Beginner to Photography

[JohnRutland]

Hello there,

My name is John Rutland and I have always loved photography.

I shoot with a sony a6000.

I'm looking for a mentor type person to help give me advice 1 on 1.

Below is a shot I've taken in the past.

My website is www.JohnRutland.com check out some of my recent photos.

Any photographic advice would be great!

 

[tirediron]

The TPF Mentoring Program

 

[dennybeall]

You can also just ask questions (specific with an example photo included) here on the forum and get some good help. May need a thick skin because like any forum there are a few jerks here but not many so you'll get good help.
Like the sample shot you posted you could have changed your angle a bit to your left and used a polarizing filter to reduce the reflections.

 

[chuasam]

Your photos are generally alright. Watch the blown out highlights, avoid the strange colour processing and work towards telling a story
You're doing well so far.

 

[mcap1972]

Post some photos for critique.

 

[HughGuessWho]

After taking a look at some of your pictures on your website, I would offer a few suggestions;
• Try to eliminate unneeded elements (distractions) from the composition
• Try to fill the frame with your “subject”, whatever your subject is
• Watch your edges for distractions
• Don’t convert to B&W just for the sake of B&W
• Resist the temptation to do selective color

Keep shootin’ and postin’

 

[mrpink]

Reduce the annoyance of your watermark....




p!nK

 

[robbins.photo]

Hello there,

My name is John Rutland and I have always loved photography.

I shoot with a sony a6000.

I'm looking for a mentor type person to help give me advice 1 on 1.

Below is a shot I've taken in the past.

My website is www.JohnRutland.com check out some of my recent photos.

Any photographic advice would be great!

Greetings John, and welcome to the forum. Ok, so what follows is a critique of the above image, and please note that parts may seem "unkind" or "nit picky" but it's meant only in the spirit of helping you improve.

Ok, so this image could have greatly benefited from a cpl to help eliminate or greatly reduce the reflections off the glass. As it is I can see the legs of another person on the right but the reflections make it look as if this was some sort of accident scene photo, which is a bit disturbing really.

That's further compounded by converting to black and white, my guess is the color image probably would have it looked more like cloud reflections instead of some one impacting the windshield.


Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

 

[greatchimney]

Hi, John. I assure you this forum is a good source for all your related inquiries about photography. I'm also a starter in terms of having some good creative shots but I'm learning different strategies here.

 

[JohnFranklin]

My honest and sincere opinion, after having examined the photographs on your website, is that you seem to overemphasize the "artistry" of the shots through various forms of saturation and lighting trickery instead of letting an image speak for itself with natural colors and lighting. I am not sure precisely when photography crossed the line into the category of art, but I believe it was sometime in the 1960's. I do not believe "artsy" photography is real photography. I apologize for the harshness of my critique but I feel obliged to intervene in this matter.

 

[Solarflare]

Meh. Photography became art in 1840. Just check out highest price for a photograph lists, most of them are older than 1960.

 

[JohnFranklin]

Mr. Gandi, I am afraid you may have missed my point entirely.

 

[The_Traveler]

Mr. Gandi, I am afraid you may have missed my point entirely.

It looks to me as if you were just being condescending.
It has been my experience that when people say that they are being honest and sincere, they are just about to say something that might have a tiny grain of truth but is calculated to be a hurtful and demeaning as possible.

To John Rutland:.

You have come across the awful truth about any art form - and even any craft, that when someone has experience and skills, things look easily done.
The reality is that decent photography is hard, creativity is very hard and what you can create never matches the picture in your mind's eye.

There are lots of things to learn.
I suggest you start:

1. Make your subject(s) large in the frame, just leaving enough to set the surroundings.
2. The time to convert to b/w is when the color in the frame is distracting your eye from the really important things.
3. Editing and post-processing should always support the main intent and is never an end in itself.
4. If your picture just looks like reality, you are just copying and are just taking pictures. If your picture looks better because you have made reality look different and perhaps better, you are making art.

If you want some opinions and or help, I'd be happy to.
My website is lewlortonphoto.com and you can look to see if you like my approach.

Best wishes,

Lew

 

[SquarePeg]

My honest and sincere opinion, after having examined the photographs on your website, is that you seem to overemphasize the "artistry" of the shots through various forms of saturation and lighting trickery instead of letting an image speak for itself with natural colors and lighting. I am not sure precisely when photography crossed the line into the category of art, but I believe it was sometime in the 1960's. I do not believe "artsy" photography is real photography. I apologize for the harshness of my critique but I feel obliged to intervene in this matter.

I take it that your posts are supposed to be some type of tongue in cheek trolling and that's your choice for your own threads but don't take that tact on someone else's thread, especially someone new to the site who may be discouraged from posting further by your asshattery.

 

[JohnFranklin]

I take it that your posts are supposed to be some type of tongue in cheek trolling and that's your choice for your own threads but don't take that tact on someone else's thread, especially someone new to the site who may be discouraged from posting further by your asshattery.

Pardon me, but you as well as Mr. Traveler have given me undue hostility after I voiced my opinion on the quality of the photographic blog that was posted on this thread. After all, it is what the boy asked us to do when he started the thread and I obliged. You all have ridiculed my posts, perhaps because I am an old fashioned gentleman who enjoys the qualities of the olden days of photography. It appears that this sort of thing is met with resentment.