Feeling disillusioned with photography..

[elizpage]

I know I'm just getting started comparatively, but it's so frustrating to not be able to produce anything other than mediocre work.. I just wish I could focus on SOMETHING. I almost want to to just give up and sell my camera.

The following are examples of some of my "work" and my website is just shitty now. **** everything.

 

[elizpage]

Regardless of where we are in our photography career, we all will hit that creative wall where it seems like we're stuck. We all have been there.

For me personally, photography is about capturing not just what I see but how I see it. It is my vision of what's in front of me. I'm not just catching the moment but creating a mood for the viewers to feel that moment with me as if they're there. At least that's my goal for my own photography.

What is your goal for your photography?

Hi there. Thanks for your encouraging reply. This feeling of being stuck though has lasted half a year. I want to make people feel beautiful and comfortable in their own skin. I want them to have that one photograph that they can look at and really like the way they look in it. I want to capture life and all its nuances. But recently, I've just been getting either OOF images or flat pieces of ****.

 

[Vtec44]

Try to look beyond the technical imperfections. I always tell my clients that beauty is more about how you feel than how you look. Your photographs may not be technically perfect yet beautiful. I keep plenty of OOF photographs because they captured the essence of the moment. To me that's more important. Maybe look for inspirations outside of photography? What sparks your interest? What excites you? Is it the rain? The sun set? The little kids playing and laughing?

 

[Solarflare]

Out of focus is a purely technical problem. You can fix it by better shot discipline. Alternatively by checking the calibration of your hardware, because if you get it all the time, it might be a problem of your lens or camera being miscalibrated.

Alternatively, you can switch to a manual focus camera (modern mirrorless like the Sony A7* cameras are pretty good at that) and nail focus precisely, by hand, with either the manification or the focus peeking (Fuji X also offers the digital split screen in some of the newer models). Magnification of course is extremely precise, but also a very slow method.

Getting inspiration is a variant of creativity in general. If the pictures you linked are from yourself, you arent too bad at it.


The pictures you linked are very soft in 100% view, but as far as I can see, thats because of a poor quality lens, not because of missed focus (something else is sharp) or camera shake (the blurr is uneven, has direction).

They also appear, as you say, "flat". Unless thats because of post processing, thats a general feature of small sensor cameras. It means they do not have much precision in the way they determine colors. Its what DxOMark calls "color depth". Our eyes have about 8 bit of precision for red and blue, and 9 bit of precision for green; thus an ideal camera would have color depth of 27 bit (3*9 bit, since for the camera its not possible to have different precision on different channels). At the moment, only medium format cameras really get close to this value.

There are however photographers who make such "flat" pictures with great effect, such as iNeedChemicalX@devianart, though many of his pictures also have higher image quality, so I think its more a question of post processing.

The completely blow out sky in your pictures is also typical for small sensors of poor performance.


Either way, the pictures you linked are IMHO very good.

 

[Nettles]

Mediocre is my middle name this last 40 years.

Life can get in the way. Zeal and inspiration can be a trickle. Results at the computer screen can disappoint. And if you're aiming at getting a business going -- making a name for yourself -- that'll pile on more than a few pressures.

It doesn't help if we aren't born disciplinarians! Privately expect a 3% success rate. In your business it's about getting a technically acceptable result, (though OOF isn't always a failure), but it's also where creativity may wax and wane.

I'm guessing James knows something about that, especially for the first few years.

Look and 'see' and make it yours.

By the way, it's impossible at this resolution to talk about poor lens quality. (Sharpening at this resolution in any thread is meaningless too.) You're not using 'poor' lenses anyway. Average lenses, solid technique and intelligent processing will deliver very good results.

Also, the kind of work you do favours primes -- the humble 50mm or equivalent, and the 35. A mid-range zoom might be very useful, too, in your context. Your choice of lenses is spot on, your sensor more than good enough.

Good luck!

Edit: The shot of the girl at the railing is excellent in my opinion. Love the composition and feel of the light. Success there for sure!

