First post, first critique. Be Kind!

[martini]

Been lurking here for a while, and finally gained enough courage to post a photo. So far, I'm pretty mucha rank rookie. I'm shooting w/a Sony DSC-P92 5mp p&s. it does the job while I gather funds for a nice DSLR(This decision is harder than I thought it would be). Settings? For these I couldn't tell ya. I wasn't paying much attention to them when this was taken.

[chuckmoser]

Apparently it's way overexposed, or you forgot to post the picture.

[martini]

Apparently it's way overexposed, or you forgot to post the picture.

God. I'm a rookie at shooting, not posting(or so you'd think). Thanks chuck.

[readingr]

I like the composition - but then its either my eyes, monitor, or the photo looks a little fuzzy especially on the left side of the photo which I find very distracting.

Perhaps cropping closer to the tree on the right might help the photo.

Keep posting and you'll soon learn what works and what doesn't.

[Chunk]

Welcome Martini. The lighting must have been overcast when you took this shot resulting in a flat, washed out image. In the histogram you can see the the pixels recorded (the gray peak) are all in the middle range with non near the black or white end of the scale. I moved the black and white points to be closer to the lowest and higest pixels recorded to give more contrast (and more saturated color) to the scene. I also moved the gray point a little to the left because I thought it looked better. If your editing software doesn't have a histogram adjustment (or curves adjustment that will do the same thing) you can try using contrast and brightness controls to approximate the same result. You might want to boost the contrast in camera if most of your shots are a bit washed out or when shooting on overcast days.
The changes let us more easily see the nice curve of the trail as it moves through the frame.

Let's see some more of your shots.

[readingr]

That is much better still find the right side a bit messy and may need a bit of a crop to get rid of the small tree.

[Photo-John]

Good to see you posting on this forum, Martini. If you have an open mind, I think you'll find you get some excellent advice here. There's a lot of knowledge here. And there are some very simple, basic photo rules that most people need to be taught. But once you learn them, they become second nature and your photography will likely improve dramatically.

I think this photo is decent. I can see why you took it. And you've already received some great suggestions. I especially like Chunk's Photoshop optimization demo. I don't consider any image right out of the camera to be a finished product. Any time you see an image from me, you can bet that there's been adjustment for color, contrast, saturation, brightness, sharpness, and probably a crop. A lot of the time I use masks to adjust specific parts of the image. I look at the original image file as a starting point. It's photo potential, not an actual final, showable photo.

My critique will be limited to more sports/mtb-related stuff. The first thing that I would have done different would be the angle. While I see why you liked this scene, I really wish I could see more of the trail. Trail is suggestive and implies motion and action. In this case, I can see a tiny bit, but not enough to actually imagine the rider moving through the scene. Since you were there and maybe know the trail, you might have let your imagination add content to the photo that isn't really there. Watch out for that. It's an easy trap to fall into. Try to see your images through someone else's eyes. That will help. Bottom line, I would have moved a bit to the left - if possible - to try to open up a better view of the trail. Maybe that's not possible. I don't know. And I think it's a good idea to take the picture, regardless.

The other things is the rider's position. It's too static, in my opinion. I'd like to see the rider looking more active. If I took this, I'd ask the rider to pedal through this and really lean into the turn and attack it. A lot of my photos are "session" photos. When I find a scene I like, I try to stop and get a rider to do it for me a few times. That way I get to try a few things and tune up the shot. Rarely do you get a reat photo when you only get one try at it.

Glad to see you here. I think you'll learn a lot. I'm looking forward to you getting a new camera, too. A whole new world of options will open up to you. Compact cameras are great. But SLRs really do help you take better pictures - most of the time.

[martini]

Wow. Thanks for the inpt folks. I am here to learn, and the lesson's begun. For editing, I do use PS7, so I can adjust histograms and saturation, but I've not played with the program much, nor had any classes w/it. I may just have to take time and pick a few images to work with. Firstly, I still don't really understand what the histogram can do. Or does. I can see the results pretty clearly though from chunk's thoughtful inclusion.

As to the shot itself, yes the day was gray, but a lighter shade of it. Thin, high clouds IIRC. I saw the fuzzy left side too, but the composition of the shot(already cropped as you see), I was going for was the continuity and curve of the trail. I can see PJ's point though in that its not 'obvious' enough. I'll find some more shots and get them up.

[Chunk]

Firstly, I still don't really understand what the histogram can do. Or does.

Here's a place with a lot of info.
http://luminous-landscape.com/
I'd start in the tutorials section (Instant Photoshop and Curves Primer) and the Understanding series(Histograms).

[Photo-John]

I'm happy to help. And I just thought of another way to state my my thoughts. There's often a difference between what we think we see, and what we really see. Learning to differentiate between the two and beginning to see accurately is a very important step towards taking great photos.

Looking forward to watching you improve and seeing more mtb photos! We don't have enough mtb photographers on this site ;)

[bobbythebandit]

Welcome aboard !!! First post and you get loads of help. Thats why i like this site.Reading the advice given to you i have learned too.Excellent !!! Post more.
Bobby