Needing Constructive Criticism

Shoot shoot and shoot some more. For things that worked, look at your settings and see what went right.

Learning proper exposure and some basic editing will go far in the beginning... stick the camera into manual or aperture/shutter priority modes and keep an eye on that light meter to start.
You absolutely need an editor of some sort. Try to avoid shooting mid day that will give you harsh lighting and big fat shadows.

I posted the one above because straight away it is easy to see the horizon is so far tilted the water will run off the page... straighten them up!
Join photography website forums to learn from others (this site is more geared to selling than learning, though we do share techniques and such) and hit up youtube for all the tutorials you could possibly stomach.

Another example...



Personally I'd rather have a mountain view than a random small boulder view. Ideas to make a better composition: Either move to the side to get the rock out of the foreground or stop way down so the mountains are not blurred out. Better yet, get on top of the rock and shoot from there.

Yes Heather, I agree with your comment on The Golden Gate. This was shot in 2013 on a tour boat and it was basically a snapshot. As I continue to learn, I probably need to remove some images that are just snapshots. Thanks for your input. By the way, I enjoyed your shots of Tennessee!

Jamie,

Just a quick note. That boulder view shot is pretty nice. A bit of editing/cropping would help it to be better. But I get a distinct feeling of standing in that overlook and the scale of the scene/vista because of what is in the foreground too.

You can never go wrong with Heather's shoot, shoot, shoot advise. To go along with that thought in practicality, don't be shy about shooting the scene many times over so that you have a good litter to choose a final photo from. Learning the use of photo editing software is only going to give you greater tools to create and enhance your work.

Here's a nice overall scene. Good eye, Using the High Resolution Preview though reveals that it is blurry and may not be an acceptable print. A nice small photograph... and that may be all. There's no focal point.



I see the same problem with this. Very blurry on close inspection.



If you are up-sizing your images in any way... you need to cease doing that. When fixing to post a photograph, take a look at it 100 %. If it's blurry or full of noise, you have to deal with it or scrap it and try to get another shot.

Lastly... using a tripod religiously will help loads. You have a good eye. Build on it.

Elaborating on Heather's advice, shoot raw. That will keep a record of all your camera settings. Review your photos, and on the best, and perhaps the worst, look at the camera setting and try to evaluate what you did right, and why it worked (or didn't work). For example:
A lens will typically have a sweet spot, not at the smallest aperture, and not at the largest, where the images tend to be sharpest. If you're not in that middle range, you should probably have an intentional reason in mind. A wide open aperture will tend to blur everything outside of a narrow focal plane. A tiny aperture will give the opposite effect, with a very deep focal plane, and a clearer foreground and background.

Everything in photography is a compromise. When you maximize something, you will unavoidably minimize something else. Much of photography is learning to use these interactions to your advantage.

I recommend lightroom, or a program like it. It makes it easier to review your images to evaluate them. Putting in keywords and description will help you to remember details about the photos months or even years later, and provides the deliberate deliberation to spend sufficient time reviewing and analyzing your results from each shooting session.

start with your avatar and get something where your not standing in shadow.


see that weed? push it down with your hand. and if you can't move over about an inch. the light is very strong, use a polarizer. you need more tags don't add / slashes either.



if the image is of the badlands - they should be in focus. it would be better if you shot this early or late in the day, so the sun warms the image instead of washing it out. the fence adds nothing to composition and if you are to add a fence, leave the other supporting side in otherwise its not balanced.


you effectively shish-kabobbed your family here. the flag is running through both their heads here. the baby you can barely see, and the selective coloring on the face and not the child is odd. ideally though, besides the family album, i don't know who your buyer will be. also use a faster shutter, the baby could be sharper.

btw - no one will find you due to that lack of tags


i don't see the story in this because of the angle. choose an angle that captures the entire kitchen. i would choose from the doorway on the right into the kitchen, but just aside from that so you can use the light. the focus should be the two tables down the length of the room. this shot isn't that straight. and the sepia is a turn off, because the lighting is very flat, you don't have a place the eyes can settle on.


competition is stiff for this. this is kind of crooked, sky is dull, the weeds don't really add to this at all. the one where you have just the bottom - i don't know who the market is for that one.


overall this is a picture of nothing. a lot of bush, a bit of water and a bunch of fog, there really is no attractive point in here, just a general vacation snap shot of an overlook.


this is an ok shot, the nose is soft and the crop is too tight, but the expression is good.


be more creative with flowers. don't get the house, don't center it, don't have extra background, don't shoot in the shade. find a better angle for this.



