So, I'm getting serious about photography and looking at other photographs, I noticed mine didn't have that distinctive thing to make it 'pop'. They are quite bland and the only thing that stood out was the silohette against the sky. Here is one to speculate about:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I don't know if it's one of the better ones but I liked the tones in the sky. I can think of a dozen ways to 'fix' this but often you need the opinions and critisms of others.

 

 

 

Here are some other photos that I took on that same day:

 

(They all follow the silohette against sky theme)

 

 

 

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Again, I went out to our town and took photos of a few buildings on top of Sainsbury's. These ended up even more bland than the silohette/sky ones. But this particular one made me think that with a bit of cropping it could turn out alright:

 

 

 

 

Another thing, when I pointed my camera at a house, it turned out like this:

 

 

 

 

But when I pointed it at the sky it turned out like this:

 

 

 

 

Finding an alternative meant just find the correct place to point it:

 

 

 

 

How do I... Not do it this way? The second one I like because it brought out the sky but darkened the house and the third lost some of the sky but made the house a little visible.

 

 

 

Anyway, I was just asking for advice and such. I use a Nikon D40 with the standard lens that come with it, I do have a tripod but it wasn't used in these shots. As I mentioned in the photography thread just yesterday, I was looking for filters to help me. I know that there is a 'rule of thirds' out there somewhere and maybe I should have taken that into context. I used the landscape thing on the dial for all of these pictures.

 

 

 

I also acknowledge that the lens may be dirty...

I think there bland because in the silhouette ones there is no point of interest. You have an amazing camera, but you don't know what the Ro3rds is?

If you have a tripod...Use it! :D

 

 

 

They are so useful if you want to get the effect you wanted in your last 3 photos. What you use it called HDR. You take 3 photos with different shutterspeeds and maybe white balance and then crop each of the pictures and crop the bits for example; say use the houses in the first photo and crop the sky in the second. Then fit them together and voila :D

 

 

 

Keep experiemtning and have a look on www.deviantart.com and look at other artists work and use the techniques to get the photos that they use

@MrShinyredplanet: I know what the rule of thirds is but I wasn't really thinking about it when I took those pictures.

 

 

 

@Chazimgee: The thing is, I didn't change the shutter speeds when taking those three pictures buuuut I'll probably go back and try it. I'll have to use my rubbish excuse of a tripod :P

@MrShinyredplanet: I know what the rule of thirds is but I wasn't really thinking about it when I took those pictures.

 

 

 

 

When I take photos I always use the rule of thirds, otherwise they come out flat, and boring.

 

 

 

You can place things in the middle, if you have symmetry going on, to make a shot look interesting, and have depth.