A few happy accidents

[Nyreth]

Okay, here are a few of the pictures I have taken with my little Nikon Coolpix L6. (I really have to say, that camera has taken quite a beating and still works great.) Please keep in mind that I knew absolutely nothing when I took these. I just randomly fiddled with the settings until it seemed to look a little better in the LCD. Please keep in mind that I was and still am the epitome of a rank beginner, so don't judge them too harshly. ;)

The two cats are mine. The siamese is my constant companion, while tabby is a constant source of entertainment (and has a bit of backpack fetish). I have thought about cropping the lamp on the far left out, but I want the edge of the platform to show. If I just crop it to the end of the platform I am left with an unexplained shadow from the lamp pole, and I don't know how to remove that.

The first Mayan ruin pic was taken in Tulumn, Mexico and the second is from Xuantunich in Belize. It rained most of the time we were at Xuantunich and it's a shame the clouds didn't come out better because there were some neat shapes and shades in them.

Most of all I would love to know what could have made the 4th picture better. The softeness of the leaves overall really bothers me, but especially the ones in the upper left corner. Is this something that can be cleaned up after the fact? I have Photoshop 7 and am slowly learning what is can do. Do I need a different program?

[Liz]

These are lovely images! They're sharp - and the color is great. The best part of the shots are the 2 live subjects! Beautiful kitties. Cats are not easy to photography and you've captured some really nice shots. I love the one with the kitty peeking through the backpack.

I don't know what you could do to improve any of the images - but I'm not the expert here!

Thanks for sharing your photos.

Liz

[Nyreth]

Thanks Liz! I've had a lot of fun taking pictures of our cats over the last few years, but unfortunately they've learned what the camera is (even when I am using my cell phone) and will stop whatever it was that got my attention. I'm getting sneakier though. ;)

[SmartWombat]

I think you need to learn what photoshop can do for you
It certainly does way more than I can use at the moment.

You can definitely get rid of the lamp and its shadows.

But if it's out of focus, it's out of focus, and you can't get it back.
You can remove the leaves top left though.

BUT not to sound too much like a goat, there's always a but.
A DSLR image will usually need some sharpening.
That's because there is a blurring filter in front of the sensor, to spread the light over the 3-colour filter that gives the r,g,b pixels.
By default, a SLR is going to produce images that give you room to work with them, and improve them, when shooting RAW format.
That's very different from how a P&S camera will be setup, shooting JPG images that have less latitude for editing.

Often you need to use the sharpen, or unsharp mask, filter.

[Dylan8i]

i honestly don't think you like the photo as much with the upper lhc leaves out. first it leaves the shadow in the lower right hand corner un explained. second those leaves are the only reminisce of a foreground (ok maybe the hill on the right is to, but together they frame the photo well), which adds alot of depth to the photo. with out them the photo will jsut look flat and unbalanced.