Critique Wanted would like some input on my compact shots.

Jun Yoo

Rookie
Hi, im new to all this, while on holiday touring the South Island of New Zealand I took some shots. Your feedback would be appreciated. I haven't used any post processing. Thanks guys. All taken at 35mm.


South Island Trip 2011 - a set on Flickr




BTW, this was taken with a canon IXUS 55 from 2006, lol I know. Im looking to get a new kit soon. Any suggestions?
 
Jun Yoo, compositionally I think these are excellent shots - good placement of the horizon, good framing, good use of lines etc. The problems with them are more problems relating to the camera - struggling with the dynamic range on some of them and not handling highlights very well, but that's down to the limitation of the camera, not the photographer.

I particularly like the second and ninth images img_2067 and img_2191). Some gentle processing to compensate a little for the weakness of the small sensor might be worth trying. Just make sure if you do, to make a copy of the images and work on the copies.
 
I agree with Olli. A little bit of PP would help too, especially adding contrast in some, and recovering more shadow detail on others.

I look forward to seeing the photos with your new cam, whichever it may be! :)
 
Jun, this one would have to be my favourite, and this one has a lot of potential.

The first needs a little more adjustment on the curves and contrast - with a little more cropping along the bottom (as the OOF foliage is a little distracting). While the second just needs more post-processing (PP), but all the compositional elements are there IMHO.

My biggest advice, much as has been said above, is that you work with RAW files and focus on PP. IMHO a large part of digital photography relies on the ability to tweak the image a little. I'm not saying you need a doctorate in Photoshop (and it would take about that long to get wholly familiar with it). But a 'simpler' (but very powerful) editor such as Lightroom or even maybe capitalise on this amazing offer (never used it, but it seems a great alternative to Lightroom at 10% of the cost). But, most importantly, you appear to have the eye for the subject and composition. I just think that you'd get a little more satisfaction from playing more with RAW files.
 
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