Critque my photographic skills..Canon whores requested

[mAdD INDIAN]

I recently started playing around with a Canon Digital IXUS 500 (Powershot S500 in North America).

I like colourful sunsets and finally got a good opportunity to try capturing them with the camera, I think they came out good, but would like your opinion.

I also tried my hand at night shots, but I suck at those. I also can't figure out how to properly use shutter speed settings (say a lenght of 1sec) during the day to create those funky effects.

Anyway here are some of the pics, I 'd like to hear your opinions. None of them have been modified by software on the computer, except for being resized.

A nice palette of colours in this shot.
Similar pic as above, but a bit darker
A nice vibrant orange and red...a hint of fire.
another sunset shot, but different colours...mellow

Now for some night shots,

don't know how to improve on it.
fairly clear..but still boring
kinda blury on the edges, but captured the HID lights quite nicely...and I like the lit room you can see in the background (my living room)

Hope you guys enjoyed them...also would like to get some tips on how to improve them.

 

[Cuda1447]

Those were all taken on the S500? Thats surprising that they came out that good on such a small lens...

 

[yllus]

Greetings, fellow Canon user. There's free gallery space at CanonTalk.net for your amateur photos, might help you get some feedback on your work as well.

I think you've done a fine job in the sunset pictures.

The night pictures are fine but they lack a focal point to draw the eye towards. Granted, not all photos need that. If at all possible you may have wanted to use a small tripod or set the camera down somewhere. Use a long exposure time, 1 - 5 seconds to light up the scene well. Use a large aperture setting (in M or Av mode) like f/4 (as opposed to the small aperture setting of, say, f/11) to display a shallow depth of field:

Large aperture, shallow DOF.

Small aperture, deep DOF.

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

Originally posted by: yllus
Greetings, fellow Canon user. There's free gallery space at CanonTalk.net for your amateur photos, might help you get some feedback on your work as well.

I think you've done a fine job in the sunset pictures.

The night pictures are fine but they lack a focal point to draw the eye towards. Granted, not all photos need that. If at all possible you may have wanted to use a small tripod or set the camera down somewhere. Use a long exposure time, 1 - 5 seconds to light up the scene well. Use a large aperture setting (in M or Av mode) like f/4 (as opposed to the small aperture setting of, say, f/11) to display a shallow depth of field:

Large aperture, shallow DOF.

Small aperture, deep DOF.

yeah those were all taken on the S500. It captures colours REALLY well.

I used a tripod for the night shots.

How can I adjust aperture settings on the S500? I know how to adjust shutter speed, but don't think aparture settings are possible.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: yllus
Greetings, fellow Canon user. There's free gallery space at CanonTalk.net for your amateur photos, might help you get some feedback on your work as well.

I think you've done a fine job in the sunset pictures.

The night pictures are fine but they lack a focal point to draw the eye towards. Granted, not all photos need that. If at all possible you may have wanted to use a small tripod or set the camera down somewhere. Use a long exposure time, 1 - 5 seconds to light up the scene well. Use a large aperture setting (in M or Av mode) like f/4 (as opposed to the small aperture setting of, say, f/11) to display a shallow depth of field:

Large aperture, shallow DOF.

Small aperture, deep DOF.

huge appature NO DOF

put it in manual mode and you shoudl be able to adjust the settings
also check out shutterboard.com in my sig, post pics people comment

and its not canon biased

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: yllus
Greetings, fellow Canon user. There's free gallery space at CanonTalk.net for your amateur photos, might help you get some feedback on your work as well.

I think you've done a fine job in the sunset pictures.

The night pictures are fine but they lack a focal point to draw the eye towards. Granted, not all photos need that. If at all possible you may have wanted to use a small tripod or set the camera down somewhere. Use a long exposure time, 1 - 5 seconds to light up the scene well. Use a large aperture setting (in M or Av mode) like f/4 (as opposed to the small aperture setting of, say, f/11) to display a shallow depth of field:

Large aperture, shallow DOF.

Small aperture, deep DOF.

huge appature NO DOF

put it in manual mode and you shoudl be able to adjust the settings
also check out shutterboard.com in my sig, post pics people comment

and its not canon biased

cool..thanks for the advice.

