Newbie in need of critique.

[AIRider]

Hi fellas,

Got my camera the other day, and started experimenting a little. Needless to say, I have fallen in love all over again. Tell me what you think.

http://acemcq.tumblr.com/

No cropping, no post processing, all the pics are straight out of the camera.

Enjoy.

[Polski Ogier]

Your pictures are boring, and something I'd expect from a hipster liberal-arts undergraduate college student. Work on composition, read up on the rule of thirds.

[AIRider]

Your pictures are boring, and something I'd expect from a hipster liberal-arts undergraduate college student. Work on composition, read up on the rule of thirds.

Lol, I'm a liberal hipster, and now that you mention, i do notice that all my pics are centered, I'll work on the rule of thirds more and see what happens.

Boring is relative, I find them interesting.

[wheeltowheel]

It looks like you've been making progress. I like the composition of the later pics more than the earlier ones. You'll find yourself making better images if you take your camera everywhere you go and shoot more frequently.

[hipster.]

You should definitely pick up a book or two about composition and learning to "see" the photo. Most of your pictures look like snap shots because most of them are shot straight on with center weighted composition. The type of photo people take a theme park.

Try moving around your subject, get high, get low, find an interesting angle. Simple things can be interesting, but the way you're "seeing" them is on the bland side of boring. They may speak to you, but it may be a private conversation that you shouldn't share with others.

I think you were really on to something with your photo of the basket ball hoop.

[AIRider]

Being critiqued amazingly helps, so I thank you guys, please do not hold back.

I have a high interest in street photography, detail, and things that people overlook.

And I see now how bland my shots are, like you said, very theme park.

I'll work on it, and keep posting new pictures.

[peoples_car]

I'll work on it, and keep posting new pictures.

That's the name of the game

One book on composition I would recommend is Michael Freeman's The Photographer's Eye.

It covers many aspects of composition in a relatively understandable manner, and ranges from general concepts to fairly detailed technical theories.

Another great read is Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure which is obviously geared more towards exposure techniques, but it covers many fundamental concepts of photography in a very approachable way and I think it's a must read for people of all levels of photography.

[JayZ235]

You've already received some feedback so i don't need to add too much, but i did see this..

I have a high interest in street photography, detail, and things that people overlook.

What i can say to that is look for a story as to me that's the key to street photography. For example, your bike with the broken chain. Centered dead on it's just a broken down bike. Say you step to one side of the bike and you're looking into an alley or open area. You can now create a story by focusing on the abandoned, broken down bike with creepy/sketchy alley or vast/open area in the background and let the viewer's imagination run wild. Someone was being chased and had to flee their now busted bike perhaps. You get the idea. Story and separation (from background) are two things i'd suggest working on.

Keep posting up your progress!

[AIRider]

You've already received some feedback so i don't need to add too much, but i did see this..



What i can say to that is look for a story as to me that's the key to street photography. For example, your bike with the broken chain. Centered dead on it's just a broken down bike. Say you step to one side of the bike and you're looking into an alley or open area. You can now create a story by focusing on the abandoned, broken down bike with creepy/sketchy alley or vast/open area in the background and let the viewer's imagination run wild. Someone was being chased and had to flee their now busted bike perhaps. You get the idea. Story and separation (from background) are two things i'd suggest working on.

Keep posting up your progress!

Appreciate that, makes a lot of sense. Sometimes it's hard to find a story, but trying definitely makes you shoot differently.

[VrstewartW]

Keep an eye out on how the natural light is falling on your subject. It's difficult to shoot during broad daylight because of flat, contrasty light. Try to go out early morning or late afternoon. Things seem a lot different during those times of day. Good luck, keep shooting and it'll eventually come to you.