Catus blossom

[screncurrel]

This picture was taken with a Cannon PowerShot SD800 IS. I just got a Nikon D3000 and am still trying to get used to working with it. Is there any potential for me within the photography world? I am a student and am contemplating pursuing it as a career.

[Chip]

For me, there's too much flash (or some other light source) used in this photo - the flash makes the bloom too bright, and a good bit of the detail is gone. Also, to my eye, there's a bit too much DOF; less DOF would make the bloom stand out more. Narrowing the DOF should be a bit easier not that you have a dSLR.

As for whether or not you can be a professional, I'm sorry but I have no idea. In addition to being a good photographer, a successful pro needs to know how to run a business, get clients, keep them happy, set prices, etc. There's a lot to it.

Welcome to DPS! Hope you enjoy your time here.

[screncurrel]

thanks for the critic. could you define DOS for me? I do not know any of the technical terms but would like to learn. also, how would i adjust the DOS exactly? i now have a nikon d3000

[Chip]

"DOF" is "depth of field". It's the amount of an image that's in acceptably sharp focus. If a part of a photo isn't within the DOF, it's blurry - which can be a very good thing if done on purpose.

[JamesO]

Hi There,

I'm doing a school project where I have to critique people's pictures, so I chose to get a double whammy out of it and actually post my critique to help others improve their photography. My critique might sound a little odd as I'm presenting it to a teacher, but here we go:

Exposure: This picture is a good deal overexposed. If you notice the top of the flower, it is almost a blinding white.

Focus: This is very competitive in your picture, which could be good in some pictures, but not this one. While it might seem a bit strange, the back piece of the cactus is competing for focus with the flower.

Depth of Field: This is the key way to improve this picture – this and angle. Had you lowered your f-stop you could have gotten a smaller depth of field, which would have given the flower more focus and the other parts more blur.

Centered vs. Rule of Thirds: While I’m not sure if you did this on purpose, but you positioned this picture very well. You said you were very new to photography so if you haven’t learned about the Rule of Thirds, you should stop and go do so now. I’ll give a bottom line – imagine 3 horizontal lines intersected 3 vertical lines on your picture. All the lines are evenly spaced and you want your focus to fall on one of the intersections.

Feeling: I’m not sure what the feeling is you want to communicate here, but I’m not really getting much. Maybe if you had a particular feel in mind you could retake this and improve it.


Hope this helps,
James