Wanting feedback please

[audison06]

I'm kinda scared to post here but i'm gonna anyways. I'd like to know what i'm doing wrong, what i'm doing right (if anything. lol) and what i can do to fix it. I use mainly the auto settings.



Camera: Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 11.6 mm
ISO Speed: 80
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Auto, Did not fire

[windrider86]

One thing to always be careful of is cropping off limbs at the joint. Next time have her hold her ankle or bring her arm more in front so it isnt cut off.
Adorable child!!

[vjhoward]

Cute kid. Nice catch on the great expression. Watch the composition. Find what you want people to see in the photo and make sure your composition leads their eyes to that spot. The tree as the whole background is difficult. I tried that in a number of shots and the bark (if taking up the whole background) seemed to work against me. Brick walls work great. Or set her away from a background (i.e. shrubs) and use your aperture to create a shallow depth of field to blur it out. Color seems a little cool. You could warm it up a bit. Watch your white balance settings.

You have a great subject. Keep shooting and experimenting. Digital makes learning cheap.

[ML Photography]

You already received such nice advices, and I agree with the two gentlemen who preceded me.
Now forget about the auto settings and gain control of your images!!!

[dinkybear]

I really like the tilt of the little girls head. it brings in emotion to the photo. nice job!

one thing i would suggest again, is like ML photography said - get rid of the auto and play around with the manual settings! it makes a HUGE difference in your images. to do this, i would take a day or two with "unimportant" subjects. when i say that, i mean something that if it doesn't turn out, oh well. make these your practice subjects and just get a feel for the manual settings. it's fun once you get the hang of it! also, try taking several shots with different setting changes (ie, ISO 100, 200, 400, etc).

only other thing i would comment on in regards to chopping things off, is the head. i think to embrace the full emotional response you need to see the whole head as it's tilted.

overall, great image! keep up the great work and have fun experimenting with manual settings!

[swilliams61]

She is just too cute!!!! I agree with all that was said above. One bad habit I'm still trying to break myself of is cropping too close in the camera. Leave some room around the subject; you can always crop later! That way you don't have to worry about unintentionally cropping off limbs in awkward places!