A Few Pictures from a NOOB

[playpunk]

Hello Photoreview people.

I got a fancy new camera a couple of months ago, and I picked up a fast (f1.4) prime lens and I've been happily taking pictures with it ever since.

Other than the standard "ooh, that's pretty" comments from my wife, I haven't had any decent feedback, so I thought I'd post a couple of my better shots to this board.

Snapshot of a friend's kid"


DSC02166-1 by andrewbrautigam, on Flickr

Baby Picture


DSC02386 by andrewbrautigam, on Flickr

Flowers:


DSC01971 by andrewbrautigam, on Flickr

Dog #1:


DSC01076 by andrewbrautigam, on Flickr

Dog#2


DSC00729 (1) by andrewbrautigam, on Flickr

[virgo20110808]

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[n8]

For whatever reason, it really bothers me when I see "noob," although I was half temped to call you a newbie...which isn't much different. We were all "noobs" at some point. Ok, whatever...
My feedback would be to be careful with that 1.4. It looks like in a few of these, if not all of them you were shooting wide open (at 1.4) and your auto focus caught the closest thing such as in the pic of the girl with the corn. We want her eyes in focus, not her hand. Personally, I leave my focus points fixed, focus and recompose if necessary. Auto is nice, but not too bright.

[hminx]

Had the eyes been sharp I would have like to have seen a tighter crop on the girls face. I think the second should have a portrait crop to get rid of a lot of the back ground as it's not helping the shot.

[llewpics]

Shot #1 - the idea is very good and the pose / environment is worthy of a good family shot. The lens did focus on the wrong spot, though. If you don't need 1.4 because of very low light (which here you don't) - try 2.8 instead and use a single or selective number of focus points in the center so you can spot focus where you need to (eyes in this case), hold the AF lock down and recompose.

Shot #2 - very good point of view which works for this shot. A family keeper. I like it, but next time maybe see about the baby pointing toward the window (if that is the only point of outdoor light) - it may give the baby more light on the face ...

Shot #3 - decent shot of flowers, however I would consider closing down the lens here - perhaps f/8 or so so much more of the pot is in focus. Also, the bottom right corner is burned in (overexposed) which tends to diminish from the photo. Try more even lighting, or if you like the light /window play with the flowers - a composite or a light HDR may work.

Shot #4 - the dog - very good - not much to critique, but stopping down on the lens may put more of the dog face in focus.

Shot #5 - interesting idea - very good to see you are willing to choose a good point of view (seems like laying on the floor in this case). This photo needs it's levels adjusted ...there is very little white in it ...and it could be a little sharper with a tad more contrast and saturation.

Thanks for posting. Next time, you may find putting 1 photo up at a time may get you more feedback ...too many in one post can be overwhelming ....

[playpunk]

Thank you for the feedback. I've been taking tons of pictures - and I feel like I am slowly getting better - but it is a labor of love.

I'm using a Sony a55, and the kit lens is kind of crap, and I think I got a bit carried away with the wide, wide open prime lens. Which AF mode do you shoot in? I learned to take pictures with a fully manual camera, so my knowledge of how to use the new camera isn't up to snuff yet.

[llewpics]

Which AF mode do you shoot in? yet.

For all of these, you can either stay in AF-A (automatic) or AF-S (Single Shot Autofocus). However, if your AF has, say, 50 focus points, it can choose to focus on the wrong spot. Try spot focusing where you decrease from those 50 to maybe 3-7 points in the center point to where you want to focus...that way you can control where you want camera to focus (you may have to recompose after focusing, though) and remember to use the AF lock so you don't use the focus while recomposing.