this is a good shot, its a bit crooked looking though, and i'd push the saturation up a bit and add a little more yellow (just a touch). otherwise its a pretty nice shot you can tell why you shot it.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

besides shooting raw, don't use auto if you can help it, don't use auto focus either, because it doesn't care where it focuses. experiment with different things. the idea behind a good shot are:

1. location
2. lighting
3. can you figure out what the story is? in other words, you can figure out the point why you shot something. like the snow mountain above, the road leads in,and is probably one of your best compositions in the bunch. the boulder and mountain, i can see you were going for the flowers in the front and the mountains, but my eyes went right to the rock as well.

and from there it comes down to straightness, sharpness, use of color and lighting.

but those keywords - only add commas, no spaces, no slashes. add a lot more. better descriptions is a good idea as well, don't make it super simple, google likes content.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Don't just take a snapshot and then head off to the next spot. Learn to work a scene.

Pick a spot that captures you attention and then spend an hour in it exploring all angles until you arrive at something that captures the essence of scene.

I actually disagree completely with shooting raw, for now. When starting out you need to learn the basics of composition, lighting, exposure, white balance, DoF and all sorts of other stuff. IMO also learning how to edit a raw file while you are still learning the basics is unnecessary. (Opinions vary of course.) When it comes down to it, I still use Jpegs for the majority of work I put up on the site and never touch the raw file even though I shoot both for every shot.

Shoot shoot shoot is probably the best advice but when you shoot get feedback on what worked and what didn't and why. I pushed the button 60 thousand times the first year I went digital and another 50 K the next.

Animals should look into the image or move into the image. This little guy has no where to go.



The harsh lighting here hurts the image. Have someone stand and block the light. No one with you? Set the composition up, set your exposures, walk away from the tripod and block the light yourself then take the shot with a remote shutter release cable. (Oh, and use the tripod and cable religiously.)



A tighter crop focusing on the keys or step back and show the whole piano. As it is, the piano has nothing to stand on and is about to fall down.



You nailed the composition and lighting on this one. Your focal plane is before the coyote though thus killing the shot. The animal itself should be tack sharp instead of the grass between you and the canine.

After looking at your site Jayme, its not too bad but need to focus on getting in close. Most look like snapshots and you have to find a way people don't normally see in a picture. I know I do that sometimes and I try to think and focus on closing - in, avoid junk around you, like telephone poles, etc. Don't shoot on harsh sunlight, wait till the sun goes down for more vivid colors and saturations. Read lots of books on photography.

There are 2 things in your work that I see.

1. As Edward noted it fees like as if you are walking around snapping photos in the work. Stop and slow down, think.....hard. Move, work angles, find the composition of the scene that makes it epic. Shoot THAT.

2. Photography as an artform is capturing light. The most valuable lesson any photographer can learn is that if you want a great photo, you have to have great light. Light has to compliment your subject. There is nothing more important than being there when the light is right.

I really appreciate all this feedback. It has my brain churning and wanting to dig deeper. I obviously have a lot to learn with not only technique but the time i spend at each shot. I have been selecting shots taken on vacations etc. which I now see is the wrong approach. When i drive by a site that attracts me, i can't just shoot and drive off,especially when I need to think about what I need to do. I do keep my tripod with me in my car, but i still have not been using it. I don't have the most steady hand so i guess its time to use it!! As far as my editing tool, I have been using photoshop editor. I am feeling more comfortable with it but still struggle with some of the more advanced techniques.

In addition to spending more time shooting and being more selective with my uploads, would you recommend removing the "snapshots"? Even though it will reduce the quantity of prints, I think the quality at this point is more important......and marketable.

anything that makes the other images look bad, i'd remove or rework. if you can't figure out a market for each image uploaded, it may never sell. quantity isn't as important as quality. you can build up stock in time. i only upload 4 new things each week. don't get into advanced methods until you mastered the basic ones. go into it slowly.

you should have a good flash for your camera (with a diffuser of some kind so you don't get that harsh light, i built one for myself), and a polarizer. a tripod is good, but i never use one. i shoot hand held. a stable lens helps a lot, shooting faster helps, having a clean iso that allows for certain shots, helps.

marketable will be a good long while. people take vacation shots all the time, many of mine come from vacations. i shoot midday. but i avoid harsh light when i can. if you have to squint in a scene, it probably won't look good. make sure the lens has a hood on it so sun doesn't streak across the the lens lowering contrast. learn to look into a scene, try to imagine what it would look like if you stood over there - or over there. learn how to frame your shots, using tree limbs, or other objects. learn to do it from a distance. know that if you just stood 10 ft over, or took the time to move another block in, that you might have gotten a better angle.

or time it so when the cloud goes over the sun the scene might be more even. or wait for that cloud to move out to get the sun back.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Thanks......I have some work to do. Peek at my site occasionally (give me some time though) and let me know what you think.

