Critique a newbie's pic!

helkat

Very new to photography in general...trying to get out of auto mode on my new-to-me 20D.

Here is a pic I took of my daughter running toward me today. I was in Av mode f/1.8 50mm with AI Servo.

What would you have done differently?

ETA: I haven't learned anything about composition yet...I am just trying to get shooting down!



Thanks
Helga

Izzy Garavito

Hi Helga, and welcome to Dgrin

for not knowing much it's actually really good. I can't really find anything inherently wrong with it. It seems a bit soft but nothing that couldn't be fixed in post. I think you did a good job in the blurring of the background (not too much so we can still see some detail and give the picture context, but enough that we concentrate on the little lady.

you could do some nice work on it with photoshop--fix the white balance, skin tones, make her eyes pop, work with the colors a bit, crop, etc. to make it even better.

It's a good spontaneous capture--I can see her personality and it has some good potential.

If you want some serious feeback, try the whipping post!

Izzy

Seneca

helkat wrote:

Very new to photography in general...trying to get out of auto mode on my new-to-me 20D.

Here is a pic I took of my daughter running toward me today. I was in Av mode f/1.8 50mm with AI Servo.

What would you have done differently?

ETA: I haven't learned anything about composition yet...I am just trying to get shooting down!

Thanks
Helga

First of all WELCOME!!!

Now for the image comments ;this is a precious child...so beautiful! I see some things that need to be worked on. Your WB is way off - it's giving somewhat of a Tungstun look. So make sure you have it set to AWB. Next, it appears that your focus point is somewhere around her pink lace. Try and focus right between the eyes. This image is soft...you need to capture those adorable blue eyes. I'm a sucker for blue or green eyes.

I believe 1.8 is too much for that time of day. JMHO. Try somewhere around F4 (with 1/125)...Your image looks a little blown out.

Composition will come later...just look at lots of magazines for ideas. For now just start shooting and just have fun. Shoot different Fstops and see what happens. You learn just by shooting alot. So go for it.

Take care.

SloYerRoll

Just to add to what Seneca said so you don't get lost in the talk.

f1.8 is your aperture. The lower the f-number, the more narrow your Depth of FIELD (DoF or DOF) is. So if you "opened up" your aperture to f4-4.5 the entire girl would have been in focus (AKA: sharp). Another great reason for not going very narrow w/ DOF is in case your Auto Focus (AF) locks onto the wrong point like it did here.

The white balance can easily be fixed w/ an editing program. So that's not a major concern. It's always best to monkey w/ your pics as little as possible unless you are a Photoshop (Ps) junkie. Editing pictures after you get them onto your computer (called "Ingestion"), editing them is called Post Production (PP).

So what kind of editing software do you have? If you don't have any and don't want to shell out more dough. No worries. There are free alternatives out there. And also some fantastic deals for SmugMug members. Click on this link if you want to know what all the hype is about on SmugMug. Using this link will get you 5 bucks off your first subscription if you choose to get an account. Don't worry, you can check the account out free for 14 days w/o a credit card to make sure you like it

Post some more shots and ask specific questions. There are TONS of ppl in here that love photography as much as you and are willing to help out.

Cheers,
-Jon

RandySmugMug

composition is great
maybe sharpen a little
wb is not that bad IMO