Would appreciate feedback

[nosredla]

I'm an amateur, wondering if my work has any merit

[attachment=11745:One.jpg]
[attachment=11746:Two.jpg]
[attachment=11747:Three.jpg]
[attachment=11744:Four.jpg]

Comments will be appreciated

Many thanks

[LoisWakeman]

I guess you are an HDR aficionado from looking at these images? Done subtly, but visible nevertheless.

I'm more of a landscape person so #1 drew my eye: it could do with some careful sharpening though to bring out the detail in the trees. The sky is beautiful.

I don't get 2 and 4: without any explanation, they look like snapshots (not that there is anything wrong with that). If I were going to present, for example, the kitchen one, I'd take time to clean up first: dirty smears on the toaster are not terribly appealing! I'd also have taken more time to choose a viewpoint: there is lots of extraneous clutter like the rather grubby light fittings, part of a wire basket etc, and an odd slant to the whole thing. Still life subjects give you plenty of time to look carefully at the frame and see just what's there. Our eyes trick us because the brain ignores peripheral stuff that we aren't interested in - but the camera has no such facility. You need to get into the habit of seeing what the camera sees!

(Of course, just tell me to push off if you wanted to record something here that I am not seeing.)

[nosredla]

Thank you Lois, your comments were helpful so please do not push off.

I am not a landscape person, but find this site extremely useful. I am tempted by HDR, but am aware that most practitioners misuse it to extremes, so glad to be told that mine is "subtle" but still your comments will encourage me to tone it down some more. Actually, only the street scene was HDR, the others perhaps overused LightZone.

The trees in snow was the most like a snapshot of the four - I just pointed and clicked.

I spent a lot of time composing the door. I liked all the rectangles, the multiple vanishing points, the suggestion of other openings leading off to unseen places, the hints of people living within these rooms who are suggested but not shown, the changes in tone of the same coloured walls.

I prefer cityscapes to landscapes because I like the energy of the city and hoped I had captured that in my street scene.

The kitchen shot was a bit of a joke, but I was trying to capture something real rather than a Homes and Gardens shot - sometimes my kitchen is a mess.

Thank you again for your helpful remarks

[dalethorn]

[attachment=11775:Losang07.jpg]

I prefer cityscapes to landscapes because I like the energy of the city and hoped I had captured that in my street scene.

Cityscapes are great subjects because there are so many of them, and so close at hand for most people. Keep looking around for different views, and you'll find some good ones. Here's one I took with my first digital camera in 1998 - it's Baxter or Fargo st. (don't remember which) in L.A., and a 25 percent grade hill. I would like to retake this sometime with something that shows the depth better. That's the main thing, anyway - try to do something different.