Your photos (120) |
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 Hints and tips by Philip Grosset If you'd like to submit photos for criticism, click here. |
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with comments from Philip Grosset "I live in San Jose, Costa Rica. I send you these pictures because i want you to tell me what do you think. I don't know much of photography but i like it a lot. Thanks for your time." (Javier Jimenez) |
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| These are certainly unusual photos, but I'm not all that clear why you took them. The leaning building effect on the left, and the plumb dead central positioning of the lights in the picture on the right break all the rules, but make quite interesting if very impersonal patterns, presuming this is what you wanted, but.... |
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...this stairway is, I think, very much more impressive. The picture has been carefully composed to produce a really dramatic result. I like this very much. | |||||||||||||||||
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| By comparison, I don't find this very appealing. I'm sure the placing of the shapes was quite deliberate, but, for me, it too closely resembles the sort of result you can get by accident! | ||||||||||||||||||
"My first amateur photo, could u give me an opinion? Maybe some suggestions? Thank u for your attention." (Andrea Coelho) |
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| On the left: I'm a bit reluctant to criticise your very first photo! However this one is underexposed and, as it doesn't seem to have any one main point of interest, I'm left a bit puzzled about exactly what it was that you wanted to show us. In my version on the right, I've tried removing all that uninteresting space at the top, and adding stronger more directional lighting. Now attention is concentrated on the fruit. For more hints and tips for beginners, may I suggest you might also have a look at my summary page. Reply from Andrea Coelho: "Thank you very much for your fast response! I've recently joined a photography course and our first project was to photograph an outdoor market to "capture the flavour of the environment". As you see, the instructions weren't very clear and this was my first attempt at b&w photography. You said the photo was under exposed. Could is be that it is actually (or is it even possible to determine if) it was actually overexposed during the printing, seeing as I did it myself with the school's supplies, because I can always try printing it again and that might fix the problem. I took the photo with a Pentax 35-80 lens, b&w film asa 400 apperture 8 and printed it on glossy RC base apperture 8 for 30sec. Thank you again." Have a look at the negative to see if it is all too light or shows a proper contrast range. If it is not too light, the fault must lie with the printing. To capture the flavour of a market, it might have been a good idea to include some people too. "I was hoping you could give me your opinion of these photos. The first photo was taken in August at around 7pm at night of the Eiffel Tower. I was trying to show the height of the Tower. The second photo is of a friend totally unaware that I was taking this shot. I tried to have her framed by the mountains in the background. Any advice you could give me would be appreciated. Thank you." (Beverley Wheeler) |
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| This is quite an impressive night shot, but, to show the height of the tower, it might be an idea to include some other buildings or people to communicate some sense of scale. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Your photo on the left makes a pleasing picture, but it might be improved if you gave your friend more space to look into, as on the right. Try to avoid having your subject stuck right in the middle of the picture. On the right, I've also raised her face so that it is two thirds of the way up the photo, and I've moved her in front of the highest part of the mountain in the background so that it can still be seen! Reply from Beverley Wheeler: "Thanks for your comments. With the Eiffel Tower shot it was impossible from the angle I was at to get anything else in the photo. There are no buildings nearby the Tower and as I was shooting straight up from nearly underneath the Tower, I could not add people in the shot. I have other photos taken during the day of the Tower from a further distance and added people to give a better idea. The other night shots have trees in them, but they still don't give a good idea of the height. In the other photo I like the cropping and the way my friend is now positioned under the highest part of the mountain. I guess that was a matter of waiting a few more seconds for the shot to get her positioned there, but then she may have moved before I had the chance to get the shot right. Thank you again for your comments and fast reply." |
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