Hey Everyone,
I'm really new at photography. Especially editing. I was out with my husband one day and saw this really cool cloud. I took a couple of shots of it but thought having it cropped portrait style instead of landscape worked better. Will you guys give me your opinion? I'm including the uncropped picture as well. Unfortunately, I didn't know enough about DSLR's when I took this so it was shot in JPG instead of RAW. I literally got my camera the day before I shot this on the 20th of December. In the last 2 months I've been learning a lot and hope to really improve. Needless to say, I shoot RAW now. I edited this today and could really use some opinions. Thanks in advance,
Liz
I expect this is going to sound harsh, but everybody needs to hear the truth so they can learn to be better....
It is a cool cloud, but that doesn't make it a good photo. Technically, it's exposed correctly and seems to be focused, but that's about all it has going for it.
I assume we are looking at a hillside and not a severely angled horizon, but there are little other clues to tell me that, so it makes my eyes think the camera was held at an angle. And if there is no good reason to hold the camera at an angle, it looks amateurish.
Other than a mildly interesting cloud, there is nothing to hold my interest in the photo. No special trees. No birds. No roads or other leading lines. There really isn't even a foreground and background; it's just completely flat.
I encourage you to take a lot of pictures and not get discouraged because one jerk doesn't like your photo. Keep sharing and take the critiques to heart and you'll improve rapidly, because hearing from friends and family that every photo is "beautiful" doesn't help you learn.
Thank you for your comments. No, the camera isn't tilted, we were driving and this cloud was over the mountain (below). The other shot's I got I really didn't like the composition at all. The cloud is literally centered over the hill and I zoomed in too far trying to get the cloud details better so only got the top of the mountain with it. It also has a power line going crooked through the foreground so I didn't want to use that, but I really liked the cloud formation so I took the original I posted on here with just the edge of the mountain against the cloud. It didn't think about the fact it could make it look like the angle was really off so I appreciate the comments.
We're already making progress! I think this photo, with a simple crop, is more interesting than the one you shared first. It's not mind-blowing, but the ridgeline has some interesting details:
I agree with Philip. Don't worry too much about the editing yet, but try to focus on composition. No amount of editing will take a photo with bad or no composition from bad to great. Look some stuff up on basic composition guidelines and go shoot more photos! Good luck!
Daniel is right. Practice more composition.
A great cloud can be boring with bad composition, but good composition can make a boring cloud look great.
2649 Posts 7252 Members Less than 1 in 3 members have the guts to post a photo here. I haven't, yet. Enjoy your photography.
Hi LIz! You're off to a good start, especially considering how recently you've started using a camera as such.
I'm inclined to agree with Phillip. I append two alternate crops, in which I've tried to emphasise the cloud's beautiful form, but tone down the sky which looks a bit too cyan to me and garish (for my taste), detracting from the simple beauty. I prefer the latter, de-centring the cloud as much as reasonably possible, although in the first, the fainter clouds at lower left echo the left edge of THE cloud.
Ideally for me, you'd have included more sky above the cloud, allowing it to "breathe", and leaving more room for cropping to finesse the image.
Keep at it, and show us more.
Wow, Chris, thanks!! Those look a lot better. I didn't think of cropping off the rest of the hill like that. I like that better! Thanks for your help and encouragement!
E: First, I love your guts - good for you for posting and asking for a critique. We learn more from these than a lot of meaningless "I like this shot" comments. You got excellent and constructive comments from both Phillip and Daniel. Few subjects are so powerful to carry a photo irrespective of their surroundings in the photo frame. As I read Phillip's remarks, he makes an excellent point: it's important not only to capture a cool subject like this cloud, but to be conscious of the four sides of the "canvas" you're capturing it on with intentional attention to what is happening in the spaces around the subject; how a subject is positioned and what else is happening in that space can enhance what you're trying to communicate or detract from it. I agree, take lots of pictures but be intentional about them . . . and keep posting.