Your photos 72

Your photos (72)

Take Better Photos

Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset

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with comments from Philip Grosset

"Hi Philip, Attached are a few pictures from a recent trip to Paris and Barcelona. They were taken with an Olympus digital camera. I enhanced some of the photos based on some of your tips (thank you), and I wanted to know if I'm on the right track. Thanks for your feedback. Regards." (Eric Ignacio, San Ramon, CA, USA

No. it's not a snail (on the left), but a really imaginative view of an old stone staircase. I particularly like the use of natural light as opposed to flash. It captures the feel of the place very well. On the right: this view from the tower is, I think, less successful because, although foreground framing is usually a very good idea, there is rather too much of it here. The result is we don't quite know whether we are meant to be looking at the wall or the view. It might be more satisfying either to move forward a bit to concentrate on the view, or move back to show us more of the foreground.

I presume your photo on the left was taken using a wide angle setting - hence the sloping wall on the left! One solution might have been to have taken the picture from much further away, but use a telephoto setting, but this may not have been possible. You have lined up the camera so that the wall on the right is vertical. It might have been better to have gone for the most interesting part of the scene (the bridge) and concentrate on making it really horizontal, as in my version in the middle. Both walls now slope in, but the effect isn't unpleasing. On the extreme right, I've also tried using the Edit/Transform/Perspective tool on Photoshop to reduce the sloping walls effect.

The lights of Paris show up well, but the long exposure has surely made the sky (in your picture on the left) too blue. On the right, I've tried moving in closer to concentrate attention on the street, and I've also straightened up the picture a little so that the tower in the right foreground is more vertical. But you're certainly on the right track!

Reply from Eric Ignacio: "Thank you very much. Your website is very informative. Keep up the good work. Best regards, Eric."

"Please find attached a couple of photos of the disused Brighton Pier on the south coast of England. Both were taken with a Canon EOS 50E with polarizing filter, and on one I used a sunset filter. Thank you'." (Alan Oliver, York, England)

These are quite attractive pictures, although they both look a little unreal. I'm left wondering what the scene would have looked like without either filter, as it might have made an interesting comparison! I think a real sunset (with the sun low in the sky) would have looked more dramatic. I prefer the more colorful photo on the right but the blue sky doesn't seem to match the dark foreground, and....

....I'd have come in just a fraction closer, as here, so as to avoid having the pier quite so near the middle of the picture. This also reduces the amount of blue sky, and produces more of a derelict, gloomy impression - but this may not be what you want!

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