In manual mode, I can adjust shutter speed and exposure..but not aparture.

 

[konichiwa]

Originally posted by: mAdD INDIAN

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: yllus
Greetings, fellow Canon user. There's free gallery space at CanonTalk.net for your amateur photos, might help you get some feedback on your work as well.

I think you've done a fine job in the sunset pictures.

The night pictures are fine but they lack a focal point to draw the eye towards. Granted, not all photos need that. If at all possible you may have wanted to use a small tripod or set the camera down somewhere. Use a long exposure time, 1 - 5 seconds to light up the scene well. Use a large aperture setting (in M or Av mode) like f/4 (as opposed to the small aperture setting of, say, f/11) to display a shallow depth of field:

Large aperture, shallow DOF.

Small aperture, deep DOF.

huge appature NO DOF

put it in manual mode and you shoudl be able to adjust the settings
also check out shutterboard.com in my sig, post pics people comment

and its not canon biased

cool..thanks for the advice.

In manual mode, I can adjust shutter speed and exposure..but not aparture.

I don't think the S500 will let you adjust aperture. That's why I'd never get a P&S

 

[Eli]

Pretty good! I think you resized them too small, though.

As for the night pics, you need to adjust your White Balance. That way everything won't have the orange tint from the sodium street lights.

 

[MikePanic]

if your looking for some more expieranced critiques and some help progressing your photography, check out http://www.iphotoforum.com

 

[igowerf]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: yllus
Greetings, fellow Canon user. There's free gallery space at CanonTalk.net for your amateur photos, might help you get some feedback on your work as well.

I think you've done a fine job in the sunset pictures.

The night pictures are fine but they lack a focal point to draw the eye towards. Granted, not all photos need that. If at all possible you may have wanted to use a small tripod or set the camera down somewhere. Use a long exposure time, 1 - 5 seconds to light up the scene well. Use a large aperture setting (in M or Av mode) like f/4 (as opposed to the small aperture setting of, say, f/11) to display a shallow depth of field:

Large aperture, shallow DOF.

Small aperture, deep DOF.

huge appature NO DOF

put it in manual mode and you shoudl be able to adjust the settings
also check out shutterboard.com in my sig, post pics people comment

and its not canon biased

How could there be no depth of field?

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: igowerf

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: yllus
Greetings, fellow Canon user. There's free gallery space at CanonTalk.net for your amateur photos, might help you get some feedback on your work as well.

I think you've done a fine job in the sunset pictures.

The night pictures are fine but they lack a focal point to draw the eye towards. Granted, not all photos need that. If at all possible you may have wanted to use a small tripod or set the camera down somewhere. Use a long exposure time, 1 - 5 seconds to light up the scene well. Use a large aperture setting (in M or Av mode) like f/4 (as opposed to the small aperture setting of, say, f/11) to display a shallow depth of field:

Large aperture, shallow DOF.

Small aperture, deep DOF.

huge appature NO DOF

put it in manual mode and you shoudl be able to adjust the settings
also check out shutterboard.com in my sig, post pics people comment

and its not canon biased

How could there be no depth of field?

you cant get 0 DOF but you can make it tiny, in that pic its about 1/3 the width of a penny, ive seen smaller

long Zoom and huge app (2.8) can do that, as well as macros focusing at 1:1

 

[yllus]

The Imaging Resource: Canon PowerShot S500 review:

Aperture is automatically controlled, but the maximum setting ranges from f/2.8 at full wide angle to f/4.9 at full telephoto.

Hmm, that bites. Especially with pictures of cars you can get some really neat effects using aperture settings to your advantage.

 

[Kalvin00]

Originally posted by: yllus
The Imaging Resource: Canon PowerShot S500 review:

Aperture is automatically controlled, but the maximum setting ranges from f/2.8 at full wide angle to f/4.9 at full telephoto.

Hmm, that bites. Especially with pictures of cars you can get some really neat effects using aperture settings to your advantage.

What kind of 'neat effects'? Please elaborate.

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

Originally posted by: yllus
The Imaging Resource: Canon PowerShot S500 review:

Aperture is automatically controlled, but the maximum setting ranges from f/2.8 at full wide angle to f/4.9 at full telephoto.

