a few random shots

[dino_biker]

newbie here. trying to learn all I can. Here are a few of my pictures.

Help me out a little. Good, bad. Work, don't work. What could I do different.

Give it to me straight, I'd like to be able to improve every time out.

[MB1]

All your photos have some sort of color balance and exposure problem and look too grey. The colors just don't pop the way they should.

I the flower photo the composition is nice but it doesn't seem like you focused on anything.

Your first bike photo with the blurred leg is the best of these to me but still has that color balance/exposure problem.

[GB1]

Different take here... I really really like the 2nd shot with the blur but agree that the photo seems a tad washed out, especially in the sky and the bottom grass. You can correct both in software.

The last shot through the spokes is different in a good way but I think that there could have been something more interesting on the other side.

G

[dino_biker]

Wow - it's fun to have such constructive info so quick.

Re: the overexposure and "grey" colors. I shot these in harsh light (noon) and used shutter priority to get the blur right, so that resulted in the flat color and washed out sky/grass.

My photo software knowledge is very limited. I used iPhoto (Mac) to do the RAW conversion. I did drop the exposure and increase saturation, but things started looking odd if I went any further. I've got PS Elements (but barely can use it). Is there a simple way to adjust saturation/exposure on just part of the image (say sky and grass in the blurred one)?

[GB1]

Dino - My normal procedure for adding some saturation to the sky via post-processing is to mask the area and reduce the lightness and increase the contrast. However I don't know how EASY masking would be with that blur there (!) I'm sure there's some advanced way to do it, but I'm not advanced... I need to learn more in that area too.

If trying to correct during exposure, I would consider adding a polarizer filter. That would also slow down the shutter allowing for greater DOF, though I'm not sure you need that here - the depth looks fine to me.

Anyways, welcome to the PR forums.
Gb