Cafe

[eelave]

Hi, I intended to create a relaxing feel with the pic in this cafe. hope you could advise on how to improve the pic like if the pic is too dark/yellowish or the composition is too messy. Thanks.



Cam: FujiFilm finepix S1000fd
Shutter: 1/30
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 6mm
ISO: 200
Flash: off

[Vagebond]

I don't mean to be harsh, but I think a good photo should have a subject and I can't find a subject here. To me, it looks more like you hit the shutter button by accident. A messy composition, yes. The red sweater takes up about a quarter of the photo, a person's back. The two people in the back, eating and seemingly having an animated conversation, with the painting (?) above them, might have made a more interesting shot, I don't know.

When taking indoor pictures you might want to check the white balance, if that's possible with your camera. Flourescent lights, incandescent lightbulbs etc. give a colour cast to photo's, ands for some reason "Auto" seldom seems to work, possibly because of mixed light sources. So check if you can change it in your camera, or it can be corrected in "post processing".

Again, I don't mean to be harsh and I'm certainly not an expert so don't let this discourage you. You can learn a lot reading this section of the forum. And keep on shooting!

[eelave]

Appreciate your suggestions and sharing with me your views

My intention is to contrast the gal in red in quiet study with the animated conversations of the 2 lady in the background, hoping to show the things people could do in the cafe.

I set the white balance to "shade" to give a more yellowish tone to the pic and include the painting on the high ceiling in hope to have a relaxing feel of the cafe. Sadly I guess I did not portray everything well.

After reading your comments, I think I could give a better focus on the gal in red (let me try using macro) or the 2 lady in conversation(will try decrease aperture) and blurring out the surrounding to emphasize on a subject . And perhaps a lower shutter to increase the exposure to make it look brighter while retaining the yellowish tone (trying to mimic the feel of van gogh "cafe terrace at Night" painting, hahaha but think not successful).

Hopefully i could clear out the messy background (the chair in front and ventilation window behind) with Photoshop. I am a photoshop idiot, but i will start learning now.

Thanks for the comments, will continue to improve my next take