Reply To: Hobbyist seeking honest critique

[happylinuxguy]

Excellent, this is just the kind of feedback I was looking for.  I’ll try to answer this stuff the best I can.

“Let’s start with, what is it about Linux that makes you happy?”

Ok, I’ll clarify here.  This name was created long ago before I was even doing a lot of photography or photo editing.  I’ll probably change it eventually.

“As a Linux user, what photo editing software do you use?”
I’m actually using Mac currently and I use lightroom mostly, and photoshop at times.

“You said you almost always shoot in raw, and in manual, why?”

After shooting in auto for a while and not knowing anything about my camera, I forced myself to shoot in manual to learn more about iso, shutter speed and aperture.  Raw is far superior to work with in post production.

“You seem to have a Nikon D3100, 18-55 mm, 55-200 mm, 50 mm f/1.8.  What other photography gear do you have?”
You pretty much nailed it with camera/lenses.  I have a cheap tripod, a wired shutter release remote (d3100 doesn’t have wireless option built in), a set of extension tubes, a YongNuo YN-560 III flash, and a flash stand with umbrella and hotshoes for off camera flash capability.

“Your water drop photos are shot at 1/200th.  Flickr reports flash was off.  Why was 1/200th selected as the shutter speed?”
Shutter speed was set to maximum flash sync speed.  I was using off camera flash, so it reports as if no flash was used.

“What is the depth of field of 102 mm at f/4.5 and a focus distance of a foot?”

I honestly don’t know how that’s calculated.

“What is the hyperfocal distance of 18 mm at f/8?”
I don’t know how that’s calculated either.

“Lizard appears to be your most recent upload.  Why is the tail in soft focus?”
The tail has a soft focus most likely because of the aperture used.  I think I had the aperture wide open because of the light.  But I probably needed to close it down a bit.

 

“You said there is a blur issue with Coronado Bridge @ Night, when did you discover the blur?”
When I opened it in lightroom on the computer.  It looked fine on the camera.

“What caused the blur in Coronado Bridge @ Night, and what could you have done to prevent it?”

I thought the blur issue was mostly with the boat.  The boat was moving slightly with the waves.  A short exposure would have prevented the boat blur, but I wanted the smooth water of a long exposure.

 

“Regarding Tempe Town Lake Bridge, I see you are familiar with Fro Knows Photo!  I also see you uploaded the large size and that the whole photo is a little soft.  There are a few things going on.  A couple may be resolved by technique, one by better glass.  Some questions:

– list all the steps you followed to get the shot, starting with setting up, and going through to packing up.”

I used a tripod, timer mode, 30 sec exposure, aperture wide open, iso 100.  My camera seems to produce lots of noise in dark shots or long exposure.  I wanted to stick to 30 sec or less and iso 100 to keep the noise down.  I can see that I probably need to use a larger aperture, and higher iso.

“- what is the depth of field of 18 mm and f/4 at the focus distance you used?  EXIF data should tell you where focus was set.”

as mentioned before I’m not really sure how to calculate all that.

“- tell us about the weather conditions: temperature, wind, humidity, etc.”
about 95 degrees, no wind, low humidity.   (phoenix)

“- how far are the buildings from your camera?  You can probably measure the distance with Google maps.”

As close as I can tell, .2 miles.

“Moving on, and thinking about your people photos, it seems your subjects are family.  Looking at Happy, why did you choose f/1.8 as the aperture?”
I had just gotten this lens and I didn’t know how to use it properly.  I should have closed it down a bit.

“Having chosen the widest aperture, why does your subject seem to be right against the steel background?”
Good question.  Inexperience, I suppose.  I see what you’re saying though.  I should have shot with them away from the background so it blurred nicely with the wide aperture.

“Why does the beam on the left of that photo seem sharper than your subject’s face?  A follow-on question might be, what does that beam add to the photo?”    Inexperience once again.  A single point focus mode probably would have prevented that.  I think I see your point with the beam.  It probably could have done without it.

“What is the depth of field of 50 mm at f/1.8 and the focus distance used?”

I’m really not sure.

“After shooting Suegra, how did taking a step or two forward to shoot Happy, affect the photo?”
I think it gave it a slightly better composition.

“In https://www.flickr.com/photos/90822098@N07/11792819014/, where does your eye go?

Why is she sitting on the side of the photo her body is facing?

Does the greenish blob in the upper right corner add anything?”

This is one of those pictures I looked back on and didn’t like so much.  The above questions helped me realize why.  I guess I was trying to get the waterfall background in there.  Because she’s sitting on a wall she couldn’t really have faced the other way.  The greenish blob in the corner is the sky, the corners of the building. ( i think that’s what you’re referring to).  I guess I could have cropped that down a tiny bit.  But the rest of the composition is off so it wouldn’t have mattered much anyway.

Thanks for taking time to answer me.