Your photos 93

Your photos (93)

Take Better Photos

Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset

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with comments from Philip Grosset

"Hi There, I love taking photos and I found your web site extremely helpful. These 3 photos are some of the best ones I took on my recent European overseas trip,I was wondering whether you would mind critiquing them for me! I was using a Canon compact camera. "cawdor.jpg" is of Cawdor Castle in Scotland. The garden didn't turn out quite as colourful as I hoped, but I am very pleased with the composure of the shot. "cloisters.jpg" is from a ruined abbey (Muckross Abbey) in Ireland. I wanted to get a good view of the tree in the middle through one of the arches, but I couldn't find a good way to fit in both the tree and the arches. The third one "walmer.jpg" is of Walmer Castle near Dover, England. I really like the reflections in the pond on this photo. Thanks," (Raewyn Smith, Auckland, New Zealand.)

Your photo of Cawdor on the left is certainly effective and is attractively composed, but the castle itself seems rather a long way off. On the right, I've slightly cropped the picture to bring it a bit closer. This also gives us a closer look at the flowers, and the castle itself is now near the intersection of thirds which often helps.

Your cloisters picture shows them off effectively enough, but it might be more interesting if either we could have seen through them to what was on the other side, or if you could have shown us a bit more of the interior around them so that we got more of a feel for the location.

The reflections in your photo on the left come out fine, but are a bit lost as they only take up a small part of the picture. On the right I've tried moving in closer to produce a bolder result. This is also helped by moving the arches away from dead centre, and by adding a bit of blue to the sky. For really good landscape shots, you've got to get the weather conditions absolutely right - but I realise that's often not possible when you're touring! Even so, you've produced an interesting set of pictures.

Reply from Raewyn Smith: "Thanks for your comments - wow, you're so fast! I found what you had to say extremely useful. I agree with your suggestions, and your cropping certainly improved the look of my photos. Position objects in the corners of the thirds is something I definitely need to think about when I take pictures - it's very tempting to put the interesting object in the middle. I'm not sure about the blue sky you added! I suppose it makes the shot more attractive to others, but the Walmer Castle I remember was a lot duller! Thanks again."

"Hello, Thanks a lot for letting me send you few of my photos for critique. I am not a proff. photographer. So anything you suggest will only help me improve my techniques. Please critique these pictures. Thanks, Eugene." (Jebakumar Eugene Asirvatham)

Your photo on the left is bright and colorful and you did well to get in so close, but, on the right, I've moved in even closer so as to reduce the black area (it provides a very effective background but there's just a bit too much of it) and to move the flower just slightly off-centre. It's a pity, though, you slightly clipped off a petal at the bottom. It's often more satisfying to leave slightly more space below a picture like this than above it, so just a very little more space below the petals would have helped..

Your photo on the left is quite dramatic, but looks just slightly over-exposed. On the right, I've tried darkening it. You can only discover the best exposure for a shot like this by taking several exposures and learning by trial and error. But it's a good attempt, much helped by the inclusion of the bush in the foreground.

A perfectly pleasing picture, really sharp and colorful, but it might have benefitted from more foreground interest that could have added a greater sense of depth.
Altogether, a very effective set of pictures.

Reply from Jebakumar Eugene Asirvatham: Hi Philip, Thanks a lot for your comments and positive feedback . I will follow your instruction next time when I happen to shoot similar situations . Well you responded very quickly and you have done corrections to the photos in that short span of time . Thanks again. I do have one more question .. out of curiosity.. if you do not mind answering . The photos that I have submitted (or similar ones), can they be sold to Postcard manufacturers or to Stock Photo Agencies for marketing? Do they carry any value at all in that perspective ? Pl let me know. I would appreciate your help on this ..Thanks again for your feedback on my photos. Eugene."

I've no personal experience with these sorts of sales, but would not hold out much hope. However, you could try looking up stock photo agency with a search engine like Google.

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