Critique Please - Very new to Photography

[Hoot_AL]

I am very new to photography and to this forum but would like to just jump right in there with some photos for you all to critique. I am not a professional by any means so go easy on me. I use a Samsung Digimax A7 (Point-n-Shoot) camera.

[xseption]

looks like you had some fun ... one thing I noticed was that they are all centered in the middle of the photo. You might want to try to have the subject off-center for more visual appeal, like so:



on the second image, try to create less depth of field (=more blurred background) so that the background does not distract from the flower.

hopefully this helps!

[Dokk]

Listen to Edd, he's a primo flower picture taker and I agree with him about the depth of field and off-centered subject. Those two hints will take you a long way. If you wnt more nature and/or flower subjects, hit the botanical gardens in Ft. Worth. Aside from the huge outdoor areas to take bazillions of pictures, they have a huge indoor greenhouse/atrium/conservatory/whatever with some really great exotic plants to shoot. Use a high ISO though as they charge you to use your tripod and the light can fool your into thinking there's more than what's really there.

[bburton]

The last two in your series are the sharpest because they have higher shutter speeds. The first ones are "soft" due to slight camera movement not offset by a fast enough shutter.

One problem I've discovered in close up shots is that my body and the camera body tend to block off light, making the subject darker; then, the camera compensates by slowing down the shutter to gain back the lost light.

You might try setting your aperture in aperture priority mode to get enough depth of field, then boosting the camera's ISO to enable manually setting a faster shutter speed. Good luck.

P.S. Welcome to the forum.

[picasso]

Very beautiful flowers. My favorite is #3. Like was said above you might try to get a little different angle rather than straight down or straight on. Good start with the flower pictures. Keep em coming.

Paul

[venchka]

Use a tripod. You're on the right track. Practice!