Struggling Creatively--I need Critique and I want to Push Myself

lwellsphoto · Sep 20, 2014

Hi everyone,

I've joined this forum recently and up until now, I've been lurking and reading and soaking up people's advice/tips. I would love for you all to look at my portfolio and honestly critique my work. I think I'm at a point where creatively I need to try new things and push myself and I would love feedback (constructive and then what is working).

My site is here: louisawells.com but I also have a blog thelifeobserved.com

I am in no way what I consider a pro and would love to hear what you all have to say!

rexbobcat · Sep 20, 2014

You might get more opinions if you post a few photos that you'd like opinions on or that represent your style the most.

Just from a glance, I might consider re-organizing your Lifestyle gallery. It's somewhat all over the place in its themes. There's food, interior, some grass, some leaves, some lamp posts, what appears to be details from a wedding. Granted, "lifestyle" photography is somewhat of an ambiguous term, but the photos in your gallery kind of slip in and out of genres and some seem a bit random (like the one of the leaves). That doesn't really say lifestyle to me.

Otherwise, your site looks good. Your style is consistent and you seem to know how to find pleasing light for your subjects.

rexbobcat · Sep 20, 2014

And if you're struggling with being more creative or if you're feeling burnt out on things, consider taking up a personal project. Think of something you're passionate about, and then think how that theme or story could be conveyed visually. Then set out to make a cohesive body of work that tells that story in your own unique way.

Of course, this isn't the only way to approach personal projects, but it's a good place to start if you're feeling overwhelmed by the drive to create, but you don't know what you want to create.

FITBMX · Sep 20, 2014

First of all, welcome to TPF!!!

The same as what was said above.
Also some of your fashion photos are a little out of focus, do you use auto focus?

As for inspiration, what do you love? What do you love about yourself, your friends, and your life? When you are having a ton of fun, no matter what others think of it? Those will be the moments to inspire your photography!!!

I think you are definitely on the right path, and this forum will help you a lot!

FITBMX · Sep 21, 2014

I looked through your blog and tumblr for a while today, and I like the photos there better, they are your strongest work, very nice photos! Good job!!!

lwellsphoto · Sep 21, 2014

Thank you both very much for the feedback, I really appreciate it! I have a lot to learn technically and about editing but will definitely work on reorganizing my website! Thank you so much.

Louisa

Borad · Sep 21, 2014

Many of the photos on your blog seem to be suffering from too shallow a "depth of focus." Compare your photos in which a large portion isn't focused with similar scenes by other photographers and I believe you'll find such scenes are usually more focused. Maybe the background doesn't need to be perfectly focused but yours strike me as more blurry in the background than they should be. I'm not experienced enough to give tips but something I found on another website says "Depth of field refers to the range of distance that appears acceptably sharp. It varies depending on camera type, aperture and focusing distance, although print size and viewing distance can also influence our perception of depth of field."

The photos on the homepage of you website look really good though.

FITBMX · Sep 21, 2014

Borad said:
Many of the photos on your blog seem to be suffering from too shallow a "depth of focus." Compare your photos in which a large portion isn't focused with similar scenes by other photographers and I believe you'll find such scenes are usually more focused. Maybe the background doesn't need to be perfectly focused but yours strike me as more blurry in the background than they should be. I'm not experienced enough to give tips but something I found on another website says "Depth of field refers to the range of distance that appears acceptably sharp. It varies depending on camera type, aperture and focusing distance, although print size and viewing distance can also influence our perception of depth of field."

The photos on the homepage of you website look really good though.

Yes that first photo on the website is lovely!

Derrel · Sep 21, 2014

Borad said:
Many of the photos on your blog seem to be suffering from too shallow a "depth of focus." Compare your photos in which a large portion isn't focused with similar scenes by other photographers and I believe you'll find such scenes are usually more focused. Maybe the background doesn't need to be perfectly focused but yours strike me as more blurry in the background than they should be. I'm not experienced enough to give tips but something I found on another website says "Depth of field refers to the range of distance that appears acceptably sharp. It varies depending on camera type, aperture and focusing distance, although print size and viewing distance can also influence our perception of depth of field."

The photos on the homepage of you website look really good though.

