How to improve?

[xtra]

Hi All,

I recently picked up photography mostly to take pictures of my first kid. Any help to improve my skills would be appreciated.

I really like the picture I've attached but I feel like its missing that certain wow factor I get when I see a picture from a professional. Is it my composition? The post processing? I don't think I'm experienced enough to pinpoint what exactly is missing and I would really like to start creating pictures that will exhibit that "wow" factor.

EOS 60D
55mm
ISO 100
f/4.0
1/500 sec

[autofocus]

Welcome to DPS. I'd have to say it's mostly the composition. The very nice curvy "S" shaped road leads your eye away from your subjects, and out of the frame. BTW, lines that form an "S" are great to use in your compositions when they are available. If you would have setup your wife and baby onto that road surface, and more on the left side of the frame, you would have had a better composition...the lines would have led to them instead of competing with them. Turning your baby's face more toward the camera, also, would have helped

[autofocus]

As a beginner, you'll have to learn to look both beyond and in front of the subject in order to place them, and yourself in a position that works best for your composition. It boils down to "seeing" and 'visualizing" the entire picture, and not just the subject. This is not always the easiest thing to learn, but it usually comes with time...keep shooting

[spazoid1965]

Originally Posted by autofocus

Welcome to DPS. I'd have to say it's mostly the composition. The very nice curvy "S" shaped road leads your eye away from your subjects, and out of the frame. BTW, lines that form an "S" are great to use in your compositions when they are available. If you would have setup your wife and baby onto that road surface, and more on the left side of the frame, you would have had a better composition...the lines would have led to them instead of competing with them. Turning your baby's face more toward the camera, also, would have helped

I have to agree with Autofocus on this one. The road grabbed my eyes before the people did. He had mentioned moving the people to the paved surface. By doing this her hair and outfit would stand out more from background. The trees growing out of the lady's head was a little distracting to me.

[xtra]

Thanks for all your feedback. To be frank, I'm having a little trouble understanding why putting my wife on the other side of the path would make the path less distracting? You say "The very nice curvy "S" shaped road leads your eye away from your subjects, and out of the frame" but doesn't it do that no matter which side she stands on? Maybe it's just something I have to try out and see to understand.

Also, is it a general rule in portrait composition to make the background directly behind the subject less busy as to not to distract from the subject?

[ajax_andy]

Originally Posted by xtra

Thanks for all your feedback. To be frank, I'm having a little trouble understanding why putting my wife on the other side of the path would make the path less distracting? You say "The very nice curvy "S" shaped road leads your eye away from your subjects, and out of the frame" but doesn't it do that no matter which side she stands on? Maybe it's just something I have to try out and see to understand.

Also, is it a general rule in portrait composition to make the background directly behind the subject less busy as to not to distract from the subject?

Lines are a wonderful tool to use in photography.

With this example if you'd moved them on to the road and shot so that the road led to them it would draw the viewer to the subjects. The eyes automatically follow lines so any that lead you to a subject are a powerful way of drawing the viewer to particular part of a photograph.

Now if they then carried on out from behind them and off in to the distance then yes it might not work all that great, and this is where depth of field comes in to play... a nice blurred background will give the picture a sense of depth, but as the road blurs and fades it doesn't make the eye wander off past the subjects.

This rule can always be bent to include the sense of "travelling" if you wanted too. i.e.



Or to draw your attention to something in the image that is of significance:



But more often than not you'll want to blur the lines leading out of the picture to minimise the eyes being drawn away from the subjects



I hope you dont mind me including some of my own pics in this reply, but sometimes I think it helps to have a visual explanation / example.

With regards backgrounds they are every bit as important as foregrounds in photographs... a busy background distracts from the subject... think of a studio shoot, they generally use plain white or black backgrounds, so why do they do this? So nothing competes with the subject for attention.

[Sweetlifephoto]

Welcome xtra!

I agree with the comments already posted and they are all excellent points. Not to be too simplistic but you can start doing a couple of things to give your images more of an impact and to develop your "visual approach". 1.) Start moving either closer or farther away from your subject than you think you should. This gets you considering the subject to background relationship in a new way - experiment with this. 2.) Change your point of view to the subject - Lie on the ground, squat, get on a retaining wall or hold the camera over your head.

Most importantly shoot a lot and don't be afraid to play around and even if you make stuff that is just plain bad don't worry you learned something about what you like and don't like in your images and can apply it the next time. Oh and did I already say shoot alot?

[autofocus]

As you spend time here on DPS you will hear terms used, one that you will hear often is "leading lines." In my examples below you will see how to take advantage of these lines to draw your viewer into the frame. However, lines can also draw the viewer out of the frame, so you need to be conscious of that when you compose, or recompose in post processing. See how the curve of the shoreline leads your eye to the boat in my first example

Connemara Galway Ireland by vmontalbano, on Flickr

Another example as to how the road lines and the angled roof tops lead your eye onto the subject truck

Cong Village by vmontalbano, on Flickr

[xtra]

Wow, thanks for all the feedback.

Another question I have is how do you guys make your colors pop? The example photos you guys posted are amazing. I'm not sure what exactly it is but the color or sharpness is just so much clearer in your picture than mine. What is the difference?

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by xtra

Wow, thanks for all the feedback.

Another question I have is how do you guys make your colors pop? The example photos you guys posted are amazing. I'm not sure what exactly it is but the color or sharpness is just so much clearer in your picture than mine. What is the difference?

For starters, what are you using to do your post processing?