Help a newbie

[Mama Moon]

Hi all, I just joined tonight. I am very new at this whole photography thing, but would love to move beyond "point and click". Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong/right in some of the photos I have here? These were all taken with my Kodak--I cannot even remember the model # now but it's nothing fancy. I'm looking to upgrade soon but I'm hoping to learn a bit before I do, so I know exactly what I want!

[Frog]

hi mamma moon.
I've only been here a month or so but find it quite educational.
I think you have a good eye.
Your second shot is the best.
The others are good but have some composition problems such as leaf in front of face, bar in front of face, 1st is overyly bright on right side.
They're still great due to the subject matter,,,,,just stuff u want to watch for while shooting.
Last one some will say the crib side in front of chin is distracting others will say its fine due to suject. I think its ok.
Keep shooting and welcome.

[Mama Moon]

Thank you! That really helps!

[Seb]

Hi all, I just joined tonight. I am very new at this whole photography thing, but would love to move beyond "point and click". Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong/right in some of the photos I have here? These were all taken with my Kodak--I cannot even remember the model # now but it's nothing fancy. I'm looking to upgrade soon but I'm hoping to learn a bit before I do, so I know exactly what I want!

Hello, welcome aboard!

About the first picture, I like the idea but I'd say that the kid is too close from the right edge of the picture. Zooming out a little woud do the trick. Also, the lighting was quite harsh so the head gets partly overexposed. Shooting the same picture earlier or later in the day when the sunlight is softer would solve this.

I like the idea behind the second one. The only thing is how the colors are muted, essentially because the sun is hidden. If the sun was on either side of the picture (out of the frame to avoid overexposition) this would have created warm colors, textures and some shadows.

I like how you managed to balance the exposition betwen the kid and the sky in the third one.

The fourth one is cute but there are too much visible details in the foreground. You could blur the background (to some extents) by using the "portrait" mode on your camera.


Seb

[swmdrayfan]

Hi Mama...welcome. One thing you might want to think about is keeping your backgrounds as 'clean' as possible. What I mean is removing distracting elements that make your shots 'busy'. For example, in your bottom shot with the crib, the background with the house, fence, and what appears to be a sprinkler head hanging on the back side of the crib is too distracting. In the second shot you've got a lot of tree branches and some telephone wires up there, which can also distract. In addition, the yellow handrails tend to take up a little too much of the shot. These are all minor things that are correctable.
John

[veggie]

Bg is soo hard to keep clean!

[swmdrayfan]

Bg is soo hard to keep clean!

I hear ya veggie . It forces you to look at the shot in a different way, if you want to get the most out of it. Of all the suggestions and critiques here, the thing that has influenced my shooting in a more 'picturesque' way is that the less background clutter the better. Not always true in some cases, and not always possible, but on the whole, the focal point of your shot isn't overwhelmed by the bg.
John