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blackshadow
Hall of Famer
Blunt comments incoming.Anyway, photo time - be blunt
View attachment 1023641 Himeji Castle, Japan, Jan 2020. Effects mode with the fade at the edge of the frame
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Walking 6th Avenue, Manhatten, Sept 2019. My back wouldn't allow me to bend anymore to eliminate the traffic light support. Hoping to learn a trick or 2 to be able to delete it.
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Last 2 - Kalbarri July 2018; 2nd one has the effects setting, love how it's been framed
Firstly composition on all shots looks great.
Secondly I'm not a fan of the effects - I prefer a more natural look.
The first shot looks a little soft but it's very hard to tell if it's just because I'm looking at a small image - perhaps the effect softens the image.
The Manhattan shot - if you really want to remove the traffic light support it's pretty easily done in post processing. Personally I'd leave it there as I think it adds to the urban feel.
Re getting a DSLR - tips I'd suggest are learn to shoot in Manual - auto modes can be very nice but camera smarts can be fooled by tricky lighting and other things. M allows for more creativity with exposure, depth of field, motion blur and sharpness etc.
Post production (I mainly use lightroom) really helps with getting your images to pop - I also suggest shooting in RAW as you can do a lot more in post production than if you have shot in jpg (a compressed) format.