You're very unlikely to ever have someone tell you to get better equipment as feedback. We have a critique-me tag that will probably get you more constructive commentary. However, generally making more connections and then mentioning in the caption perhaps that you'd like honest opinions could work too :) ask and you shall receive.
@ Annie thanks- have done the tag on some of my images.
It tends to be as far as i can see that most people only put good commentry onto photos they like - which is cool but the commentry on things that aren't good is definately needed for improvement
@mjkthorpe That's true - I guess it just depends on the person. Some people just aren't comfortable giving critique though; 365 is a personal journey so to tell someone that a photo of their child (for instance) is technically horrible is just a bit inappropriate, but oftentimes, people will give you what you're looking for :)
@mjkthorpe Most people tend to be careful with negative remarks unless they are asked for, so if you make it clear in the caption, I am sure that some people will give criticism.
Oh and welcome!
I find myself in the exact same boat as you: I'm also using a point-and-shoot and Paint Shop Pro! Looking through your photos, I can see that you have a great artistic eye and can tell what looks good.
One tip (and this may just be my personal taste...): you don't have to go overboard with editing. When you take the time to set up a shot properly, get it just the way you want it, etc., there's not a lot you'll need to do in post-processing. Usually the most I do is sharpen them up or play with the white balance a little bit. But whatever works with your vision is what you should do! This is YOUR 365 project, after all. :)
@ emily
Thanks for the tip - i have a tendency to just grad a shot as it comes.
Am liking playing with the edits because its something i normally wouldnt do- i just dont know if they come out well.
Hi Mary,
You do not need a $1000 camera to take great pictures. I have seen people take amazing photos with just a camera phone (The Best Camera Is The One That's With You by Chase Jarvis) - He is phenomenal by the way. Anyway.....just practice your compositions and what makes a good picture. Always ask yourself "what is the focus if this picture? Do I want emotion, tell a story, capture a moment, show action etc...? Once you get that, then look at different angles and ways to make it different thank just standing there and shooting. When I take a picture I always ask myself, how can I make this interesting (change my position, my angle, my viewpoint etc...)? A good book to help you with that is "The photographer's Eye" by Michael Freeman. It's a bit dry and lengthy, but it has god stuff in it. Even if you skim through it, it will give you a completely different outlook on how to compose a picture. Just have fun, play with your settings (read the manual if you need to) because even a P&S has all the same settings as an expensive camera it just takes a little patience to get the right settings in the menus. Your photos are good, they are interesting and composed relatively nicely. You just started, so don't get down on yourself, it takes YEARS to get to the place where you want to be. I have been shooting for about 2 years now and I still feel like I don't know what I am doing and I learn something new with each shoot I do. Just look at pictures as often as you can (google images, flickr.com, here, 500px.com etc...) and take start to 'see' what interests you and try to mimic them to learn.
365 really functions on the saying "You get what you give"
Start doing the browse and picks, challenges, favorite of your favorites for the week, posting a photo in a topic. The more you get out there and chat, talk and show, the more people will be able to know you are out there and offer comments if you ask for them.
Also it does not always matter your camera type and having the best dslr will not make you a better photographer. The majority of my shots the past three weeks were with my iphone which is much crappier than a point and shoot in so many ways. I have focused on my editing with iphone apps and have had a lot of fun relying on the subject matter and not worrying about full clarity. Also Corel has noise reduction under Adjustments and every photo I send through Corel (not all that often) gets the noise reduced.
Mary, you NEED to buy 3 Nikon D3 rigs with real fast lenses, a few sb900 flashes, and then ship those to me :) sorry, had to insert wish list somewhere hehehe. i have done 90% of my shots with either my cell phone or a point and shoot and one reason is to prove a friend of mine wrong for thinking they need all the latest and greatest gear. there is a biker saying; 15 grand and 15 miles don't make you a biker. the same can be said about photography. http://www.digital-photography-school.com/ and http://www.expertphotography.com/ are both good places to pick up tips, http://dailyshoot.com/ is also a good place to go as well. just being there to get the shot is the biggest thing. one nice thing about this site is all the help you can get from it, and can really boost your work and give you inspiration. good luck shooting!
You should check out @flamez. She is having computer issues at the moment but if I recall correctly, she uses corel paint shop pro to edit her shots. I think she has a SLR but if you can figure out your p&s, you can take a lot of similar shots as her and many others on this site.
I dislike to critique on PnS users b/c of the limitations I cant really say "Oh well you need to fix your exposure" etc. On top of this its less likely that those users will have Photoshop, which is what i use to edit. I do not know the limitations of other software so its even harder to critique the post process part of an image b/c the person would have no idea what i was talking about and may not even be able to do what im suggesting.
I also prefer to crit on work that is just borderline of good or borderline amazing and just needs a little push to knock it outta the park.
