My first real try

[smudged-blue]

Hi, I'm new to this forum (I'm usually over in the colored pencil forum). I purchased a cannon EOS 300D almost 8 years ago with hopes to learn photography. This was my first real go at it (I had had my camera for just a few weeks when I took these).
I haven't taken photos for a while (few years) and considering taking it up again, I would need to start over from the beginning for settings etc.
I've selected four, but will show two here and two in another thread.
Although I'm not a professional I am worried about my images being used with out permission, am I best to put a water mark or copy right text on my images?
These are two of my boys (I have three).
I'm very interested in your thoughts so C&C's always welcomed.

Thanks for looking.

[birdhs]

Welcome to the Photography Forum. Love that first photo, very natural.

hope to see more from you,

life is good

greg

[Crispycritter]

Both shots are very good I particularly like the first one, it has a good interesting topic to it and well composed. Welcome to the forum, I hope to see more of your pictures.

[debsn2paintn]

Welcome and these are nice shots Hope to see more of your photos

The first shot is really nice, and the little boy is so cute and looks like he is really enjoying himself. I see a little grain or noise on his face, doesn't look as sharp as the grasses, water and rocks around him. I'm wondering if you had a little bit of motion blur and tried to sharpen him up some? Kids move and if your shutter speed isn't fast enough that will happen. His skin looks a little bright too, maybe your seeing it differently on your monitor.

2nd shot, are those feather wings? I don't think enough of the wings are showing or something. On my monitor the white of the feathers are blown out... not sure if you see it that way. Though the exposure on the baby looks pretty good and it's nice and sharp... well done! I also like the slight blur of the lake and ducks in the background.

Both shots are very difficult situations, shadows and bright sun! You really did a great job.

[smudged-blue]

Thank you Greg and Crispycritter for your thought of my photo's.

debsn2paintn - Thank you for your input. These are exactly how they turned out. I don't like to change my photo's in photoshop. I do have trouble keeping still enough and can get shaky.

On the first one he really got a kick out of it, he kept slapping the water with the stick and it was just by chance I got one with the line looking pulled and the stick the right way.

I noticed when posting it up here that the boy seemed less out of focus then the grasses and I've been looking at this photo for years and yes kids are very tricky and move quick. Yes you are right his skin is bright, guessing thats to much light sort of thing?

The second one, yes they are feather wings and I can see what you mean about them not showing enough. yes the feathers are also bright. The blur of the lake behind him is why I like this more then other similar photos that were taken, it seemed to add something that the other photos didn't have.

So how would I avoid the brightness in the skin and feathers? does that depend on camera settings and where the sun is sitting?

[Painter65]

Good Morning

I do edit most of my shots in photoshop, even the ones that seem to not require much manipulation, if only to try a few different crops or sharpen things up a bit prior to storing them. There is a strong, talented school of photographers that prefer not to edit and one day I'll have my eye trained well enough to do so as well. Love the shots of your sweet boys, mine are all taller than I am now and I wish i had invested in a better camera when they were small. I also love the ducks in the background in the second shot.
On light, shooting on a bright sunny day really limits what you can do again in photoshop. The only way I have success on my old Nikon is to play with the timing manually, change it around and take a bunch, probably near impossible to do with little ones as subjects. At least plants stay still!

[vmrs]

Your boys are cuties!
I'm guessing you probably took these during the middlish part of the day, at certain times of the day the light is much harsher. Taking photos in the golden hours (the hour before sunset or after sunrise) is a good way to avoid harsh midday sun. Or you can use a hood or a UV filter. Or you can adjust your white balances. Think of the sun as a piece of equipment.
If you want to see how the sun affects each shot take a series of photos of an object or person in the same spot and from different sides from morning to night and see what lighting works best for you. You can also try using foil, just regular household foil on a piece of cardboard or what have you to make the sun reflect where you want it to. Water of course adds another reflective surface and affects the lighting too.

I really like the composition of the first. The second I can see what you were going for but the leaves are so compostitionally strong that the wings fight with them. If I was going to make a painting of that one, I would make the leaves very soft (like in your lovebird picture, love the background on that by the way) and the wings more prominent with the baby being the most prominent. Think of a photo as you would a painting and you'll do great.
Keep playing with your camera, have fun, take lots and lots of photos and you'll get where you want to be.

[debsn2paintn]

First shot- Watch where that focus bubble is, it should be on the main subject. Too bright- Problem with digital is that when things are too bright it can't be fixed even in photoshop because there isn't any detail within the bright area, so it's better to shoot a tad dark to get the whites right then adjust in photoshop. Photo programs are pretty important to fine tune photos! Also, without a good flash it's very difficult to get the lighting right in these types of situations. Overcast days are easiest, or like Virginia says very late in the day.

If you are shaky make sure your shutter speed if fairly fast, so you get sharper photos. If you are shooting in auto, try shooting in TV- Shutter priority and keep it about 1/160. This way it will auto all the other settings around what you have the shutter speed set at.

Hope this helps Looking forward to seeing many new photos

[smudged-blue]

Thank you all very much, there is a lot of helpful information from you all. I have so much to learn.
I don't like using photoshop to adjust things as I would rather try and take the shot right, a very challenging thing I know.
My boy's are older now and don't find it fun for me to do this sort of thing with them any more, so I gotta sneak the photos in now.

vmrs - Thank you for the suggestion to think of them like a painting, it makes a lot of sense. I'm glad you liked my love bird. I took these a while ago (but have always been interested what others thought of them) and from memory I would've taken them at about 9-10am, also tried to time it when kids wouldn't be over tired and grumpy.

debsn2paintn - I do use the auto settings, usually the P setting, I haven't played around the others much, so thanks for the info about the TV setting. I find it hard to understand what everything means, which I think had part to do with why I stopped as well as lack of time. So I need to play around more with the camera.

[LeZart]

I whole heartily agree with ALL the previous comments.

The younguns are cute, the focus was pretty good, and the compositions are nice but you were faced with the contrast issues which are inherent when confronted by bright sun and shadows.

In my opinion you have a good eye for content and composition, you just need more experience with technical stuff. I do not claim to be anything more than a serious amateur but I can pass on to you the most important advice I ever received - practice, practice, practice. If you really want to improve - nothing works better. Digital photography not only offers instant gratification and feedback but with a big enough memory card - it offers a very very large number of available shots.

The learning curve may be steep but if the interest is really there then the results will fall into place.

PS. Don't dismiss Photoshop (or one it's competitors) too quickly. It is great when everything about a photo turns out well but it is a sad day when some annoying miss-step instigates a premature deletion. Of course with digital you also (if you save all originals) will always have the opportunity to go back and salvage a good image from a bad shot.

Welcome to the forum.

Lee

[pancho]

I love the first one. It is so natural.

Janet

[debsn2paintn]

It's easiest to learn one setting at a time. So maybe start with TV which is the shutter speed. 1/160 is usually a good place to start. 1/200 is faster and works better in bright light, if it's a little on the dark side go with 1/140 or even 1/120 if you can hold still. The lower the number the slower the shutter which will let in more light but will also give you motion blurs due to your movement or the subject.

[smudged-blue]

Thank you everyone for your input.

Deb- thanks for stopping by again,

It's easiest to learn one setting at a time. So maybe start with TV which is the shutter speed.

Great idea, won't seem so over whelming that way. So I will start with TV setting and finally start to learn what my camera can really do .