My remote shutter release... my new best friend I'd wished I'd gotten to know years ago!

Jayme, does your camera have a shake reduction built-in? If it does use it and if not you can use your tripod or better yet get a single tripod with only one leg. As far as snap shot goes leave it in your site until you get more and more better images.

There is a lot of good advice here, Jayme. I think you have a good eye - keep reading, learning, and shooting - it takes time, but it's great fun in the process.

Your sepia prints are my favorites.

Something else that I am not sure has been mentioned or not but separate keywords with commas not the forward slash.

Such as mountain,forest,trees,leaves

NOT: mountain/forest/trees/leaves

Jeffery Johnson
~ Photo Captures by Jeffery

I love it when I see i have new messages posted!! I am so anxious to get better but my schedule is so limited for me to shoot and then edit, I feel it's going to take years to get better. Yes, I have a shake reduction on my camera and I absolutely have it on. My tripod will detach to a monopod, and I also have another monopod. When I'm hiking, its a little clumsy, also it's just more fun to shoot freehand. But, as I said in an earlier post, I need to stop at a site that attracts me, set up my tripod, and really take my time. I also plan to go through my site and and edit my tags and prints, etc.
I realize now after reading these messages, I have so much to learn with my technique, editing, etc, but I also realize that an image can be so personal to the person looking at it, it can tell a completely different story . I know i can't please everyone and each have their own opinions, (I, of course, love hearing compliments) but I know the quality needs to be there and all this feedback really helps me!!!!!!

One thing about the shake reduction, turn it off when shooting on a tripod. Many will induce vibration if there is none at all and cause it to blur.

of course it will take years. art always takes a long time. photography or any art -- is not easy. if your shooting in the daylight - you don't need a pod. use it when the light is lower or you can't hold it steady.

first off learn how to use the camera to its fullest.
then look at a location and ask yourself - can you or others figure out what the scene is about just by looking? is there anything in the scene, in your view finder that is distracting and doesn't add to the story? extra grass, tree limbs, bifurcated people, general clutter, garbage, etc

stand in a spot that removes as much of that clutter as possible. shoot it landscape and portrait if you like it. get a full wide, zoom in and see if it looks better closer. use a polarizer if there is glare (i have a xume magnetic mount, it vignettes, but i can attach it in a second and remove it just as fast).

learn to use frames. and the light, be weary of shadow etc.

each thing is a learning curve, learn how to do black and white, learn macro, etc each of these will help you train as well. each item take a certain amount of skill level. it won't happen over night.

i've been shooting since i was a kid. i got my first digital in i think 2001. pod's didn't exist then. i shot a lot of images. i didn't start selling until i think 2006 i think. in that span i shot well over a 120,000 images with a single camera. you upgrade slowly and practice bit by bit. learn to see and anticipate the shot. would that image look better with people? is there a couple walking into frame? wait for the right time, then click it. just take this all bit by bit. people usually don't pick up a camera then start selling the next day. it takes years to know how to do it. and many more years to master it.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Good to know about turning off the shake reduction with a tripod. I think i am getting a pretty good feel of my camera now and i have finally started shooting all manual but i have not been using the picture effect settings like b&w, sepia, etc when shooting. I change it when i edit if I think it would look better. I don't know if that makes any difference? I am also "horrible" using a flash, I have a little sock to soften but still not great and try to never shoot indoors. I am hoping to get a 50mm with at least a 1.8 soon. If i could make some money, i would get a 1.4. I am still using my kit lens and my zoom is a 55-300.
Honestly, making a lot of money is not important (probably a good thing) I think just the idea of someone wanting to buy my prints is much more rewarding to me.

The Canon 50f1.8 is extremely sharp and a very good lens for the money. I am sure other brands are very good as well.

ANd yes, never shoot with effects. It is MUCH better to do them in edit.

I wouldn't normally comment on a photography question thread because I'm primarily a painter, but I wanted to emphasize the importance of composition. What I can offer is how to look through your lens like an artist.

Composition is very important in any type of art. Composition tells the story. It walks the viewer through your shot. You're the guide and you need to choose a focal point and frame the shot so that focal point is in the right place. I recommend looking up the the rule of thirds.

