Your photos (154)


Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset



If you'd like to submit photos for criticism,
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with comments from Philip Grosset




"I have just bought my first digital camera. Its an Olympus 2040z. Today I managed to shoot my 5 year old daughter when she wasn`t looking. What do you think? I am a complete novice wanting to learn. Any tips? I live in Cheshire England. Many thanks." ( Ian Draper)
Girl
Girl in b&w
You sent me this photo in both color and b&w. I prefer the color picture on the left as the b&w version on the right only makes it look more washed out. In both cases, the inclusion of so much of the very dark background has caused some over exposure of your daughter, so in my version below ....
Girl cropped
I've tried to restore some of the color, and I've also removed the large empty dark area on the left of your original picture. I think this makes an attractive off-the-cuff photo of your daughter. The great advantage of using digital with children is that you can just go on and on until you get what you want!




"I don't know if I can say what I was trying to accomplish except that the 2 black and whites were taken at a 50's party that we had at work and I thought that black & white would be better because that is what they used back then. I take digitals with my Sony Mavica in the highest resolution so that I can get better print quality. Guess I just wanted to know if I have any talent or how to improve when taking pics. Thank you." (Janet Crouch)
Portrait
Portrait cropped
I like the portrait on the left, but think it would be even better without the nose/mouth in the top left corner, and the figure in the right background, as shown on the right. This works fine in b&w but it is usually worth taking shots like this in color then you can subsequently convert them to b&w if you want to. This way, you can make a straight comparison between the two versions before deciding which one to go for. In this case, I guess you'd still go for the b&w white one which makes a fine picture.
Couple This is fun too, but you might as well crop away some of the light area at the top of the picture, as having too much of it distracts attention. But having some of it it makes for a happy feeling.

Rose cropped
Rose
Your rose picture on the left is certainly attractive, but looks rather like a lot of other rose pictures - not that this need worry you too much. Crop away some of the greenery and move the middle of the rose just slightly off-centre, as on the right, and its appeal increases. It was a good idea having the background out of focus - and also including the dew, whether real or applied!

Altogether a very successful set of photos.




"Hello, I was hoping you could give me some advice on some of my photos.  I just recently got into photography and love it.  This picture I am sending you was taken of Cook Inlet in Anchorage, Alaska, where I live.  Have any suggestions on how I can make this a better picture. Thanks!!!" (Patricia, Anchorage, Alaska)
Coast cropped
Coast
Your photo on the left is of a scene that probably looked very impressive when you saw it, but is difficult to photograph. You did your best to include some foreground framing, but, as it stands, there is no obvious main point of interest, and it just gives the feeling of a large and not very interesting empty space. You really need to pick out the most dramatic part of an area like this, then concentrate on it, as I have tried to do in my experiment on the right. I've also moved the horizon to a third of the way down the picture (which is a more effective position for it than having it nearly in the middle), and I've made the picture more contrasty so as to simulate more dramatic lighting conditions. It would have been better, though, if the pools in the foreground (which in this version are the main points of interest) had been more sharply in focus.




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