Your photos 7

Your photos (7)

Take Better Photos

Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset

Sunset

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with comments from Philip Grosset

"Hello. I took these pictures at a NASCAR race in October, 1999. I was forced to shoot through a small space between the bottom of the safety fence and the wall. Getting position was not the easiest thing to do. The one got just slightly out of focus. I used a Minolta XTsi with a 70-300 AF lens at 300MM and used the portrait mode plus 2.5 stops of exposure compensation. I'd appreciate any comments.
I've included one picture with the driver in the car. My main questioning on this one is if the camera's built in flash would have brightened up the inside? They got much too dark compaired to what I saw through the lens. The distance was approximately 15-20 feet.
Thanks." Larry Adam.

Considering the difficulties, this a is a pretty successful photo. All I can suggest is you might like .....

.... to crop it a bit more tightly. I've kept in more space behind his head than I'd usually do, as this helps to establish the background.

As you say, this one is out of focus. You can get this sort of effect by using a long telephoto without a firm enough support. I realise you didn't have much choice! You did very well (or were very lucky!) to get the picture above!

A built-in flash wouldn't really be of any use at a distance of 15-20ft. But the real problem here is that you're not at the right angle to see either the driver's face or enough of the interior of the car to make it interesting.

Reply from Larry Adam: "Thanks for the comments on the photos. Good and constructive. Were appreciated. I since played with some cropping and adjusting on some (as far as with my PC). Not being able to get to a track that sells "Pit Passes" makes getting good shots rather difficult. Seems no matter where you go, you either can't get close enough or the fence is in the way. Those shots of the driver (out of the car) were what I had planned and I staked out my location for an hour waiting for the drivers to get to their cars. The out of focus on the one was my fault ( I was using manual focus and just screwed up). I have noticed that, overall, my pictures seem to be getting better. The driver pictures inside the car may not have much meaning to someone else but they do for me. I was just hoping they would come out a little better but for keepsakes they will do. Thanks again for the evaluations. Have a Nice Day.'"

"Would like to hear your comments on these photos. Pamela Chua, Singapore."

This is a very attractive photo, with very pleasing soft matching colours. All I'd suggest is that you could have got in in closer ....

.... like this. This way, you concentrate on the most important parts of the picture (the face and hands), and the baby no longer seems to be slipping out of the top left of the picture. Your oblique camera angle introduces just slight distortion, so it might have been even better to have looked down on the baby from directly above it.

The photo on the right is a bit of a muddle. There's empty space on each side of the young men, and one is partly blocking the other.

You can remove the empty spaces, but the figure in the background looks ill at ease. If only he'd been a bit to the left, and been encouraged to look happier and really made part of the scene....

A very happy and effective picture. Perhaps it would have been even better if the girl with the bat had been on the right hand side of the picture so as to leave more space for her to hit the ball. But then the people in the right background would have had to be moved into the centre background ....and all this doesn't sound very practical, does it?

Now go on to YOUR PHOTOS (10)

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