What do you want the viewer to see that you are seeing? Some people case a scene and check out light before the plan a spot to shoot. Before you take the shot, sit or stand in the scene and look. Then look through your lens framing different things. Zoom in zoom out. Look for things that could be a distraction to the shot. Sometimes just taking a step over, kneeling instead of sitting, etc. Can make all the difference and give you a more creative perspective. Take your time and enjoy the process. Get in your creative zone. Take in the scene with all your senses. Make the rule of thirds your friend. It is the easiest composition to use.

I saw this one and I think it is one of your best because the lighting and color is great and I see the story you are trying to capture, but there are distractions in the scene. The light on the table (it does point towards the jugs; which is good, but it still moves you off your main subject), the shiny specks that are almost dead center, the slightly crooked wooden pole (use that pole as your 1/3 line or angle yourself so it isn't in the shot. As it is its almost dead center), and the yellow flowers on the right (although their color is a nice contrast to the blue tones they are a distraction in this case. See them when you frame the shot, frame them out and maybe use them in a different shot).
This is also a perfect scene to use a tripod so your image is clean of blur. I would even try this shot by playing with your ISO to add to the softness of the light and reduce any potential noise. This scene also could have made some really cool close-up compositions of just the jugs and parts of the jugs.

don't use in camera sepia, black and white and such. better to do it in color and modify later on. the internal stuff will always remove color and just make the thing look flat. your better off with the 50 1.8. i have the 1.4, nice lens, broke it awhile ago, too afraid to find out what the repair cost would be. the extra bit of fastness, really isn't worth the price i think. and its more bulky. ideally that 40mm pancake, is something i might get because of its size.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I'm a big proponent for shooting RAW. It just offers so many more options and greater control over the shot.

However I'll second what JC said about sticking with JPG for now. Adding RAW into the mix will just overwhelm you. Don't shoot RAW until you get comfortable with all your camera's settings.

I highly recommend the book in the link below. It's old, 1984, but still very relevant to photography. It gets into the nuts and bolts of settings, how and why things work the way they do, and how use them to your creative advantage. Good book, straight forward and easy to understand. The other link is to the Magic Lantern guide books. Magic Lantern guides are what the manual should have been. Not only covers how the settings work, but why and when you would use them. Find the one for your camera and buy it. It's small enough to fit in your camera bag.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Developing-the-Creative-Edge-in-Photography-1984-by-Eifer-Bert-0898791103-/351397855325?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item51d0f1c05d

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?series_id=185583

i kind of wished i shot in raw when i first had it. i never saw the difference, and raw actually looked worse so i used it now and then. now i go back to a location that i sell well in, and i'm sad to see that they are all jpg, which are very hard to rescue. the downside to raw is the giant files it makes. i thought it was a magic mode that let me capture certain kinds of shots. but.. no it wasn't....


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

My advice to shoot raw was not so much because of the higher image quality, but for the purposes of evaluation. A raw file contains a record of your camera settings, which can be an aid in your post-session evaluation of your results. When you shoot on manual or semi-auto, such as Av (aperture priority mode, aperture controlled manually, probably the most used setting) it helps you to evaluate what works and what doesn't if you have your camera data right there. Otherwise, you can't remember right after the shoot, much less days later. I find lightroom and archiving my images into folders with the date of exposure a very useful discipline for this purpose. If you add keywords, titles, and descriptions, and ratings, it can make finding the best images later much easier, and more importantly, help you determine what works best and WHY. Buy a fast usb 3.0 card reader, and faster cards, rather than cheapo ones, and the larger files don't take much longer to process. So the advantages of using RAW cost you just a few minutes a day, even if you shoot a lot, which is well worth all the benefits. If you are on an extremely limited budget, RAW may be a concern. Otherwise, go ahead and add A 3tb drive, too, if needed. Storage is fast and cheap. Much cheaper than a cheap lens.

Thanks Edward for the posting the link to the Scott Kelby piece!!! It shed some new light on how better photographs come about and how to make that happen.

I'm glad you did, Jani Freimann. I did a shot of the front of one of the milk jugs. It has been critiqued as the lighting was off but the idea was there. Jani, I actually started when i was a teenager (a few years ago) drawing and did a semester at an art school wanting to be a commercial artist. But things came up and did not pursue. So I do look at photography as an art and love it just as much as i did drawing, if not more.
As far as the raw shooting, I agree I need to conquer the basics yet.....I would even have to research the difference in addition to what everyone has been telling me about it. Since I started this site, I already have learned so much with just the advice everyone has given me.....keep it coming, i really appreciate it.

