Anyone up for critiquing some pics?

[KatWoman]

My husband and I have been getting into photography more over the last year, and over the last few months have been upgrading lenses and collecting filters and other pieces of misc equipment. The following are 2 links I threw on my webspace for the heck of it. The website format itself will change one of these days, we have a lot going on, so needless to say, the personal site doesn't get alot of attention LOL.


Let me know what ya'll think, good or bad. Let me know what you like, dislike and what improvements can be made

www.lot-80.com

[Lnzbug]

I only looked at gallery one so far. I really like the old doorways pic. The curved hallway pic could have used a little more floor showing. Who was the cute guy?

[Lnzbug]

The second gallery I really liked the grown kitty pic. The cactus pic was nice too. It might have needed more sky? Cactus....rain clouds I like that combo. Just my $.02. actually $.04 because I posted twice
Very nice work btw.

[KatWoman]

LOL thanks. He's one of our really good friends. We've known him for about 9 years now. Back in the day when I first got Photoshop I used to take funny pics of him and we had a fake Gap ad campaign going on. He's good looking and very photogenic and could do real modeling if he wanted to. He is hoping to start his own clothing line. Right now he's in the process of getting information and establishing connections.

Oh and thanks for checking out the second gallery. The doorways shot is one of my favorites. My husband took that one at a mountain preserve by our house, there's a few old stone buildings there.

[Lnzbug]

Good luck to him! I'd buy whatever he was sellin

[Billsbug]

jdesigns is the ORG photo guru: Feb '08: Monthly Photo Assignment: Circles

IMO ur photos need more color saturation and crispness, a bit too flat, beige and fuzzy.

Nice ummmm, cat, btw.

[KatWoman]

^Awesome, hope he can give some input. I'll send the critiques along to my hubby. We're picking up some new filters tomorrow and may potentially take a cruise out of town on Sunday to play with them

[iScott]

I liked your photos. Especially the animals, nature shots and miniatures.
Good work!

[jdesigns]

Thanks Bill!

First impression...being a fairly busy guy, I thought the slideshow was too slow. Not necessarily bad, but I couldn't just click on a link to see what I needed to see and at a speed I wanted to see. (Just a personal preference)

I do not know how much experience you have, though you mention a year. Here is a thread I started a while ago that has 10 Tips for better photographs.

Are you familiar with the "Rule of Thirds?" When shooting, imagine your viewfinder has a Tic-Tac-Toe grid on it. Then place your subject on one of the four points where the lines cross. This generally will get you a more pleasant and interesting composition than placing your subject in the center (See your portraits of the guys or cats for example)

A couple of other things to take into consideration.

Check your backgrounds. The portrait of the younger guy, the thing above his head is really distracting. The portrait of the older guy, the art that comes out of his head is also distracting.

Keep in mind when you shoot, is that the eye will tend to go to whatever is biggest, brightest or sharpest in the frame. Use that to focus attention on your subject.

Taken from the New York Institute of Photography (I never finished the course, but it was loaded with a ton of great info and I learned a lot!) Ask yourself these 3 questions:

#1 What is the subject, or theme, of the photo?

#2 How did the photographer focus attention on the main subject?

#3 What did the photographer do, or not do, to simplfy the photo?


Ok, now that I have said all that...The architectural shots lack some punch. The dog image looks like a snapshot. I really like the cactus and miniature shots.

Looks like a good start! Keep it up!

[callisto9]

i enjoyed the people and animal photos the best. the pics of the...mini mall? stores? those didn't really do anything for me. too...clean and corporate. i probably didn't like them because they reminded me of conformity and sameness.

i love the cat and people pics. those seem really personal and nice. i wish ALL of the photos were bigger though. and i could control how fast i went through them.

good luck! looks like you're on the right track.

[KatWoman]

Originally Posted by jdesigns

...


Ok, now that I have said all that...The architectural shots lack some punch. The dog image looks like a snapshot. I really like the cactus and miniature shots.

Looks like a good start! Keep it up!

Thanks for the info and insight

As far as the architectural shots go, this is new business park development my husband's employer (engineering firm) worked on. Since they know he's been toying with the camera they asked if we would like to get some pics. It's not complete yet, and I personally think some shots with cars in the parking lot (once the place has tenants) might give it more life.

My husband knows the shots need "something" but can't put a finger on it. Do you (or anyone else that may know) have suggestions more specifically related to photographing architecture or would those 10 tips still apply? It also doesn't help that in AZ all the builders/developers love their neutral shades...and we have almost ZERO architectural variety or interest here. It pisses me off, frankly. We've been doing so much building and development over the last 15 years and it's all square brown crap *steps off soapbox*


EDIT = as far as the slideshows go, these are just some quickies I threw up to have critiqued, the site is nowhere near ready to show off. So in the event I am ready for the site to be more public, it will be greatly revamped...just an FYI as far as that kind of stuff goes

[Ghia_Roadster]

personally, they are fantastic!! very professional like. i really loved the little diaramas. those were the neatest. very good start your off to!!! cant wait to see more!!

[KatWoman]

Well I finally got a chance to update our site a bit

www.lot-80.com

I posted some pics of my husband's photography, along with some new pics he recently took. I got rid of the flash slideshows for now and just did some nice-sized thumbs for the gallery. I added in a few digital art projects of mine (art section). They are old, and will be updated when I get some more free time. The stamp is my favorite, the others not so much, but I wanted a bit of content for my section. I'm also going to take up painting here soon, I already have paints, canvas, brushes and easel. I also have a list of ideas for pieces I want to create. It's just a matter of getting the free time to create them

Comments - good and bad welcome