on in my head. This would explain it because I could swear that cart was't in my viewfinder when I composed the shot .

 

[Master Mason]

Ahh, that's because it's not a full-frame camera, right? A light bulb just went on in my head. This would explain it because I could swear that cart was't in my viewfinder when I composed the shot .

No actually it is just a limitiation of the viewfinder of the top of my head it is about a 90% coverage range, which means 10% of what your getting around the edge is not visiable in the viewfinder. I have the same thing with my 40D altough to a smaller extent. I am not sure if even the 1 series have full coverage viewfinders.

 

[Todd_H]

No actually it is just a limitiation of the viewfinder of the top of my head it is about a 90% coverage range, which means 10% of what your getting around the edge is not visiable in the viewfinder. I have the same thing with my 40D altough to a smaller extent. I am not sure if even the 1 series have full coverage viewfinders.

O.K. I'm apparently still confused about how most DSLR's are different from full-frame cameras. I know it has something to do with a re-sizing of the focal lengths in most DSLRs. I think to gauge an accurate focal length for a standard (non-"S") lens on my XTi, I would need to multiply the focal length on the lens by 1.6, right?

Thanks for everyone's responses so far! Please keep'em coming.

 

[Master Mason]

Time to break out Oblio's example once again.

In the picture the circle is what the Lens sees. The Yellow box is the portion of the shot that a full frame would capture, the pink box is the portion that a crop sensor will capture.

So, you get no extra maginfication on a crop sensor, however to get the equivalent picture with a full frame camera you would have to zoom in closer. That is spoken of as a conversion factor, usually either 1.5x or 1.6x depending on brand.

 

[Todd_H]

Time to break out Oblio's example once again.

In the picture the circle is what the Lens sees. The Yellow box is the portion of the shot that a full frame would capture, the pink box is the portion that a crop sensor will capture.

So, you get no extra maginfication on a crop sensor, however to get the equivalent picture with a full frame camera you would have to zoom in closer. That is spoken of as a conversion factor, usually either 1.5x or 1.6x depending on brand.

Thanks. I understand it now.

 

[BeautyLLM]

Wow..I didn't realize that the crop sensor was that much smaller than the full frame sensor. The difference is huge! Thanks for explaining that...I finally get it!

 

[PixieDust32]

I like your pics.

I'm still learning the fireworks and night shoots. Still don't understand all the numbers and how to set the camera or the lenses.

 

[Todd_H]

I like your pics.

I'm still learning the fireworks and night shoots. Still don't understand all the numbers and how to set the camera or the lenses.

Thanks!

I just started the learning process, and still have a long way to go, but what has helped me learn the theory behind camera settings and exposure the most was a book called "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. I highly recommend it (as many on this board do). That, along with reading these boards and just practice (and only referring to my camera's user manual to understand how to operate it... reading it is about as interesting as watching paint dry). The more you practice with your camera and then study your pictures to understand why they turned out the way they did, the more sense it will make (and it's best to review your pictures as soon after taking them as possible while it's fresh on your mind).

A good site for learning about lenses is here: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-lenses.htm

Also, (if you haven't seen it already) there is some invaluable information on techniques in this thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1450061