Welcome to the student forum!
You can edit your forum signature here. Adding an avatar and maybe your name and or website/twitter/facebook would be great.
Speaking of twitter, if you’re on there check out: http://twitter.com/photographyicon
Also, did you confirm that you’re on the email list by clicking the link in the email?
And finally there is a photo contest going on over here. Feel free to jump in. Anyone can submit photos for the contests. Last month the winner got a gift certificate to Amazon.com
Now with all the housekeeping out of the way let’s get into the critique!
The first assignment is a real treat to critique because it’s many people’s first real effort toward becoming a better photographer.
In your case just the fact that you’ve signed up and started working on this course means you’re already on your way to getting better.
In your beast photo you’ve managed to find a boring pair of jeans which is certainly suitable for the assignment.
More importantly, your beauty shot does the trick. You’ve gotten quite close and made the viewer pay attention to a very specific and interesting detail. Namely, the frayed jeans…
Now here are a few things you could do to improve this image.
Manually set your white balance to match the lighting in that room.
It’s hard to tell what the correct setting would be here because the flash is overpowering the natural light in the room. But if it’s tungsten light, set it to tungsten etc. Don’t worry too much about this if you don’t know how or what this is. We’ll get into it more later.
Turn the flash off and use a tripod.
The flash is certainly a handy tool but in order to become a better photographer you’ll want to stop using it until you know when and how to use it properly. Many times you can get away without using a flash in low light by using a tripod and a shutter release cable or your camera’s onboard self timer. That way you can use the natural light (even in low light like this image) and still get away with tack sharp images.
Overall you’ve done well on your first assignment and I look forward to helping you improve your photography through the course!
Don’t forget to update your forum signature with your avatar (pic of yourself) and ideally a name.
Also check out the general chat section of the forum. It’s the spot for any kind of photography related discussions that aren’t directly related to the course.
See you on assignment 2!
😉