Photo Critique Club

[casportpony]

Can I post more pics for y'all to judge, would that be alright?

Of course!

 

[Yard Farmer]

Of course!

Fantastic! Thank you.

 

[Yard Farmer]

Here's the ones in question.

#1

#2

 

[azurbanclucker]

Can I post more pics for y'all to judge, would that be alright?

Yup. if you can keep the volume down to a couple per post it would help.

 

[azurbanclucker]

Here's the ones in question.

#1
View attachment 3484009

I like the bokeh rocks in the background. Your Depth of Field is a little back in this shot, your sharpest focal point is to the rear and center of the clump of grasses. If you stop down a couple stops (higher f/stop number) you can open that DoF up and get that whole grass ball into focus. You'll have to increase your exposure time a bit to compensate for the smaller aperture. This will bring some texture into the shot visually and help distinguish your foreground and background. Might also bump the brightness/contrast a bit as well, it's a little on the dark side.

#2
View attachment 3484008

I find this one to be a little bit busy on the left side and a little empty on the right, so it visually unbalances the shot. In the future, you can try composing these kinds of backlit sunset images so that your silhouette subject is more isolated to give it more drama. I think mechanically it's fine.

 

[Yard Farmer]

I like the bokeh rocks in the background. Your Depth of Field is a little back in this shot, your sharpest focal point is to the rear and center of the clump of grasses. If you stop down a couple stops (higher f/stop number) you can open that DoF up and get that whole grass ball into focus. You'll have to increase your exposure time a bit to compensate for the smaller aperture. This will bring some texture into the shot visually and help distinguish your foreground and background. Might also bump the brightness/contrast a bit as well, it's a little on the dark side.






I find this one to be a little bit busy on the left side and a little empty on the right, so it visually unbalances the shot. In the future, you can try composing these kinds of backlit sunset images so that your silhouette subject is more isolated to give it more drama. I think mechanically it's fine.

Thank you for that.
I'm gonna take your advice on what to change.

This is a dumb question, but how do I change the f/stop..?? I haven't been able to figure that part out...
I have a Nikon D3300.

 

[NagemTX]

I really need to get a camera other than my phone.

 

[azurbanclucker]

Thank you for that.
I'm gonna take your advice on what to change.

This is a dumb question, but how do I change the f/stop..?? I haven't been able to figure that part out...
I have a Nikon D3300.

You need to shoot in either manual or aperture priority. (A or M on the top left wheel as you face the rear of the camera). Then on the right hand side under the on/off toggle (on the front) there's a horizontal rotary dial. In A or M mode, you can change the aperture (f/stop) with that. The display on top will show you the f-stop as well as you will see it when looking through the viewfinder. On the back right side is another rotary dial, that will be your shutter speed setting, In A mode the camera will set it automatically, but in full manual you can control that as well.

Let me know if you need a bit more than that and I'll find a diagram for you.

 

[Antiocheggers]

What do you think? I did turn the camera to landscape

 

[mdees88]

What do you think? I did turn the camera to landscape

In the first pic, the front chicken is out of focus and it has a lot of motion blur in the head. Also the camera is not level. The post and the tree in the background are slanted. You need to twist the camera clockwise a little to make everything level. Also the front chickens tail is cropped off. Ideally you want the entire chicken in the frame, or just his head for a portait. If you got 90% of his body in frame you really should include his entire body.

The second image is much better. Both the chickens are fully in the frame and in focus. I would crop using rule if thirds instead of putting them in the middle. Since they are looking left you want more open space to the left of them. So I would crop to put their heads near the upper right third intersection line.

The only other thing is paying attention to your backgrounds. In the first pic my eye was drawn to the blue/green pot/tote because it stood out. In the second pic there is a camper/rv in the background. Ideally you want a fairly uniform background that's not distracting so all your focus stays on the subject.

Here's how I would crop the second one. I took some off the top and right so their heads are near the upper right third intersection.