First things first, way to go on submitting your first assignment.
I’m not sure why there was an issue with rotating the image. Sometimes web browsers don’t know why way to display an image and the get confused but the metadata of the image.
Speaking of metadata here is the exif data of your images:
[attachment=2:mqzvieh5]002 – Copy – rotated EXIF.png[/attachment:mqzvieh5]
Date Time Original: 2013:04:02 13:36:45
Exposure Time: 1/60
F Number: f / 5.60
Exposure Program: Not defined
ISO Speed Ratings: 6400
Metering Mode: Pattern
Flash: Flash fired, compulsory flash mode
Focal Length: 29mm
White Balance: Manual white balance
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS REBEL T3
Exif Version:
Flashpix Version:
Color Space: 1
Pixel X Dimension: 2848
Pixel Y Dimension: 4272
Date Time Digitized: 2013:04:02 13:36:45
Subsec Time: 98
Subsec Time Original: 98
Subsec Time Digitized: 98
Shutter Speed Value: 6
Aperture Value: 5
Max Aperture Value: 4.36
Focal Plane X Resolution: 4720.44
Focal Plane Y Resolution: 4786.55
Focal Plane Resolution Unit: 2
Custom Rendered: Normal process
Scene Capture Type: Standard
ExifIFDPointer: 230
Orientation: 1
X Resolution: 72
Y Resolution: 72
Resolution Unit: 2
Date Time: 2013:04:02 12:45:56
Software: Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.2.9200.16384
[attachment=1:mqzvieh5]001 – Copy – rotated EXIF.png[/attachment:mqzvieh5]
Date Time Original: 2013:04:02 13:26:33
Exposure Time: 1/60
F Number: f / 5.60
Exposure Program: Not defined
ISO Speed Ratings: 6400
Metering Mode: Pattern
Flash: Flash fired, compulsory flash mode
Focal Length: 50mm
White Balance: Auto white balance
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS REBEL T3
Exif Version:
Flashpix Version:
Color Space: 1
Pixel X Dimension: 2848
Pixel Y Dimension: 4272
Date Time Digitized: 2013:04:02 13:26:33
Subsec Time: 58
Subsec Time Original: 58
Subsec Time Digitized: 58
Shutter Speed Value: 6
Aperture Value: 5
Max Aperture Value: 5.66
Focal Plane X Resolution: 4720.44
Focal Plane Y Resolution: 4786.55
Focal Plane Resolution Unit: 2
Custom Rendered: Normal process
Scene Capture Type: Standard
ExifIFDPointer: 230
Orientation: 1
X Resolution: 72
Y Resolution: 72
Resolution Unit: 2
Date Time: 2013:04:02 12:45:52
Software: Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.2.9200.16384
A couple things I noticed immediately.
Your wider shot of the hour glass is completely out of focus so take a little extra time and make sure things are in focus.
In your close up image there is a few things going. For one thing you are shooting at ISO 6400 and the flash fired. What that tells me is that there wasn’t anywhere near enough light for your camera in this situation.
As you will soon learn, cameras are nowhere near as good as the human eye at handling low light situations. Your eye might see a room and be ok with the amount of light but your camera will struggle to make a decent image. That’s the case here.
If your camera set itself to iso 6400 and tried to turn on the flash it’s basically saying please help me, there is not enough light!
High ISOs are the way you camera tries to make itself more sensitive. This allows it to shoot in dark situations. A side effect of high ISOs is the image gets very noisy. Take a look at the photo at 100%:
[attachment=0:mqzvieh5]example of iso 6400 noise.png[/attachment:mqzvieh5]
Sell all the dots and noise? Thats a result of ISO 6400…
With film cameras you would buy film that was a certain ISO, the higher the number the more sensitive the film was… Now with digital you can control all that.
Don’t worry too much though about the technical stuff I just wanted you to be aware of why the image looks so murky.
Beyond that I like that you have gotten quite close to your subject and simplified the frame. You are also playing with lines in your photograph and symmetry. All of this is great.
You just need more practice with the technical stuff.
In this low light situation what you could do to create a nicer image would be put your camera on a tripod, shoot at much lower ISO and use a shutter release cable or your camera’s built in timer to reduce camera shake. You could also control your shutter speed and fstop to achieve the look you want. In this case I would guess you wanted a shallow depth of field (where the bkg is blurry) so you’d use a low f-stop number.
Whatever the case you are on your way!
Don’t look at other student’s assignments too much. If everyone just copies the other students’ photos nobody really learns anything. The best students around here do their own thing!
Way to go.
See you on the next assignment.