Your photos 71

Your photos (71)

Take Better Photos

Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset

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with comments from Philip Grosset

"Hi there, Any comments, criticism, advice on the attached picture is appreciated. This picture was taken along Pacific Coast Highway on my way home from San Francisco. I basically was interested in shooting the waves as it move to shore. I remember taking the picture with a tripod and bracketing 1 stop down and 1 stop up using the Evaluative Meetering on my Elan II. I also remember attaching a gray graduated neutral density filter on my lense, but all three exposure taken was unrecorded. I have been doing photography for about 1 1/2 year now, specifically on landscape as my main interest. Your website is so great, it is very direct to the point on each presented topic(s). Thanks for your time!" (Jay Lontoc)

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You've taken a very effective photo (on the left), with fine dramatic coloring, but there's rather more black foreground framing than you need. On the right, I've reduced it so that the horizon remains about a third of the way down from the top, but the sea now comes to a third of the way up from the bottom. To concentrate attention on the waves, I'd be inclined to move to a closer viewpoint - but I appreciate this may not have been possible!

"Hi Philip,I just found your website tonight and find the comments you have for people r/t their own photos very interesting and very helpful. Please keep adding to that aspect of your page. I would like to send you a few photos myself. I have enjoyed taking photographs for several years now but have never had any formal photography education. At times, I feel I have an "eye" for composition - others times I'm not so sure............but I would be curious and appreciative as to your thoughts. I primarily love landscape photography, especially lighthouses. I will send all four in succession but please feel free to view and review them at your convenience. Thank you so much for this opportunity and for your interesting and helpful website
The first photo is of the Delaware Breakwater Light in the dead of winter. It almost make me shiver to look at this photo but maybe it's just my memory of how cold it was that day..........
The second photo was taken with color film and black and white was applied with photodeluxe software. What do you think? (both of the photo and of the computerized black and white effect?)
I seemed to have been able to catch the sunset at just the right moment for the silhouette in the third picture.
Ok, final photo. This was a lighthouse near Lubec, Maine, which is the easternmost point of the US. Another cold day. The cold turned out beautifully. What do you think? And how could I have made the lighthouse sharper?
Thanks so much for all your input. I actually have one more that I would love for you to see but it's not scanned and I know you have a "4 only"rule................if you change that rule at any point, let me know {:-) Thanks again so much! (Linda Kendall, Richmond, Virginia)

This looks an attractive scene, but I'm afraid I can't quite see enough of it to say much about it! If you really have to photograph a picture in a frame, set up the camera immediately opposite it (not looking down on it at an angle, as here), and come in closer, Watch out for reflections - and don't use flash.

This is an interesting old bridge, but on the right I've tried moving it off-centre and coming in closer. I think this makes it look just a bit more dramatic. I'm not too sure if it was a good idea to change it to b&w, as I suspect it might have looked even more attractive in color! Of course, if you were aiming for a historical feel to it, it might have been even better if you could have included someone driving a cart along the road! Easier said than done?

This is by far the most successful of these photos. I like your version (on the left), but like it even more if you move in just a little closer, as on the right. This is a really effective use of the silhouetted windmill, and, as you say, you've caught the sun at just the right moment. Well done!

An interesting idea, but the lighthouse is rather far away so attention is concentrated on the foreground and this isn't quite in focus. Perhaps if you could have used a telephoto setting from further away, you would have been able to make the lighthouse look as though it were closer to the foreground.

Reply from Linda Kendall: "Yikes!!! Seems I sent you the wrong photo (the one in the frame!!!). I'm sending the actual photo now altho since you've already posted the framed one on your website, you may not care about seeing the photo itself. If possible, maybe you could send me a brief comment about the actual photo itself? Thanks! Thanks so much for your comments!!! I can't believe how quickly you responded!!! And once again, thanks so much for your site - it is extremely helpful!!!! Last note....Have you seen the book "God Is At Eye Level" by Jan Phillips? It is EXCELLENT, both in terms of general photographic technique suggestions as well as what the experience of photography is all about, even on a spiritual level. It is a very powerful book. Thanks again for everything!"

Now I can see it properly, this is a really attractive picture, with imaginative foreground framing provided by the trees, and delicate colors. Of course, the lighthouse is so far away, you can't really make out what it is - but nevertheless it's a very pleasing scene.

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