Need advice

SimpsonBrothers

Can you take a quick look at my photos and let me know what you think?
http://simpsonbrothers.smugmug.com/popular/
I'm looking for some advice to improve on.

Thanks in advance.
Kyle

justin24

Ummm They are Freaking BEAUTIFUL!

SimpsonBrothers

justin24 wrote:

Ummm They are Freaking BEAUTIFUL!

Thank you, that is nice to hear....but I was looking for more of a critique of them, or maybe something I should be doing better or different...

justin24

I really cant Critique them when I see nothing wrong, well for me anyways. I was looking at your sight and there is a shot of the GG bridge from Presidio Beach with the moon in the background. Was that added in?

SimpsonBrothers

justin24 wrote:

I really cant Critique them when I see nothing wrong, well for me anyways. I was looking at your sight and there is a shot of the GG bridge from Presidio Beach with the moon in the background. Was that added in?

Yes.

squirl033

SimpsonBrothers wrote:

Can you take a quick look at my photos and let me know what you think?
http://simpsonbrothers.smugmug.com/popular/
I'm looking for some advice to improve on.

Thanks in advance.
Kyle

Kyle, you have 34 pages of photos on your site... that's an awful lot. if you have a specific photo you'd like evaluated, or maybe 2 or 3, that'd be one thing, but it's pretty much impossible to critique 500 images...

SimpsonBrothers

squirl033 wrote:

Kyle, you have 34 pages of photos on your site... that's an awful lot. if you have a specific photo you'd like evaluated, or maybe 2 or 3, that'd be one thing, but it's pretty much impossible to critique 500 images...

good point.

acowan

Kyle,

I looked through most of your pictures and paid the most attention to your landscape shot since I assume its those pictures that you're asking advice on. Landscape shots aren't limited to a certain time of day but usually the best light is around sunrise and sunset. What some people fail to realize (and myself at times) is that the best of the best light is during Civil Twilight which is roughly 30 minutes before sunrise and after sunset. This allows for warm yet soft light and leads to subtle shadow detail rather than harsher contrast. A couple shots you had from Laguna Beach seemed to be shot around this time frame. You'll still have nice clouds (not as radiant at sunset/sunrise) but quality of light is still exceptional.

I also noticed a few sunset shots over the ocean. While the sun dropping below the horizon is nice these photos would be nicer if there was some foreground element. I've found that having at least two elements/subjects in the frame works well. More subjects aren't necessarily determintal but only one subject usually falls short. Also, make sure you either try HDR or use graduated neutral density filters when taking ocean sunset shots so that detail is retained in the foreground (rather than it being close to or pure black).

Most importantly always be looking around when the light is nice. It's easy to get stuck on one composition while totally being unaware of something to your right, left or behind. My telling you these things doesn't mean I've mastered them. I'm constantly reading books, looking at photos on this site, other sites and innumerable books all in an effort to sharpen my eye towards seeing and learning what makes a photo really stand out. Hopefully some of this helps...

SimpsonBrothers

acowan wrote:

Kyle,

I looked through most of your pictures and paid the most attention to your landscape shot since I assume its those pictures that you're asking advice on. Landscape shots aren't limited to a certain time of day but usually the best light is around sunrise and sunset. What some people fail to realize (and myself at times) is that the best of the best light is during Civil Twilight which is roughly 30 minutes before sunrise and after sunset. This allows for warm yet soft light and leads to subtle shadow detail rather than harsher contrast. A couple shots you had from Laguna Beach seemed to be shot around this time frame. You'll still have nice clouds (not as radiant at sunset/sunrise) but quality of light is still exceptional.

I also noticed a few sunset shots over the ocean. While the sun dropping below the horizon is nice these photos would be nicer if there was some foreground element. I've found that having at least two elements/subjects in the frame works well. More subjects aren't necessarily determintal but only one subject usually falls short. Also, make sure you either try HDR or use graduated neutral density filters when taking ocean sunset shots so that detail is retained in the foreground (rather than it being close to or pure black).

Most importantly always be looking around when the light is nice. It's easy to get stuck on one composition while totally being unaware of something to your right, left or behind. My telling you these things doesn't mean I've mastered them. I'm constantly reading books, looking at photos on this site, other sites and innumerable books all in an effort to sharpen my eye towards seeing and learning what makes a photo really stand out. Hopefully some of this helps...

Thank you! That is what I was looking for!

CWSkopec

I agree with the others, it's vastly more productive to have folks critique a couple photos than a gallery full of differing subjects. Double tough since it's your popular gallery and the viewer skips from a landscape to the rock crawler and back again.

One set that stood out as I glanced through is Laguna Beach. You've got a couple in there that look like they're from sunset/twilight but a bunch of them are from even later and you've got what looks like streetlights lighting the rocks in the foreground. I'd suggest trying similar shots farther from the man-made light. You'll get longer exposures, but a more natural looking shot. A full moon would help as well to cut exposures down and still provide a dark, dreamy kind of feel.

Also I'm a sucker for long exposures over water!

Your shots of Santa Cruz Natural Bridges are gorgeous! They made me google is just to see how long of a drive it might be! Sadly I don't think it'll be a day trip, but it's now on the bucket list! Really nice work on those!