This prevents me from my ego getting out of control and saying things like "Yeah, do you even know what composition is?? Cause wow.."
This is obviously not helpful, and just makes me look like an asshat. Thus, better to just not say anything at all.
Idk if anyone else is like that, but thats kinda how i am.
In any case, ill try and give you a little feedback in ur comments where i find that i can
Thanks for your post and your comments they all helped.
I would post the edits but i cant do that without getting rid of all the other comments - which is a shame coz i tried quite a few things with the purple reflection.
:)
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You're very unlikely to ever have someone tell you to get better equipment as feedback. We have a critique-me tag that will probably get you more constructive commentary. However, generally making more connections and then mentioning in the caption perhaps that you'd like honest opinions could work too :) ask and you shall receive.
It tends to be as far as i can see that most people only put good commentry onto photos they like - which is cool but the commentry on things that aren't good is definately needed for improvement
very true lol
cheers :)
Oh and welcome!
I find myself in the exact same boat as you: I'm also using a point-and-shoot and Paint Shop Pro! Looking through your photos, I can see that you have a great artistic eye and can tell what looks good.
One tip (and this may just be my personal taste...): you don't have to go overboard with editing. When you take the time to set up a shot properly, get it just the way you want it, etc., there's not a lot you'll need to do in post-processing. Usually the most I do is sharpen them up or play with the white balance a little bit. But whatever works with your vision is what you should do! This is YOUR 365 project, after all. :)
Thanks for the tip - i have a tendency to just grad a shot as it comes.
Am liking playing with the edits because its something i normally wouldnt do- i just dont know if they come out well.
:)
You do not need a $1000 camera to take great pictures. I have seen people take amazing photos with just a camera phone (The Best Camera Is The One That's With You by Chase Jarvis) - He is phenomenal by the way. Anyway.....just practice your compositions and what makes a good picture. Always ask yourself "what is the focus if this picture? Do I want emotion, tell a story, capture a moment, show action etc...? Once you get that, then look at different angles and ways to make it different thank just standing there and shooting. When I take a picture I always ask myself, how can I make this interesting (change my position, my angle, my viewpoint etc...)? A good book to help you with that is "The photographer's Eye" by Michael Freeman. It's a bit dry and lengthy, but it has god stuff in it. Even if you skim through it, it will give you a completely different outlook on how to compose a picture. Just have fun, play with your settings (read the manual if you need to) because even a P&S has all the same settings as an expensive camera it just takes a little patience to get the right settings in the menus. Your photos are good, they are interesting and composed relatively nicely. You just started, so don't get down on yourself, it takes YEARS to get to the place where you want to be. I have been shooting for about 2 years now and I still feel like I don't know what I am doing and I learn something new with each shoot I do. Just look at pictures as often as you can (google images, flickr.com, here, 500px.com etc...) and take start to 'see' what interests you and try to mimic them to learn.
Start doing the browse and picks, challenges, favorite of your favorites for the week, posting a photo in a topic. The more you get out there and chat, talk and show, the more people will be able to know you are out there and offer comments if you ask for them.
Also it does not always matter your camera type and having the best dslr will not make you a better photographer. The majority of my shots the past three weeks were with my iphone which is much crappier than a point and shoot in so many ways. I have focused on my editing with iphone apps and have had a lot of fun relying on the subject matter and not worrying about full clarity. Also Corel has noise reduction under Adjustments and every photo I send through Corel (not all that often) gets the noise reduced.
http://www.digital-photography-school.com/ and http://www.expertphotography.com/ are both good places to pick up tips, http://dailyshoot.com/ is also a good place to go as well. just being there to get the shot is the biggest thing. one nice thing about this site is all the help you can get from it, and can really boost your work and give you inspiration. good luck shooting!
http://365project.org/discuss/critique/7226/the-critique-game
Much appreciated :)
I dislike to critique on PnS users b/c of the limitations I cant really say "Oh well you need to fix your exposure" etc. On top of this its less likely that those users will have Photoshop, which is what i use to edit. I do not know the limitations of other software so its even harder to critique the post process part of an image b/c the person would have no idea what i was talking about and may not even be able to do what im suggesting.
I also prefer to crit on work that is just borderline of good or borderline amazing and just needs a little push to knock it outta the park.
This prevents me from my ego getting out of control and saying things like "Yeah, do you even know what composition is?? Cause wow.."
This is obviously not helpful, and just makes me look like an asshat. Thus, better to just not say anything at all.
Idk if anyone else is like that, but thats kinda how i am.
In any case, ill try and give you a little feedback in ur comments where i find that i can
Thanks for your post and your comments they all helped.
I would post the edits but i cant do that without getting rid of all the other comments - which is a shame coz i tried quite a few things with the purple reflection.
:)