 

[Forkie]

I agree with what @Vtec44 is saying and I would add that, if shooting people is your thing, find a way to capture someone's personality in a shot. Instead of placing someone in a nice place with a nice background, put them on a plain background. That way you have to get something out of them, because there's no pretty sunset or waterfall in the background to take over if you haven't quite caught their character.

For me, when shooting a portrait, I care for almost nothing but my subject's eyes. The eyes will tell you everything about your subject; what mood they are in, if they are calm or nervous, if they are happy or sad, smiling or frowning, serious or cheeky, even prudish or flirty Capturing these things will make your portraits much more intimate and rewarding.

Shooting people is not about "look at this amazing place this person is in", it's about "look at this person".

Here's a good way to get emotion and feeling out of a portrait that I've done a couple of times:

Find a friend you like to shoot and who is happy to be photographed, sit them down in front of a plain wall, maybe with a table and a couple of glasses of wine and just have a chat. Have a good old catch up with your friend. Have your camera with you and whilst your friend is talking, click away and try to capture their expressions and the "feel" of their voice as they're talking. It can feel weird, but having a laugh about how weird it is can actually be a fun ice breaker and get the conversation flowing.

With this method, instead of trying to pose someone, you will be catching natural, real expressions. Make sure the eyes are always in focus and remember your composition whilst clicking and I think you'll come out with some great photos of your friend that you can give to them and it might help reignite your spark in photographing people.

 

[pgriz]

Good, insightful comments. @elizpage, you're underrating your results. #7093 is very strong.

Perhaps, getting the person to do what they enjoy doing, and then capturing them being engrossed in that activity may be the way to communicate who they are and what they enjoy.

 

[Torus34]

It appears from the images that your interest lies in portraits -- broadly, pictures of people. It's also possible that your camera produces images that are a tad 'soft' and low in color range and contrast. Up-grading your camera or careful post-processing can take care of some of that.

But wait! There's more.

Good prints in which people are the subject, particularly when a single person is the center of interest, can over-ride minor technical defects. They can do this by showing us 'more than just a likeness.' They can tell us something about the person, through pose, choice of clothing, facial expression, milieu or any of a number of visual clues.

Look at #7505. It's what I'd call a 'record' shot. It records the subject at a particular location in cool weather. She's smiling. But what do I know about her other than that? She's far, far more than just someone who smiles when looking at a camera held by her friend. She's someone with a particular personality and set of interests. She likes to do some things and dislikes others. The picture tells us ... nothing.

Perhaps she likes to sketch. How much more informative would be a print showing her looking up from a sketch she's working on? Is she pleased to be interrupted? Annoyed? Bashful about her work? Show us. Tell us about her.

Got the idea?

PS: I tend to work in B&W film. The lack of any color at all, other than an occasional sepia-toned print, doesn't get in the way of a good print. I also take pictures with home-made 'pinhole' cameras. You want soft? They've got soft more than somewhat. Again, good prints are possible even though the gear is truly primitive.

Best wishes. Let us here on the forum see how you're doing.

 

[astroNikon]

There is so much more to learn.

BUY a book on portrait shooting. yes BUY one, don't look at the free stuff. The free stuff doesn't go into detail like the real books (from all the ones I've looked at). This will give you many pointers on body position (not straight on to the camera etc), arm positions, leg positions, head & neck positions (eyelashes, eye sockets, head angles, chin, lip, etc). lighting .. in very great detail. Learn new techniques and slowly add them into your repertoire.

I would learn alot more about your camera and lighting too.
Post processing is key too.

ie, there's so much to learn about every stage in photography. From concept, execution and lighting, post processing. It's mind boggling how much I've learned over the past couple years .... and I don't take many portraits.

 

[Gary A.]

