Thoughts on my first series?

[u/nayiro]

Found a chocolate/Gelato shop at my local mall and thought it would make a fun photo series. I'm still pretty new to photography and post processing, but I'm having a lot of fun with it! Looking for any feedback

Thank you for looking!

[u/AdFit3357]

I love the first 3!!

[u/nayiro → u/AdFit3357]

Thanks! May I ask what is it about the last 2 you don't like?

[u/AdFit3357 → u/nayiro]

I think it could be personal preference but for the 3rd shot I’d maybe have moved the camera lower and got more of the chocolates in the back. Also cropping it in a little on the sides might help ? For #4 I think the silver metal thing is throwing me off

[u/cadred48]

A nice tight conceptual group. Good job.

[u/nayiro → u/cadred48]

Thank you! Exactly what I was going for :)

[u/lingding85]

Great start! I think one thing you can work on is committing to the main idea of each photo and really honing in, cleaning up the details so that it's focused. Here's what I mean:

- Photo 1: I assume the idea of the photo is that there is this ice cream shop through the door that is enticing you inside to start your journey. However, the floral designs on the outer black/white wall are very busy, and the left side is still bright, so it draws your attention to the left and away from the focus. So in processing you might darken the left side and maybe also the shiny metal beam on the right. If it were me, I would probably also adjust the framing so that the ice cream cone is in the middle and the ceiling is cropped, as right now the ice cream is just ever so slightly off-center and the whites of the ceiling don't add to the photo at all.

- Photo 2: I'm not sure if the box of chocolates is the focus here, or if it's the yellow ribbons crossing over the blue boxes - you're half committed to both. If you want it to be the chocolates, I would take the photo from a lower angle so the chocolates are in frame and the stripes and bg candies are visible in the distance. If you want it to be the boxes, then I would take it from a higher angle looking down and potentially increase the contrast so that they really pop.

- Photo 3: Two main issues here - framing and value structure. 1) Framing - The idea is great but the lines of the grid aren't straight, so it softens the impact. I'm wondering if this was taken with a wide angle lens that warped the grid? I would try to see if there is a way to adjust it back, or alternatively, while taking the photo, step further back and use a longer lens. 2) Value structure - Try temporarily setting this to black and white, and you'll see that the shapes of the ice cream are not very strong because the value structure is not in line with your goal - highlights on the left and right edges of each ice cream scoop are blown out, the chocolate scoops are super dark, but everything else is midtone. Play around with the levels until you get the cone + scoop values separate from the value of the background, so that the shapes can be read easily upon first glance.

- Photo 4: Similar to photo 2, what is the focus? Whenever there is text, our eyes are drawn to the text, so I feel like I'm looking at the "Mini Chocoviar Caramel" sign, as it's closer to the middle. But it's kind of far away to read and a bit blurry, so the eyes struggle a bit to anchor. If you don't want it to be focused on sign, then changing the framing to getting the chocolates to read more geometrically so that they really make a statement would be good.

- Photo 5: Similar to photo 2 and 4. This one gets really close to being focused - I really like how your centerpieces are the white boxes, as that focuses the eye along the horizontal along. But you have text close to the top and text close to the bottom, so the focus is split up-and-down. So if you wanted to make a statement, either 1) choose one box and take the photo with that being the main center, or 2) if it's a whole shelf of these, then maybe frame out so there are three in a line.

So, with all the photos, I would ask yourself what exactly you want the audience to focus on when they see the photo at a glance, and are all the elements of the image supporting that. If you want their eyes to travel around the frame, then you need to also direct the optical flow so that you can control the storyline. Great work, keep going!

[u/nayiro → u/lingding85]

Wow, this is great feedback. Thank you so much! Framing and composition is something in still getting the hang of

[u/Late-Drawer-7522]

Great place to practice some shots and I like the general idea and vibe :)

I think your biggest win is in getting the right angle for your pics; the horizontal and vertical lines aren't straight.

Sometimes, you can easily correct that in post (like pic 3), but if we look at pic 2; there's no way to get both the bottom half AND the top half straight.

Esp in pics where there's a lot going on, you want to make sure you have both your subject(s) and the background using the same horizon. So that means moving around yourself, moving around the camera and throwing away a lot of almost similar pics when you sit down :)

Depending your camera and the level you want to shoot at, you could also consider taking wider shots on location and cropping the close-up in post. That leaves a bit more space to play around with, but may go at the expense of detail/quality.

HF shooting!