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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-15-2016, 02:47 AM
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My critique of your photo would be to say that there isn't enough foreground interest. You put the horizon in the middle, which it would probably be better higher or lower (rule of thirds). You can certainly bump contrast and shadows some and it will improve the image somewhat. A little detail enhancement in Color Efex Pro helps too.
Something like this, is a quick edit on your image...
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-14-2016, 06:13 AM
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I really would practice focusing and selecting auto focus points. I don't like the whole center point-recompose method of auto focusing, although I know it works for some people. If your focus isn't sharp in the important part of an image (the eyes in a portrait) then the rest of the image is probably not going to work effectively (that's not always true, but still unless you specifically want a soft photo for some reason, I'd try to have your focus right).
If you can use lower iso, that is good too, although certainly too low a shutter speed will tend to soften your image. Clackers is right, that bounce flash can help -- it adds light to an image and will help high iso images look better, it also tends to freeze motion because of the short duration of the flash.
Underexposure is definitely a no-no with high iso images. If you shoot at iso 3200 and then have to brighten the image in post, you will introduce a lot more noise into it, which is problematic.
 Who are you looking at? by Vincent1825, on Flickr
This is shot at f2, iso 100 and 1/500 second on a K3. Focus is pretty good on her eyes -- in looking at it, it isn't a great image, but a fine image of my daughter. Having decent light here really helped me, as I have a good shutter speed with low iso.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-13-2016, 08:08 AM
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I guess I would say on this photo that you missed your focus. Looks front focused, maybe? White balance feels off -- a little too yellow for my taste. At iso 3200 this is probably what you can expect, although certainly hitting your focus would improve things. The 50 macro is a very sharp lens, even at f2.8, but hitting focus is probably most important thing.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
10-06-2016, 03:01 AM
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I'm glad if it helped and nice image there as well.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-22-2016, 02:53 AM
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I like it.
I think the most important thing is to look for light. I used to think good photographers were just good at photoshopping (which most of them are), but the reality is that if you look at a scene that is poorly lit and has low contrast, you are going to have to get creative to get good images out of it.
From a post processing standpoint, I think Nik Effects from Google is a nice add on to Lightroom and it is free -- definitely worth down loading and playing around with.
In addition, look carefully at your deleted images and figure out what went wrong and what you could do better next time. It will get better and it is an awful lot of fun learning.
Edit: The biggest thing that I think gives digital an advantage over film when it comes to improving photos is the fact that you have an EXIF. I could never remember what lens I had used when shooting film, but with digital you can see all of your settings and realize what things didn't work out.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-21-2016, 10:54 AM
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Looking at your photos, I would say the biggest negative is that they tend to be taken at times other than the golden hour. Early mornings and early evenings have a tendency to produce less harsh light. The yellow flower looks like it has a flat appearance and could probably use a little bump in contrast, at least. The statue image has pretty dark shadows as well and could be bumped up quite a bit.
It does feel like you're getting some under exposure with your images, which is OK as long as you go in a bump up shadows in post.
As far as subject and composition, that, of course, has little to do with the camera and shooting using classic rules and just a lot of practice would be the best advice I could give. If I could recommend a single book, it would be Michael Freeman's The Photographer's Eye -- it's a book that doesn't dwell on settings so much as it does on the vision of the image.
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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help
09-21-2016, 07:52 AM
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I really think photos are in order. The problem is that otherwise people are only guessing at what your struggles are and how to fix them. I own a K3 and have been pretty satisfied with the results I get from it -- the K-1 is better, but in good light situations, they both are pretty good.
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