I was out 'west' from Sydney recently and took a few pictures... I guess these are the ones I feel are the 'best' of the bunch, but want some critique on improving my techniques and maybe even editing techniques... I've been taking a fair few photo's, trying out new things and reading books, not sure if it's helping though. (only 5 images, but I thought it was better to whack them in one post rather than a separate one!)
3. And this is a 'stand off'... Working Dog vs Wild Goat... Again, I like this image, but not sure what more I wanted out of it, or even, what more I could have done to improve it: (maybe it needs a crop?)
5. And the last one!
This one I thought looked good and had some form of impact in it, the dirt, the chairs, very stagnant... Most people i've spoken to don't seem to like it though...
Hi Aaron. From here in Perth they're all "over east" instead of "out west"
#4 is my favourite by far. It kind of tells a story that the water tank and pump are in the right place. It has a mood too.
I'm not sure how you'd improve #3 except by separating the goat and the second dog better. If you crop then you wouldn't really help the image. If you shot over the near fence and cropped that fence off at the bottom then you'd lose the impact of being trapped in a pen.If you crop the top off then you lose the impact of being out in the sticks. Having the goat's face in the pcture might have helped.
I would like to see #1 in colour because the B&W just doesn't do anything for me. With the right colours it could be a better image.
The shearing shed shots look too much like record shots and don't hold my interest. I'm not sure what you could do to make them more interesting. The equipment is too modern to look historical.
I agree with Alan321, Number 4 is a keeper. Great colours, mood, composition etc.
I think the others suffer from too much depth of field. That is, your F number is a little too high and too many things are in focus. thus the subject is not really apparent without your words. The dog and goat would have been better if the other dog's legs weren't seen protruding from the goat's stomach and both the dog and goat were in sharp focus with the foreground and background a little blury. The 105mm focal length is OK but you probably need to open up the lens a bit more to reduce that depth of field i was talking about. Perhaps an investment in a Neutral Density filter will allow you to do this in such bright sunlight without hitting that 1/2000 second area.
4th is best for me. I would clone out the pipe in the foreground and remove tilt. Nice framing - horizon in right spot, windmill out of centre. It has a nice mood.
1st - I don't like the branch top left. I would clone it out. Horizon good. Picture seems too soft for me though. If you want good feedback indicate, tripod yes/no, aperature, ISO, shutter. Your exif says 1/400, f16, 105mm, iso100. f16 is on the limits for defraction for this camera -generally I would not go above f11 with a 1.6x format camera unless I was going to sacrifice clarity for depth. At 1/400, the tee on right seems strangely soft. If you have a wider angle lens I would use it so you can get more depth on this picture. If you stick with this lens on this picture I would focus further back since oof does not show up as much up closer.
2nd it is not clear what the subject is. I think much closer would be better of one door.
3rd has legs sticking out from under the sheep. Dog is looking which is good but I think it needs to be tighter without the fence obstructing the sheep.
last needs the bottom of the chair and cropping off the top. it is not clear what the subject is in the picture.
The 1st picture was handheld @ sunset looking into the sun, which is why it turned out the way it did. It had to be pushed a bit too in order to show the way it is, wasn't happy with it in the end, but I tried
#4, the colours were good that night...So I might leave it maybe cloning the pipe at the foreground which is easy enough.
#2 and #3, I understand, unfortunately I just didn't have enough time to set up the picture or even really think about the shot, it was all happening too fast... That goat was running like mad! But I just have to practise more I think
