My First uploads on CiC

[shutterx]

Hi all, I am new to both CiC and Photography.

Here are some pics I click in the last month. Please comment and criticise.

I use a Canon 500D with the kit 18-55 lens.













thanks

[carregwen]

Hi Anirban (nice name)

Welcome!

Shot #1 is a good floral shot, but the bright area at the top is distracting. Try to avoid such bright over-exposed areas.

Shot #2 is excellent for an architecture shot, with a very nice stair-case and entrance, but it needs a serious crop to remove the excess detail. I would also have moved the plant out of the way. here is an edit, if that is OK?

Good effort.

[shutterx]

Hi Anirban (nice name)

Welcome!

Shot #1 is a good floral shot, but the bright area at the top is distracting. Try to avoid such bright over-exposed areas.

Shot #2 is excellent for an architecture shot, with a very nice stair-case and entrance, but it needs a serious crop to remove the excess detail. I would also have moved the plant out of the way. here is an edit, if that is OK?

Good effort.

hi rob,

thanks a lot for the honest feedback. thats just what us budding light capturers need to see the right path. also, thanks for helping with the editing. i learned that composition is the most tricky part of photography. iam figuring out composition and ill keep you posted with the latest pics.

[arith]

I like the second and the fourth ones, the first is a bit bright for me. In the second I wouldn't crop as much but that is just me.

[Geoff F]

They are all tricky shots to capture well, especially with just the basic kit lens. So you are doing well here.

A little bit of extra software processing will help to give the 'flatter' looking images a bit of a lift. But don't overdo it; just a slight tweak with Curves, etc will suffice.

The first photo can be saved with some tighter cropping. The fifth one just doesn't do it for me; I would allow it to 'escape'; and unfortunately, the last one has that slight bit of flare from the sun which is peeping around the left hand tower. As the top of the tower is missing, I would like to reshoot that scene from a slightly different position, if possible. It looks as though there is an interesting image there if you can get a better position.

[shutterx]

I like the second and the fourth ones, the first is a bit bright for me. In the second I wouldn't crop as much but that is just me.

thanks...

[shutterx]

A little bit of extra software processing will help to give the 'flatter' looking images a bit of a lift. But don't overdo it; just a slight tweak with Curves, etc will suffice.

hi. thanks for the feedback. can you please shed some light on which curves you are talking of? all i ever tinker around with is a lil bit of saturation, contrast and brightness. i use basic picasa. would you suggest some other tool?

cheers

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Anirban and welcome to CiC.

I know what you were trying with #4, I do it a lot myself. Getting the right limb structure is important to getting the composition right. You have 3 main limbs here and the shot is pretty clean. I am sure it would improve dramatically with a blue sky and some judicious Shadows/Highlights command to brighten the leaves a little.

[Dave Humphries]

~ i use basic picasa. would you suggest some other tool?

Peter, Geoff,

We're describing using features not found in Picasa.

Anirban,

Firstly welcome to the CiC forums from me, normally I welcome every new member who posts in the Intro thread, but it has been very busy at home lately and I have let that slide (note to self: I must start doing that again), fortunately other members have picked up my slack (thanks guys/gals).

Secondly, that's a pretty good opening gallery you have there, well done. There are several I quite like, although I find it difficult to name a favourite.

Now to the Picasa and PP tools issue: I started on Picasa myself and used it for the first year or so, and have since moved 'up' to Photoshop Elements, it is a reasonable price and gives a lot of functionality for the money. I think your digital photography has now reached the stage where Picasa is limiting the results and quality you can achieve, so it is probably time for you to consider a move too.

There are other packages for PP (post processing), but the support you'll get from others if you use Elements, or, if you have the money, proper Photoshop CS5, can be invaluable. In between (price-wise) is something called Lightroom, but many find they also need Elements, or CS5, as well because it's not quite the same thing.

If you don't have any money to spend on PP software there are free alternatives, something called "GIMP", which also has a few users here at CiC, is similar in capability to Elements, but does things a little differently.

Along with the software, budget for a good book on it, for Elements or CS5, you really can't do better than the books written by a guy called Scott Kelby, he's a very prolific author though, so make sure you get the right version number book for whichever software you get.

Give us an idea of what budget you might have and no doubt we can advise further.

Hope that helps,

[Geoff F]

Put very simply, Anirban, the next stage of software for you to try, should include a lot of extra adjustments which will allow you some discretion with your adjustments.

Curves, for instance, allows you to selectively brighten highlights, midtones and shadows with a great deal of flexibility instead of just increasing overall brightness or contrast. It may appear a bit intimidating at first but it is easily learned and will make massive differences to your images.

And once you start to make adjustments using layers and masks - Wow!

Gimp has many followers but there are quite a few alternatives to the Photoshop range. I use Serif Photo Plus but Paintshop also has a good following. And we are still only talking about rather basic easy to use software here.

[shutterx]

dear Dave and Jeff,

thanks a ton for the feedback. it i had no idea that i could manage so much more PP to improve images. i shall get my hands on photoshop elements 8 and see what can be done there. as for interests, i was checking out the bracketing functions of my camera and the sudden urge to try out HDR images struck me. hence i went and got myself a tripod. i also checked out the tutorial on HDR and will experiment a little bit.

also, i shall have to try out Gimp to get an idea of the limitations of picasa.

thanks for the support folks. ill keep you posted.

cheers