Newbie Feedback - Cuba pictures

e92335i

Hi All, I bought a Pentax KX about 5-6 years ago and never used it.
During a recent holiday to Cuba I brought it along and below are some of what I think are the better shots of the trip.

I download Fotor to tweak the photos (they came out a bit dull when viewed on my monitor)
There seems to be dead pixels and dust on the sensor of the K-X from closer inspection of photos, the dust is especially evident on photos with higher aperture number.


IMGP7400_ by Stephen L, on Flickr

IMGP7974_ by Stephen L, on Flickr

IMGP8080_ by Stephen L, on Flickr

IMGP8198_ by Stephen L, on Flickr

IMGP8133_ by Stephen L, on Flickr

IMGP8134_ by Stephen L, on Flickr

Interested on your opinions.
What are my main issues/areas to work on? Any positives?
Looking back through my trip photos I found a lot of them are very similar in how they were taken - same angles etc.

I found it much more difficult to shoot people rather than objects/scenery and found myself waiting for people to move out of a shot (or moving myself) before taking the picture. By the end of the holiday I was trying to get people into pictures as looking through my photos it was more like a a gallery of photos shot in a museum than real life.

e92335i

OSI wrote: »

They're very dark, have you purposefully brought the exposure down in post? I'd consider bringing up the exposure a stop and bringing the shadows up another.

My laptop was @ 100% brightness so this may have skewed my view.

Better?:
IMGP7400__edit by Stephen L, on Flickr

ScumLord

I'd agree they're too dark. I do that myself a lot to in RAW. Bringing down the exposure usually makes the image more detailed, but then it's too dark.

Fill light and brightness are a good way of lightening the image back up without loosing the detail.

The contrast is fairly high too, you've lost a lot of dark details.

CabanSail

The spots are due to dust on the sensor. You can get it cleaned or learn to do it yourself.

Shots are a tad underexposed and quite flat. This can be fixed to a degree in Post.

Eg.



I picked this one as I had a similar car at one time. Have increased the contrast, reduced the highlights to the right of frame and made the car more vivid.

e92335i

Thanks for the feedback.

It seems a lot of comment are regarding exposure/brightness.

Have a look at the original image - I must be doing something wrong - the picture is dull, dark and flat.
Camera was set to save in jpg. 10mp.

IMGP7400 by Stephen L, on Flickr

This is across the board on all of my photos that are not out in direct sunlight.
I had to use a low f number on nearly all shots due to the dirt on the sensor.

CabanSail

Most images straight out of the camera tend to be quite flat. It is in Post Production that edits are made to improve images. Shooting RAW will record all the sensor data so will give more information to process but the images out of the camera will be much more flat as it is assumed that they will then be processed later.

OldGoat

Rather than echo what others are saying about post editing and exposure I'll comment on content and composition.

1: Love this shot. There is an elemental contrast between the dilapidated building and the care & attention being lavished on the car. The photo is telling that story. Composition wise I like the balance between the curves of the car and the curve of the bush growing out of the balcony all set against the straight lines of the buildings. My favourite of the images you've posted.

2: Meh. I think you are trying to present the older buildings but really it's just a snapshot. You'd need to work that laneway a lot more go get a better composition.

3: I like this one too. It's not as strong as the first in terms of composition but as part of a set of Maintained car Vs. Rundown buildings it works.

4: My second favourite shot. There is almost a sense of motion to the car, seeming to be running out of the photograph.

5: Meh. Nothing to see here.

6: Another lovely image. I'd like to see it cropped to remove the slanting roof and leaving the width of the image in more of a panoramic like presentation.


Try to keep vertical lines vertical.
Very nice set.
And now I'm craving a cigar.

vandriver

Just messed around with a screenshot of the last one on my phone.

Oldenboard

I thought Cuba was a sunny island. Did you take the Irish weather with you or did you darken the images to make life look sad?