[McDiddy]

I'm pretty much brand new to photography, just looking to see how I can improve. All the photos were taken with a K100D Super. At this point, what you see is straight from the camera. No post editing other than the resize.

Butterfly -
Shutter: 1/250 || f/7.1 || ISO:400 || Focal Length: 180mm


Sunset Silhouette
Shutter: 1/125 || f/6.7 || ISO:200 || Focal Length: 18mm


Pelican
Shutter: 1/250 || f/5.6 || ISO:200 || Focal Length: 270mm


Sunset
Shutter: 1/750 || f/11 || ISO:200 || Focal Length: 55mm


Waterfall
Shutter: 1/80 || f/8 || ISO:200 || Focal Length: 55mm

[sawtooth235]

McDiddy,

Nice first effort.

With the exception of the first one, I think that the others have too much in them. If you know what I mean, there isn't one overpowering main subject.

In the second one there is the boat, the person, the net floats, the fencing in the uppper left corner, and the sun setting.

In the third one there is a pelican in focus, a pelican out of focus, a fisherman out of focus, a structure in the uppper right hand corner, and rocks.

In the fourth one there is a tiny sun, a tiny boat, a huge expanse of blue sky, and a patch of water that is almost indistinguishable as water.

In the last one you have a placid pond, a waterfall, some random rocks, ans some random greenery.

I would suggest trying to determine the main point of interest in each photograph and accent it. Try moving around to find different angles of view to improve composition. Last but not least, try to sharpen the images a little. With the exception of outstanding "expensive" lenses and years of experience at perfecting focus, every digital image requires some sharpening.

I hope I haven't been overly critical, as you take more photographs your skill will develop and it won't be long and you'll be giving even better advice than I can.

Keep shooting!

Ray

[Taff]

Hi mcdiddy, welcome to the forum
i am no way a superior photographer, but i will give you my opinion on your pics. I have a flickr as my sig so you will see I am no master

1. I would crop to decentralise butterfly, I like the bokeh so would have the butterfly on the right
2. The vignetting on this pic keeps the eye within the picture, I would try to lighten bottom right corner though (definitely remove or crop out the fence thingy) this picture tells a great story and I like it
3. Pelican in shade, distracting background, try flash next time
4. Small amount of post processing will make this pic a WINNER
5. Doesn't catch any interest at all sorry

Hope This helps

Good first effort, compositionally, you are pretty much there. Apart from that I'm just going to comment on the Pelican shot.

I really like this image, the two shadowy/OOF figures work for me. I would crop this from the right a little to get rid of that small patch of sky in the corner which is distracting. That crop also would leave the shot with a nice diagonal going corner to corner.

[SpecialK]

A pretty good start.

#1 OK. Might try a vertical crop (or even square) of butterfly and most of the leaves...

#2. The left thingie could be cropped off.

#3. This is one that you "almost" got. I would crop in a bit (about 1/2 above the bird, and some of the right side). The out of focus blur in front of the feet and the body in shadow is a bit of a bummer. I do not recommend a flash with bird shots.... unless you only want one try.

#4. A bit dark. There will be better sunsets, too.

#5. Crop the bottom off above the big bright green leaf near the bottom right.

I don't get too hung up in the exact proportions of an image. You might consider shooting raw which allows you a bit more freedom and leeway with exposure, contrast, etc...after the fact. You will probably get frustrated with the Pentax software, but Adobe Elements is pretty decent and not too expensive. I would try to find a recently discontinued copy of V6 as some people complain about the new version 7.