Hi Jayme, I looked at your images and I'd say you are on a good path. Your images are very nice. First thing that pops into my head is that I've seen all these before. I know how exciting it can feel to be the author of these superb images. Try to make your pics unusual; different angles, different perspectives, unusual colors, unusual something. Best of luck. Marty Malliton/BellaZoom

Ok....for all of you fellow photographers who commented on my work, as I requested, if you could just look at the edits I have done. Granted, I was not able to "re-shoot" images, of course, but I did do some editing and also, with your advice, redo my tags, etc. Now I hope to have a little bit more to go on as I hope to upload some new photos soon.
Thanks for all of your advice.

Jayme,

Nicely done. Congrats.

Dave

With keywords I always leave a space after the comma. Is this wrong, and why?

Jessica, I was wondering about that too. I also put a space after the comma.

Yes it's wrong, it counts as a character and you are limited to number

It's okay if you are not worried about that

adding a space adds a character- it shouldn't though


i wouldn't bother with the location because they are just jugs from any place. i would add other words and more of them - metal,still life, milk man,dairy, dairy industry, dented, rusty, abandoned, container, storage, cylinder, holder, outside, your name.

its not about unusual. it's more about - usual things done really well. things people can identify with themselves. that teddy bear on a chair, with soft light coming from a window, partly in shadow, might remind you of your own teddy bear. add a story of how it was almost forgotten and then out of the corner of your eye, you saw mr bear face and had memories of your own childhood - and that may make the sale. its all how it touches one single person.


for this i'd clone out that dot on the left, boost pinks and magentas. i would remove the term biltmore because they are sensitive to their name and this can be taken any place. i wouldn't use their name to advertise the piece. but adding, water, reflection, solace, contemplation, etc - might attract others. you have to be creative with the words.

but not too creative.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I get it Mike...When I was editing last night, I actually was trying to tell more of the story I was thinking about when I took these photos. Not just these 2 , but I worked on all of them on my site. I wanted to do something to make the existing images more appealing before I add ed more photos. I did delete a few of images I agreed were lacking, and I might delete a couple of more (it's hard to do that when you love the moment you shoot the photo but you know it's not technically great). I will add some additional tags, like you said. You know, is actually kinda hard to think of these? Question.....do you think the public actually reads the descriptions? I thought they would just scan through the images. If they actually do, I love to write so I should really put my heart in it!!!!

I doubt this one would print because of quality issues. Very blocky and the main subject isn't sharp.



I really like these shots of Yellowstone in winter. The national parks don't get as much attention then, so it's something that could make yours more unique than others.

Also Mike, I have never even noticed the dot on the left of the azalea.....but now I see it, and I'm sure others have too!!! I'll fix that tonight!!
And thanks David Bridburg!!

i think they do read them, but google reads them more. people like to know why you made the image.

the story of an image is mostly: do i know why, you took the picture. is there enough content in there, where a title, or description isn't needed to understand why it was made. its not enough to just be a flag. but a flag in a place of honor. the milk bottles are ok, but i would clone out that handle - it doesn't add to the story and adds clutter. a bird on a rail isn't the same as a bird on a tree branch. you want stuff that a common guy with a camera phone can't take.

write short paragraphs relating to the image. don't drone on about your vacation or how you stumbled across it. simply state what it is, and give a story, maybe something in your life. for me, i have 85 grandmothers and a few dozen aunts. i make up the stories, hoping it will touch someone who has a similar story themselves. creative writing i think is just as important. talking about that great fishing spot you once had in this area, is better than stating the obvious - boat in water in michael lousianna. i've seen that a lot.

i have people look through just to read the stories.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

my eyes tend to get distracted by all sorts of things. i've trained them to see noise, spots, and any distraction. so any time i see a spot in the sky, or a highlight some place, that's all i can see from that point. when i edit images i get in 100-200% to make sure it looks clean.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Mike, do mean the iron wheel handle on the left of the milk cans?

Matt, the baby birds is one of the images I was referring to that I realize is not technically good......but I watch this mother and her babies daily so I love the story. Ok, I'll delete it from my site and I'll just look at it on my digital photo frame in my living ...lol!

whatever that red thing is sticking into view. usually you don't want things cut off, cut in half, ends missing. so things like fences without a complete post, half a person, tree, handles, etc. should be avoided in camera, and or edited later


i'll use mine as an example. the right side was the original image. on the right i cropped out a boy that didn't add anything because he was walking in frame, but his arm remained. on the left side there was another child i would have liked to have kept, but i had to crop out more of that bad corners. so i took them both out and re-built the scene. in reality if i took the shot i would avoid cutting things off. but it shows what i did to make the scene on the right and what things i removed. being historical i usually try to leave it all in. this was a special case.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com