 Kathy Radford |
Please critique Hi everyone, I need some help? Many of the photo books I have read all mention to develop your own unique style. Can you determine what my unique style is? Also I need to know what my strengths and weaknessses are so I can improve. Please tell me what needs the most improvement and what are my strong points. Everyone here is so helpful and I really value your opinions. Please help and I will be forever grateful. Kathy in NH
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Irene Troy |
Hi Kathy – I looked through your gallery and can offer a few observations; however, don’t think I’m an expert, but any means. BTW: I live only about thirty minutes from Kingston, so I know the area pretty well. My first observation is that you are making some mistakes that are very common; you are making many of your images in mid-day. The light of mid-day is very difficult for creating WOW images. The light of early morning and late day is much more powerful and beautiful for almost every outdoor subject. Living where we do, you know that in summer light can be pretty nasty due to the haze and/or fog that is a part of our summers. I often go out to shoot around dawn because that is when the light has the best chance of being good. Some evenings, on the days when there is little haze, I head out to capture the dying light and the golden glow of sunset. Your images of the White Mountains would be much improved by choosing your timing better and also using a polarizer and/or neutral density filter. Again, the haze that often hangs over these mountains during the summer months can make shooting good images difficult. In the fall – when the colors are so dramatic, consider using the circular polarizer to punch up the blue of the skies and again, try shooting early/late day. I have also found that when the skies are partly cloudy that the fall colors tend to really pop. Another thing I notice is that you tend to center your subject in the frame. You might want to try shooting so that your subject is not a “bull’s eye”. This is often much more dramatic and interesting to the eye. I have a stupid question: your images of “sheep” look like goats to me – am I nuts? Well, maybe! I do a lot of flower photography and have discovered a few tricks; not to be so repetitive, but…flower colors wash out as the sun raise higher in the sky. Another idea is to get a little closer to the flower and use a tripod so that the image is really sharp. When colors are off the image often looks less than sharp. I like your “seagull sunrise”! I love sunrise at the beach [I live about 5 minutes from Plum Island] and like you, I all too often shoot across water and end up with tilted horizons. One trick is to take a final glance through your viewfinder to make sure that the horizon lines up even on either side. Also, try eliminating anything that does not add to the image – in your case, I think you could crop some of the beach since it is mostly a black nothing. I love “Breakfast is ready”! Now that is getting wonderful light! I hope some of this helps to point you in a good direction. Best of luck with your photography and, please, post some more images as you keep working. Irene
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Kathy Radford |
Hi Irene, Thanks for your great critique. It is really helpful. I have checked out about getting a filter, Manuel also suggested that. Because Sony bought out Konica Minolta, they do not support any filters. I checked with Ritz Camera where I bought the camera and he gave me a web site to try for the ring. Then he has the filters to fit it. So I'm working on that. The time of day I have been working on. My husband usually goes with me when I am shooting up North. Unfortunately he is not a morning person so I don't get out early with him. The sunrise I went by myself and got up very early and drove to the beach myself. I have been trying to time them better but haven't been very successful. That I have to work on more. The shots I took in Kensington were all taken approx. an hour before sunset. Your right about the haze mid day around here. I do like shooting in overcast weather. The Swift River Covered Bridge was taken around 5:30 pm. One thing you mentioned that many were centered. I didn't realize I had that many centered I usually try not to center. I'll have to watch that more. Yes they are sheep. I only have one goat photo and that is the one I found when I went to Nubble Light to shoot the lighthouse. The goat has a hat on. All the others are sheep. I'll have to go back to make sure I didn't mislabel it. The "breakfast is ready" was taken with the early morning sun and shadows shinning in my sliding door in my kitchen. The lighting was so beautiful that morning I made the breakfast just to take advantage of the light. Glad you liked it. My husband gave me a tripod for Christmas, I want to start using it on the flowers as well as other shots. Thanks for taking the time to view my gallery and respond, you have been very helpful. That's one of the reasons I love this site so much. You people here are so helpful. I really appreciate it.
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