Your photos 17

Your photos (17)

Take Better Photos

Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset

Sunset

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with comments from Philip Grosset

This is a mystery object sent to me for review, but with no sender's name or explanation! It looks like a tray, but I assume this is just because it has a border that the sender has printed over - but why?

The result is certainly arresting, but the colours, even though very attractive, look a bit too bright to be really natural. The emphasis of the composition is, rather strangely, on the horse's rump in the middle of the picture - and the horses' heads can hardly be seen. I can't help feeling that a more interesting camera position might have been found. I can't see the point of the border - unless, of course, it really is a tray. It would certainly make a colorful one!

"Id appreciate any comments on this photo, taken with a very cheap aps camera in Costa Rica." (Robert Saldana)

A very cheap camera isn't well suited to scenic shots that require a lot of detail. But the main problems with the picture you sent me (top left) are the lack of foreground interest, and the presence of all that dark and uninteresting beach on the bottom left. I've removed some of it in my version (on the right), and, by increasing the contrast, have focused attention on the most interesting part of the picture: the dramatic sky and the sea. But it would still benefit from some foreground framing!

"Thanks for the comments on the last photograph. Could you do me the honours and say what you think of this one. I could not get any closer as the swans were in the water. I used my 28mm to 300mm at 250mm approx. Regards, Derek Hodgetts"

This is rather too dark to make out. It might have been better to have come down really low so as to include more of the setting behind the swans, so as to make it more obvious that it really was a night shot and not just under-exposed!

It was a nice idea to show the swans' dark heads and necks silhoutted in front of their white bodies - although we don't see them quite clearly enough. But it was worth a try!

Reply from Derek Hodgetts: "Thanks for the advice regarding the swans, I could have altered the photograph using Coral Draw 8, but feel this is a bit like cheating in an exam. Regards Derek."

"Saw your site after recommendation in a Internet Magazine. Please find enclosed 2 pictures of the Dome for you to comment on. Both are scanned from 6x4 prints and taken on a (quite good) compact zoom." (Mark Ward)

Both these photos of the millenium Dome in Greenwich have turned out pretty well. I particularly like the night shot on the left which is quite dramatic. But what they don't provide is any sense of scale - or much in the way of human interest. It was a good idea to include a prominent object to show the vertical (even if it isn't quite vertical when it appears in the bottom left of the picture on the right!), but it might have been more interesting still if some people had been included, even if they were just seen in tiny silhoutte. After all it is the size of the Dome that is meant to be impressive.

Reply from Mark Ward: "Thank you very much - I agree with your comments - I am actually involved in photography and do some Evening Class teaching so your Web Page will come in very useful. Thanks, Mark."

On the left: another anonymous photo (sent to me from an email address that I couldn't reply to!). It took me nearly 10 minutes to download it, as it was a huge 1.8MB! The coloring certainly stands out, but the sky is a little over the top for my taste.I'm not sure whether I'm meant to be looking at it or the scene below it. Also I can't see why this narrow vertical shape was chosen. I prefer my horizontal version on the right, where attention is concentrated on the dramatic seascape, and the result, I think, is much more satisfying. This also introduces more effective foreground framing.

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