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Hey guys, been a member here for a while, but haven't posted anything. A friend and I joined at the same time to try and get some criticism on our stuff and he's been doing really well, but I've been mega lazy!

Anyway took some shots over the holiday and thought I'd post em up to see what people think.

My niece's 1st xmas.




Some friends










Be keen to hear what people think. I've been told I need to work on my PP skills (photoshop amateur), so any hints and tips along those lines would be good as well.

nice set of photos!

i like 1 and 2! very cute and lovely shots
#3 is quite good, but i would prefer if the girl is standing a bit closer to the bottom of the photo. Right now her position is too centered, and (visually) there is not enough room for her to walk to. Convert it to B&W may work

#4 very nice shot! love it. My minor complain is the photo is slightly tilted.

#5 Not bad, unfortunately the sky is too bright and you got too much empty white space in the photo.

#6 nice capture!
#7 i like it! love the smoke coming out from the mouth!

I like #1 and #2 and what yellow has commented. Thank you for sharing!

Ahhh thanks for the comments!

To be honest I didn't even see #4 being tilted. I just fixed it and uploaded a new version. It was tilted badly too! There must be something wrong with my eyes!

I like the way the guy is sitting in number #5. However yeah part of my issue with it was that the photo was a bit washed out. All just too bland and white. The light was a bit flat that day (sunny bit some quite variable cloud cover) and several other photos I took are a bit flat looking. I may take that one and try and apply my weak photoshop skills to it to change the exposure in the sky a bit, or maybe add some colour or something. If I think I improve it I'll post the update here for you guys to look at
It was like the cloud cover was washing all the colour out of the rest of the sky and the sea. It's quite a horrible effect.
If you were to try and bring colour back in, in camera what would you use? Would an ND grad filter help bring colour back into the sky? Although I guess thats tough as the top half of the subject would be darker too. Would a circular polarizer help with the sky and sea colour in that circumstance?

Thanks again for the comments, appreciate it!

Nice photos DCD!
i guess for #5, ND Grad filter won't help because the guy's head (which is already in shadow) will be darken by it as well, CPL may make a small difference but won't help too much.
and your niece is so cute!

when you are taking photo on a cloudy day, there are only two things you can do:

1. Avoid the sky completely or at least minimise the sky in the photo. For example, you can shoot from a higher angle or different angle (opposite side) so you got something else for the background. In your photo, i would probably try shot using a longer lens (70-200) which compress the scene and you maybe able to completely avoid the sky in the photo even if you are shooting from the same position.

2. You can underexpose the picture by 1-2 stop and it'll give you details back in the sky. But you'll also need to use a flash or two to brighten up the subject. it's not as easy as the first option but if manage to do it sucessfully you'll get a very nice looking photo that looks more 3D with better mood too.

CPL won't help you much on a cloudy day

Cool thanks for the tips yellow15. I'll keep those in mind.
I didn't think at the time that I might have needed to fill flash but it might have been a good option! Will have to keep these tips in mind since it's often cloudy in our fair country...

I've been playing around with fill flash and off camera flash and it's a bit of a balancing act getting it set up but yeah results look good if it's done right. I recently was told by someone else that I should also try using fill on an overcast day to get the subject more contrasty and interesting when there is flat light.

CPL will make the sky a deeper blue on a clear day then when orientated correctly?

Did you use to take photos of drifting? I recognize the name DCD?

(01-08-2010 08:36 AM)DCD Wrote: [ -> ]Cool thanks for the tips yellow15. I'll keep those in mind.
I didn't think at the time that I might have needed to fill flash but it might have been a good option! Will have to keep these tips in mind since it's often cloudy in our fair country...

I've been playing around with fill flash and off camera flash and it's a bit of a balancing act getting it set up but yeah results look good if it's done right. I recently was told by someone else that I should also try using fill on an overcast day to get the subject more contrasty and interesting when there is flat light.

CPL will make the sky a deeper blue on a clear day then when orientated correctly?

Fill flash can have the purpose of removing shadow, it can also create an image with an impression of depth. This is very useful on days that are cloudy or evening when the ambient lighting is flat and dull.

The easiest way to get fill flash with the camera on board is to exposure lock on the background and flash exposure lock on the subject. Flash in a TTL mode and not M mode.

CPL will the sky a deeper blue and it will create contrast with the clouds.

Hope that helps.