Contemplation

[jasonaphotography]

He guys, thanks in part to your advice, I find myself the owner of a T3i with a decent 18-55mm lens. Over the past couple days I've been messing around with it; here's one of the results. I was having a campfire with my brother (pictured) and had him hold up a burning twig. Let me know what you think of the result :)!
20447

[theantiquetiger]

Looks like you uploaded it just a tad too big and the forum compressed it, making it slightly soft.

As for the rest of the image, you clipped his hand just a tad, but not a big deal (some people will not like it). I like the composition, nice placement of the flame and your brother.

The twig has movement, which bothers me more than anything. You need to up the ISO in order to get the speed faster. I think the ISO on the T3i is 3200, so I wouldn't push it more than 2000 or so, because the noise would be too much.

Fire is very tough to shoot. It is nothing but a white blob because the exposure is set to his face. Flames do have detail if exposed correctly.

[Iguanasan]

I like where you were going with this shot. As AT says, exposing for flame is difficult and if you get the flame correct, the rest of the image may be too dark. I think this is a fairly good compromise as I really like the light on his face though it would have been interesting to see the result with the flame properly exposed. What were your settings for this shot if you don't mind me asking?

Compositionally, it's not too bad. AT points out the chopped fingers. Personally, it annoys me to see 95% of a body part. Either cut it in half or show the whole thing. (generally). There's lots of guides for where to put the frame for portraits. The general rule you can use though is that if it looks like you missed a piece you've missed a piece. If it looks like you cut it off there on purpose then you should be fine. My personal taste would be to be more intimate and crop in even tighter.

[Runmonty]

Iggy and AT Make some good points above. I suggest you listen to them all, but also trust your own thoughts as well

To me the exposure is just right for the main subject of the photo (his face). Normally cut off body parts does annoy me, but on this occasion it doesn't bother me.

The black and white works well on this too. I quite like this photo. Well done.

[jasonaphotography]

I was shooting 1/4, f4.5, ISO 100. Definitely should've had the ISO at 800 or so, but I was just light painting, and it slipped my relatively amateur mind :(.

[Iguanasan]

I was shooting 1/4, f4.5, ISO 100. Definitely should've had the ISO at 800 or so, but I was just light painting, and it slipped my relatively amateur mind :(.

We are all learning. Just at different places along the way. That's super impressive that you got a shot that sharp with your subject standing still for 1/4 of a second. I'm guessing handheld as well since you probably don't have a tripod. Well done.

Yes, ISO 800 at 1/30 or maybe even 1/60 might have been a little easier. But don't knock it. Your results were pretty decent. We here, as photographers, are a pretty nit-picky bunch. :P

[jasonaphotography]

I do have a decent tripod actually, (my parents had a decent rig maybe 20 years ago, and it's one of the few things still compatible with today's gear!)
But alas, I wasn't using it at the time :).
I know, an picky is exactly what I want. This is a critique thread, after all :).