First post, Please provide feedback on how to improve

[clicknlearn]

Hello All,
I've recently started taking pictures using my Rebel XSi. Here is the link to my flickr album.
Please provide some feedback on how the images could have been improved/composition etc.

Flickr: Big Island Hawaii

All the above pics except the night ones (lava meeting ocean) were taken in Big Island, Hawaii using kit lens.
The night pics were taken using the Canon 55-250mm lens.

Please let me know if I'm missing any obvious information.

[clicknlearn]

I don't know how to control the flare in the night shots. Any advice on that would be really great. I shot them from quite a distance and using the 55-250mm at full telephoto.

[Heatcliff]

you might want to include one of the photos from that gallery and include it in you post. That will make it much more likely you get a response.

[Sime]

I think your framing, in most cases is pretty good... You should post one of the images in the correct critique section and you will get some good feedback.

Welcome to dPS

Sime

[clicknlearn]

Originally Posted by Sime™

I think your framing, in most cases is pretty good... You should post one of the images in the correct critique section and you will get some good feedback.

Welcome to dPS

Sime

Thank you Sime.
I would like to start with the following 2 images. These were taken just after sunset. When I view the image fullsize, it looks blurred. Is there any specific reason for this? Also, how else can I improve this particular shot.

[Aegea]

The framing is good, and the shot has a nice tranquil feeling. It's a pity the sky is not more colorful. As to the sharpness, it looks to me as if the tree in the foreground is sharp, but the distant trees are not. I suspect you focussed on the foreground and did not have enough depth of field.

[jcrazy]

Nice photos eye pleasing comps and colors.

[clicknlearn]

Originally Posted by Aegea

The framing is good, and the shot has a nice tranquil feeling. It's a pity the sky is not more colorful. As to the sharpness, it looks to me as if the tree in the foreground is sharp, but the distant trees are not. I suspect you focussed on the foreground and did not have enough depth of field.

I think it was on auto-focus and the camera selected the closest as the focus point. I switched to manual to control that but then I kept forgetting that it was on manual for my other shots. Thank you.

As for the skycolor, yeah, I was so disappointed that day as it was hazy (so did the other people who came to watch the beautiful sunset.)

If you look my album in the original post, there's another image of the same location but with different settings (no post processing) that came out a bit saturated (?).

@JCrazy - thank you

[BCampbell]

Originally Posted by clicknlearn

I think it was on auto-focus and the camera selected the closest as the focus point. I switched to manual to control that but then I kept forgetting that it was on manual for my other shots. Thank you.

You'll need to pay attention to depth of field too, as Aegea mentioned.

You shot this at f/5.0. Since you're pretty close to the tree in the foreground, your DOF will be too narrow to keep both it and the trees in the background in sharp focus. You would probably want to go to at least f/9, probably f/11, to keep everything in focus. Going to f/9 is about 2 stops, going to f/11 about 2.5. This would bring your shutter speed to somewhere between 1/5 sec and 1/2 sec, which shouldn't be an issue as I assume you're using a tripod already.

I'm curious, the EXIF says you used an off-camera flash, what did you light?

[clicknlearn]

Originally Posted by BCampbell

You'll need to pay attention to depth of field too, as Aegea mentioned.

You shot this at f/5.0. Since you're pretty close to the tree in the foreground, your DOF will be too narrow to keep both it and the trees in the background in sharp focus. You would probably want to go to at least f/9, probably f/11, to keep everything in focus. Going to f/9 is about 2 stops, going to f/11 about 2.5. This would bring your shutter speed to somewhere between 1/5 sec and 1/2 sec, which shouldn't be an issue as I assume you're using a tripod already.

I'm curious, the EXIF says you used an off-camera flash, what did you light?

Thank you Campbell, will keep DoF in mind. I was using a tripod but no off-camera flash. Not sure why it was showing like that. Am I right in saying that I need not use any flash for this particular shot?