Real advice?

[kinell]

<p>Would anybody care to give me some real advice/feedback on my photos?<br>

I get absolutely no response at all from my critique requests....</p>

<p>Thanks,<br>

Andreas</p>

[bob-c]

<p>Andreas, I am no expert but I would be happy to. I just went to your shots in your bio page. Are you talking about those pictures?</p>

[kinell]

<p>yes. Your advice and thoughts would be most welcome!<br>

You could write here or directly at the corresponding photo.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance,<br>

Andreas</p>

[bob-c]

<p>Andreas, I commented on your wildlife shots and will continue but it is very early here on the east coast of the US and I need to go to work. I'll be back later. Have a nice day.</p>

[eric merrill]

<p>Andreas:</p>

<p>In general, I think you have good composition. You have a collection of good images.</p>

<p>More dramatic lighting might improve many of them. Especially in the wild life photos, the light is often very flat. With animals, a little backlighting usually highlights their hair. Much, much easier said than done in a wild situation. Look through portfolios of the big name nature photographers, and concentrate just on the role light plays in their photos.</p>

<p>Eric</p>

[kinell]

<p>Thank you two for your comments!</p>

<p>Robert: I do use Photoshop. But I am by no means an expert user and I wanted the images to count as "unmanipulated". I will try to apply better post production. Especially, since I would like to print some of the pictures poster-size.</p>

<p>Eric: Many of the pictures originate from the same Safari tour. During the few days available, of course I have to use whatever light is available and cannot afford to wait.<br>

However the comment regarding backlighting made me wonder if - on a future trip - I could ask the driver to consider the light when positioning the car. I assume you need an experienced guide/driver for that but I will definitely try!</p>

[michael_walker11]

<p>your landscape pictures all lack an eye-catcher in some way. the matterhorn is the exception as there are some things going on in the frame.<br>

the sunset/rise pictures on the other hand are nice yet not very interesting. there are an estimated number of 188273772035 sunset pictures online and unless you add something really interesting to the frame they won't work</p>

<p>i like your couple in hammock shot though, maybe add some contrast for the light is kind of difuse (which is not your fault) and the picture looks a little dull in colors<br>

it might seem a little arrogant i'm gonna add one of my shots anyways. without the dead tree it would be half as interesting if interesting at all</p>

<p><img src="http://bildupload.sro.at/a/images/20080604-DSC_9998.jpg" alt="" width="510" height="338" /></p>

<p>or this one here, without the girl it wouldn't work at all even though it's quite a nice scenery here in switzerland^^</p>

<p>i just noticed the age of the picture, already another year passed by...</p>

<p><img src="http://bildupload.sro.at/a/images/charity-45.jpg" alt="" width="512" height="342" /></p>

<p>your macro work is pretty good though, i really like the spider pics. the butterfly seem to lack some sharpness, an issue already brought up before, you might wanna look into your way of holding the camera, chosing the right shutterspeed or use a tripod in order to eliminate movement that could be the reason for this.</p>

<p>your portraits are not particularly strong, the models look like they are bored and the second model would look great without that strange make-up (and some around the eyes). also try to change the background maybe, do more portraits outside.</p>

<p>keep the work up though!</p>

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[kinell]

<p>Thanks Michael for some really great points!<br>

Regarding portraits, I know they're pretty weak. I need to develop some skills regarding photography of people.</p>

<p>The butterfly lacks sharpness because it was taken with a bad automatic point-and-shoot. Most of the other macros were taken with the Canon 180mm Macro, which I am very pleased with.</p>

<p>The most important advice, I take, is the foreground object in landscape pictures.<br>

You've executed this very beautifully in both pictures (especially the first one).</p>

<p>Thanks again for your advice.</p>