This is especially true in your blog images. Shallow depth of field is something that many people seem to be enamored of when they first get into photography, but it wears very thin after not that long. Especially on the outdoor restaurant images, and the food photography, having ONE INCH of food in-focus, and the entire balance of the plate out of focus is tedious. It's gimmicky. When trying to show us a large-ish outdoor area, the hand-held,no-tripod, f/1.4 at 1/1000 look is just not conducive to showing the scene..it conveys the exact opposite. It is "here's a chair" and behind it is...a bunch of out of focus stuff.

Shallow depth of field FOR ITS OWN SAKE is NOT good photography. It's NOT a positive unless it works, and when it is over-used, it starts to mark your work as that of a person that relies on something that is easy to just set. Wide-open., BOOM!. Shallow depth of field, bokeh, and selective focus are just three of many facets of lenswork. If you have one, I would suggest using an image stabilized lens, and f/11, or a tripod, for some of these location shots, so we can SEE the locations. We have not been where you have been. You are not literally showing us much except a lens trick. You need some visual variety in the blog.

lwellsphoto · Sep 22, 2014

I really appreciate your feedback and I realized two things:

1. My first photo teacher taught me wrong
2. I've been thinking of aperature all the wrong way.

That first teacher said she shoots aperature priority and so I shot aperature priority mainly until about a month and a half ago (so about 2.5 years of this horrible mistake) and THEN even worse, I was mistaken in how aperature actually works which is why my depth of field is SO shallow. I have currently now switched to manual and am working on experimenting with high f stops in order to work on increasing my photography range (and by recent I mean like literally started two weeks ago).

In terms of the blog, what do you mean by more variety? It's kind of a way to showcase what I'm doing in New York as opposed to most photographers whose blog is directly attached to their website. I have a set style that I'm working on changing and adapting but in terms of variety do you mean subject matter? Lighting/editing style?

Thanks so much you guys have been helpful!

Braineack · Sep 22, 2014

nothing wrong with shooting in Aperture priority; just pick an aperture that makes sense for the photo you're taking.

you can still stop down in A mode...

rexbobcat · Sep 22, 2014

Yeah, aperture priority is fine (I use it A LOT when running and gunning).

Just make sure that you're not so enamored with the shallow depth-of-field that you let other elements suffer. Think about he purpose of the photos.

If you're taking photos of a salad and you use f/1.4, only one leaf of lettuce will be in focus. It doesn't let me see how delicious the salad looks etc...

lwellsphoto · Sep 22, 2014

Thank you. And again, it's not that I'm in love with shallow depth of field, all the bokeh and blur can be distracting, more like I had no clue how to solve that problem (basic photography 101 I know). Currently working on using lower f stops and seeing the difference

Derrel · Sep 22, 2014

lwellsphoto said:
Thank you. And again, it's not that I'm in love with shallow depth of field, all the bokeh and blur can be distracting, more like I had no clue how to solve that problem (basic photography 101 I know). Currently working on using lower f stops and seeing the difference

I think you'll find that shooting more images at an f/stop of f/5.6, or f/6.3, or f/7.1 will markedly change the way your photos come out. What I meant by variety is to shoot at different exposure values, such as what is called "well stopped down," meaning at f/11, to gain a deep depth of field zone, which will allow you to show fairly near to fairly far things all in acceptably sharp focus. On close-ups, like on food shots, the smaller apertures, meaning the tiny holes,like f/8,f/11, and even f/16--those small apertures are about where most close-up photos look the best in terms of showing the actual subject matter. I mean variety as in mixing up the depth of field, to show us something else besides wide-open, shallow DOF shots. Varying your shooting technique a bit is what I mean by more variety.

In terms of subject matter, I thought your blog was very interesting and kind of fun to read! Another suggestion: on the fashion show stuff, both on the runway and behind the scenes in the makeup area, the shutter speed was slowish, or the focus was a bit off. On the runway, focus was sketchy; in the makeup areas backstage, the EXPOSURES were decent, but the shutter speeds seems a bit too slow, with motion blurring on a lot of the shots. I think maybe favoring a bit higher shutter speed on the makeup stuff would have helped get crisper shots. I think you'll get better and better and you work at this more!