Hmm, that bites. Especially with pictures of cars you can get some really neat effects using aperture settings to your advantage.

can't I change other settings which will coax the camera to use certain aparture settings?

 

[Gooberlx2]

A good start.

My forum recommendation (since everyone seems to be doing this) is dpreview. Some very talented photographers (alot of pros) on there and I think you'll usually get some feedback.
*note that dpreview is very much geared towards Digitals SLRs and "prosumer" cameras.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: igowerf

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: yllus
Greetings, fellow Canon user. There's free gallery space at CanonTalk.net for your amateur photos, might help you get some feedback on your work as well.

I think you've done a fine job in the sunset pictures.

The night pictures are fine but they lack a focal point to draw the eye towards. Granted, not all photos need that. If at all possible you may have wanted to use a small tripod or set the camera down somewhere. Use a long exposure time, 1 - 5 seconds to light up the scene well. Use a large aperture setting (in M or Av mode) like f/4 (as opposed to the small aperture setting of, say, f/11) to display a shallow depth of field:

Large aperture, shallow DOF.

Small aperture, deep DOF.

huge appature NO DOF

put it in manual mode and you shoudl be able to adjust the settings
also check out shutterboard.com in my sig, post pics people comment

and its not canon biased

How could there be no depth of field?

you cant get 0 DOF but you can make it tiny, in that pic its about 1/3 the width of a penny, ive seen smaller

long Zoom and huge app (2.8) can do that, as well as macros focusing at 1:1

You can reverse mount your lens on your slr and get unbelievably close focusing macros with miniscule DOF (focusing so close that you'll end up hitting the object to your lens before being able to focus in some cases).

 

[TechnoKid]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: igowerf

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: yllus
Greetings, fellow Canon user. There's free gallery space at CanonTalk.net for your amateur photos, might help you get some feedback on your work as well.

I think you've done a fine job in the sunset pictures.

The night pictures are fine but they lack a focal point to draw the eye towards. Granted, not all photos need that. If at all possible you may have wanted to use a small tripod or set the camera down somewhere. Use a long exposure time, 1 - 5 seconds to light up the scene well. Use a large aperture setting (in M or Av mode) like f/4 (as opposed to the small aperture setting of, say, f/11) to display a shallow depth of field:

Large aperture, shallow DOF.

Small aperture, deep DOF.

huge appature NO DOF

put it in manual mode and you shoudl be able to adjust the settings
also check out shutterboard.com in my sig, post pics people comment

and its not canon biased

How could there be no depth of field?

you cant get 0 DOF but you can make it tiny, in that pic its about 1/3 the width of a penny, ive seen smaller

long Zoom and huge app (2.8) can do that, as well as macros focusing at 1:1

You can reverse mount your lens on your slr and get unbelievably close focusing macros with miniscule DOF (focusing so close that you'll end up hitting the object to your lens before being able to focus in some cases).

doesn't this sometimes present a problem in the lighting on the object? If the lense is that close to the object, then it is most likely blocking a lot of light. In this situation, i usually see people use light rings in macro photography.

 

[SSP]

Where did you take this pic?

Is that Golf etc. on St. claire?
Im guessing not cause of that fence thing on the side.

 

[vshah]

improve them in a technical sense or in an artistic sense?

-Vivan

 

[JoeKing]

For the sunset shots I would try to get to a higher elevation like a hill or somthing so I wouldn't get as many houses or trees against the sky. The sky looks fabulous, but the forground is just to dark and takes up to much of the shot.

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

Originally posted by: SSP
Where did you take this pic?

Is that Golf etc. on St. claire?
Im guessing not cause of that fence thing on the side.

from the park of the adult school on Midland Ave. and Finch Ave. in Scarborough. All the sunset pics where taken from the same place at the same time. I took them in a 20min time span.

I'm looking for technical help really.

Yeah it would have been nice to goto a hill or something, but there isn't one nearby...and this was a spur of the moment type thing. I saw the sky and decided to capture it.

As for having the trees and the houses at the bottom, I wanted that because it gives a nice sense of placement for the sky. The silhoutee (sp???) of the houses is a nice effect (to me anyway).