Your photos 96

Your photos (96)

Take Better Photos

Hints and tips
by Philip Grosset

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with comments from Philip Grosset

"Here are a couple of photos of my Utah Highway Patrol Cars, that I had thought were not to bad. But After my visit to your web site I can see that I have a ways to go. I have learned a few things and have a better idea of what I need to do when I re take these shots. But I would like your opinion and thoughts on these so as not to miss any techniques of ideas. I have a Minolta 35mm SLR and a Sony Digital Camera that I use. I mostly take photos of Police Cars. The photos were taken in my driveway in Benjamin, Utah, looking east towards the mountains. " (Craig T Johnson)

Your photo on the left might be improved if you moved in closer, as I have done on the right. This now features the car more strongly, and removes that awkward empty space down the right-hand side.

The car, in your photo on the left, seems perched right in the middle of the picture. On the right, I've again moved in a bit closer, but also left a little more space in fron of the car than behind it. This is always a good idea with any moving object.

These two photos are less effective because the cars don't stand out so well from the background. The one on the left could be improved by cropping away the extreme right of the picture so as, again, to leave more space in front of the car than behind it.
The photo on the right could be improved by cropping away all that empty space at the bottom.
I'm not quite sure why you concentrate on patrol cars, but one way of taking this further would be to show each car in a series of photos, with close-ups of particularly interesting parts. It would add human interest if we could sometimes see the drivers too - but perhaps this would present difficulties!

Reply from Craig T Johnson: "Philip, I thank you for the quick response and the advise. I appreciate it greatly. As to why I am interested in police cars, I have always liked them. I am a car collector and like Highway Patrol Cars and Police vehicles in general. I belong to two car clubs that have members world wide and will be attending a national car show in Kansas City, MO. in August. I hope to improve my skills and take some real quality photographs. I will add UHP Trooper in full uniform in the next pictures."

"Hello, I saw your site mentioned in .Net magazine and thought I'd check it out. Very useful and well designed. Anyway, attached are some photos for your critique from our recent trip to Malaysia. The first is of the central courts, with the KL Tower and the Petronas Towers (the world's tallest building,) in the background. 3 of the city's main sightseeing spots. The second is of the sunset on Langkawi Island, and the third is of the Petronas Towers just after a beautiful sunset. Hope you like them? I use a Canon 'Eos 7' though I think this might have a different name in the UK, with a 28/105 canon USM lens, and I've been taking pictures for about 2 years now. Regards." (Nic Cleave, living and working in Osaka, Japan)

Your photo on the left certainly shows all you wanted, but the tower block on the left seems to be slightly tilting over to the right. There's also rather a lot to see in this picture, so the total effect is just a little confusing. On the right, I've tried leaving out the building on the right in an attempt to strengthen the composition. I've also tried to straighten out the leaning building.

I like your sunset photo, and am interested to see how you very effectively positioned it at the intersection of thirds. A dramatic and pleasing picture.

Another striking picture, but the horizontal format seems to be fighting the shape of the towers, so, on the right, I've changed to a vertical format that also allows me to move in closer so as to show them more clearly. The towers seem to be converging towards the top, presumably the result of using a wide angle lens setting, so I've also tried to straighten them out. The simplest way of avoiding this sort of distortion is to use a longer focal length setting from further away - but I realise this may not have been possible.

Reply from Nic Cleave: "Thanks for your quick reply. With the first picture I understand what you mean about there being a lot to see, but my intention was to include the 3 main famous sights of Kuala Lumpur city in the one photograph (the Kuala Lumpur central court buildings, the KL Telecommunications tower and the Petronas Towers in the distant background.) For that reason I still prefer the original.
I agree with you about the sunset, it's a very pleasing picture and I've already had many requests for enlarged versions. As for the third picture of the Petronas Towers at dusk, I agree with you again that the landscape format appears to be fighting the portrait shape of the towers themselves, and you're right about the viewpoint, it was impossible to change the vantage point as we'd checked it out earlier in the day on our reconnaissance trip. Anyway I've sent you another picture I took later in complete darkness, from a different (closer) viewpoint. What do you think?

Talk about the Leaning Tower of Pisa! The vertical format works well, but the closer viewpoint makes the towers lean over in an alarming way. I really prefer your earlier version where the dark blue sky produces a more colorful result.

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