Critique on my sel 35 photos / and some other questions.

[worldpixel]

Hello guys, I hope this is the right section to post some things I want to ask.

 

1.)

 

http://www.sonyalphaforum.com/gallery/album/95-sel-35-a6000-worldpixel/

 

I uploaded an album for the overlooking area ( mentioned ) in one of my previous topics. My goal here is not to take real estate photos ( those were posted in the official fb page ), but to take good landscape and portrait shots.

 

1. What do you think of the sharpness of the landscape images ? Even at f1.8 ( the little kid ) ?

 

2. Do you think some of my photos are over saturated ? Or too much contrast? Or a lot of kelvin/tint ? This question mostly concerns the post production of my photos, I think I tend to overdo it sometimes , not sure though. You think an exaggerated look is better than a straight from camera raw conversion?

 

3. How can I make the night shot of the city "sharper" . Tried using a tripod, set long shutter speeds and around f/4 to f/8,  but this is the sharpest one I got.

 

4. I follow the rule of thirds mostly, but is there any advice you can give in terms of the composition of my images ?

 

 

2. ) This question is more for professional photographers who take pictures for a living. Do you think its viable to setup like a studio environment (" because I want a more controlled area " ) and make money out of it? I don't like to do events , weddings or commercial photography. But more into landscape or still life. If you take pictures and sell them to a stock photography site, will it work ?

 

[LeButler]

For the night city shot: switch to manual focus if you didn't already. Use the 3 second countdown timer when on the tripod. Try f7.1 - the light starbursts suggest a rather high F stop; they're also blueish so set a warmer white balance starting around 3100 Kelvin. Finally check quality is set to Fine if shooting jpg (it and some of the other images look over compressed, but that's probably the upload rather than in the original).

 

From what you said (all good techniques) you should have been rewarded with a better shot. Maybe it was simply a misty night given that the distant lights are affected more than closer ones of equal brightness.

[Austerror]

Photo 4 seems to have on the top left of the picture some interference from the sun?

 

The entire image would have a nicer contrast if that was not in the picture. A lens hood or hand, can help with that. Unless, of course, that is the intended effect

 

As LeButler said above, use the timer to take night photos, or a remote, as any tripod vibration can result in a not sharp photo.  I also find it useful when shooting at night to use focus bracketing. Which is just manual focus, then take another photo or several photos at a different focus point. Just in case the photo I thought was in focus is not.

[Guest all8]

These photos have challenging lighting for the camera so some post processing would be needed at least to get White Balance right. I find them too brown/yellow/warm, or a better way to put it would be there is not enough of the other colours.

 

Photo 2 - in the  middle of the frame is a street light, is this the subject? IMO the sun being in shot is distracting from the wonderful silhouette of the tree against the warmly lit landscape behind it. Framed with the Tree as the _only_ subject against the warm background would be more engaging. If you could get the light from the sun interacting with the tree that might also be interesting to look at.

[worldpixel]

For the night city shot: switch to manual focus if you didn't already. Use the 3 second countdown timer when on the tripod. Try f7.1 - the light starbursts suggest a rather high F stop; they're also blueish so set a warmer white balance starting around 3100 Kelvin. Finally check quality is set to Fine if shooting jpg (it and some of the other images look over compressed, but that's probably the upload rather than in the original).

 

From what you said (all good techniques) you should have been rewarded with a better shot. Maybe it was simply a misty night given that the distant lights are affected more than closer ones of equal brightness.

 

Yeah if you see some of the day pictures, you can see smoke in some areas ( usually around 4 - 6pm). I used manual mode in most of the shots except the portraits. With the blueish tone I think it's because of my post processing changes in capture one, I will try what you suggested though. 

[worldpixel]

In the 4th photo , I was trying to manual focus on the towers near the sun. Not sure if this is the best area to focus or not though.

 

Will try the focus bracketing in the next session.

 

I have a lenshood, tripod and a sony remote. I also turned steadyshot off.

Photo 4 seems to have on the top left of the picture some interference from the sun?

 

The entire image would have a nicer contrast if that was not in the picture. A lens hood or hand, can help with that. Unless, of course, that is the intended effect

 

As LeButler said above, use the timer to take night photos, or a remote, as any tripod vibration can result in a not sharp photo.  I also find it useful when shooting at night to use focus bracketing. Which is just manual focus, then take another photo or several photos at a different focus point. Just in case the photo I thought was in focus is not.

[worldpixel]

These photos have challenging lighting for the camera so some post processing would be needed at least to get White Balance right. I find them too brown/yellow/warm, or a better way to put it would be there is not enough of the other colours.

 

Photo 2 - in the  middle of the frame is a street light, is this the subject? IMO the sun being in shot is distracting from the wonderful silhouette of the tree against the warmly lit landscape behind it. Framed with the Tree as the _only_ subject against the warm background would be more engaging. If you could get the light from the sun interacting with the tree that might also be interesting to look at.

 

I was trying to focus on the distant towers not the light post. I will try to take a picture of the tree next time but it would require me to go down the area since it's very steep. I think the white balance was ok when it was first imported to Capture One, I tend to overdo things with color. Not sure if this is good or bad.

[philippeluyckx]

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