Trying to improve my photo skills - got any criticism?

[spidey07]

Nothing really great, but thought they were alright (apart from noise). No photoshop or anything, just straight from the camera and resized. I'm trying to get better...

Thanks in advance.

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/spidey07/after-rainforest.jpg
*noisy, trying to capture humidity of the rainforest*
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/spidey07/critter.jpg
*no time to adjust, just point and shoot*
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/spidey07/sunset.jpg
*like this one*
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/spidey07/funkyflower.jpg
*love macro shots*
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/spidey07/palm.jpg
*playing with composition/framing*
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/spidey07/just-for-foreground.jpg
*difficult shot off the rear of a boat, noisy, you get the idea though*
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/spidey07/more-foreground.jpg

Thanks again. Be brutal if you must.

 

[Isocene]

I really like the night one. What kind of camera and lens are you using?

 

[Number1]

Sell the camera and get a new hoby.




















































































































Seriously, they look OK. I like the sunset pic.
Invoke FBB. He should be able to help

 

[Aharami]

love the sunset pic. some mild PSing would make the pics a LOT better. nice pics regardless
oh yea...what camera?

 

[spidey07]

Just a sony DSC-V1. I wanted to learn as much as I can on this before I get a DSLR. I understand the basics and the basics only. But I've already reached the limitations of this camera for what I want to do.

trying to learn...I figure if I can't make decent photos with this I don't need a DSLR.

The sunset one was done without a tripod.
I think I did a pretty good job on that one.

 

[ViviTheMage]

shrug

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Number1
Invoke FBB. He should be able to help

INVOKE meeeeee....

 

[aphex]

Where abouts in CR were ya? I have family in Escazu, Costa Rica and we go down a few times a year to visit...

 

[ballmode]

where is that fuzzy baby bunny or something

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Originally posted by: Number1
Invoke FBB. He should be able to help

INVOKE meeeeee....

I cast invokation of the FBB.

Lay it on me. I understand the basics. The basics only. Please critique.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Originally posted by: Number1
Invoke FBB. He should be able to help

INVOKE meeeeee....

I cast invokation of the FBB.

Lay it on me. I understand the basics. The basics only. Please critique.

*pops out of an air conditioning unit*

After Rainforest: Quite good, although a bit hazy and not sharp. I see that you shot at f/8. As a general rule, a lens' sharpness is almost like a bell curve, with the greatest sharpness at middle apertures (~f/4), and worst sharpness at minimum aperture (f/8 on your P&S). Shooting at f/8 may have contributed to the loss of detail in the picture, so try to avoid it. There is little need to stop down the aperture in a P&S because they depth of field is already quite large. In addition, I feel that there is a bit too much gray, featureless sky in the picture.

Critter: Yay! I would just call this one a snapshot. Cool though.

Sunset: Very cool colors. Good stuff. Wish there was a bit more of the dramatic sky.

Funky Flower: A bit unclear, perhaps due to motion blur or inaccurate focus. Not much you can do because the details are not sharp.

Palm: Cool. The palm's kinda... less than majestic though. One with its fronds out wide probably would have been better. You can probably up the saturation of the blue, cyan, and green channels to make the picture pop out some more.

Just for Foreground: I like this, but the background is a bit featureless and bland. Maybe up the saturation of the red and yellow channels a bit?

More Foreground: The waves are great, the middle with the sunset is great, but it starts to gray out towards the top. Something like just the middle and the waves may have been more dramatic.

Sorry if I sound a bit cold... I'm with Dell tech support trying to get a monitor replaced under warranty. Dell is stupid.

 

[spidey07]

Thanks a bunch FBB.

I really liked the "more foreground" picture as that is what I was really going for. Foreground is awesome IMHO, but the background is "no so much".

I don't know if that is the camera or me. i guess I was playing around with depth of field/speed, trying to stop the waves.

I have played around with a few DSLRs and I really need to get one. I just can't make the camera do what I want it to do.

On "more foreground" I purposely set the focus where you see it. But dang is it tough to focus properly with my current camera.