Much of photography is craft. Much of getting craft right is through repetition. So shoot, shoot some more ... and at the end of the day when you think you're done shooting ... shoot again. Unfortunately, you have to be your own worse critic. But use that to you advantage, if something isn't quite what you want, get angry, get analytical and get motivated to shoot it again ... but don't get disillusioned. Good photography, consistent photography is comprised of attention to a bunch of little details. Over time, one learns what details need to be given greater attention and tweaked in order to attain the photogs mental image of how the final image should look. People grow differently, many new photogs grow evenly over time ... others I know grow in spurts. They keeping hitting the growth wall over and over and appear not to be getting better ... then suddenly, a door opens and they're a level better. So don't give up, keep shooting.

 

[The_Traveler]

@elizpage, you're underrating your results. #7093 is very strong.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, totally agree
you have caught her in the middle of a thought and, while we cannot know what she is thinking, we have an idea.
the picture is more than a record, it captures a bit about her.

Good prints in which people are the subject, particularly when a single person is the center of interest, can over-ride minor technical defects. They can do this by showing us 'more than just a likeness.' They can tell us something about the person, through pose, choice of clothing, facial expression, milieu or any of a number of visual clues.

Much of photography is craft. Much of getting craft right is through repetition. So shoot, shoot some more ... and at the end of the day when you think you're done shooting ... shoot again. Unfortunately, you have to be your own worse critic. But use that to you advantage, if something isn't quite what you want, get angry, get analytical and get motivated to shoot it again ... but don't get disillusioned. Good photography, consistent photography is comprised of attention to a bunch of little details. Over time, one learns what details need to be given greater attention and tweaked in order to attain the photogs mental image of how the final image should look. People grow differently, many new photogs grow evenly over time ... others I know grow in spurts. They keeping hitting the growth wall over and over and appear not to be getting better ... then suddenly, a door opens and they're a level better. So don't give up, keep shooting.

Craft is sooo important but not for what it may first seem.
Craft is important so that you can emphasize what is important in the image, de-emphasize what isn't and then the technical stuff becomes transparent as the viewer sees through the two dimensional picture into the pictured reality. The craft works to make that passage easy.

I think that you are not looking hard at your pictures to see what is important and what is distracting.

for example #6330.

Gorgeous face, very symmetric, nice skin.
The darkest spot - and what jumps out to the viewer is her cleavage.
What if that is cropped and slightly rotated so her eyes are level
then sharpened a bit.
On another layer I removed her freckles and then lowered opacity so that the freckles are visible but less prominent so she knows it hasn't been PSed.
Now the beauty and symmetry of her face and skin are apparent and important.

Look hard at your photos and analyze them.

 

[Vtec44]

Oh what the heck, my original reply somehow got deleted. Darn this new phone!

 

[Dave442]

I think there are some nice shots, a bit of extra headroom in some for me and the one with the buildings in the background has those tilted (hard to tell if it was purposely done that way).

All the models look comfortable, except the older model and that would be normal. I think it is good that you are able to go back and see that you feel you can do better. Even that does not mean that the next time you go out it is all going to magically be the results you want, that can take much more than six months.

For example, I see most the shots are using models in outdoor environments and probably with natural light. Have you tried shading or diffusing light to give some shadows on the face to give some depth. Not saying to go do something, just to look at what you feel you what in your photos and then how to achieve that.

I think in general your subjects and their friends would like the shots. I've taken many breaks from photography, and I often come back with a new a different focus.

 

[ronlane]

Nice edit Lew. You nailed that one. I liked the photo but it needed to be cropped to avoid distraction.

I thought that one, 7093 and 7542 had potential.

 

[The_Traveler]

Had a few minutes to fiddle with another.

It's a bit tougher when the clothes are much brighter than the subject's face.
A bit dark and under-saturated, IMO.
You need to be aware that the face is the most important thing.
And learning to sharpen is crucial.
Mother Nature does not care how you want the light and contrast, you need to learn to correct her mistakes.

You can take the pictures just fine, its the rest that isn't up to your standard

note difference in apparent sharpness just from sharpening.
You shot at iso 100, f 2 .
That surely isn't the best f stop for your camera and always puts you in danger of straying outside the DOF.