Just started my photography Biz need C&C PLEASE!

[mishele]

WOOOHOOOO!! I'm the first person to offer popcorn!!!!!

 

[Robin Usagani]

Mishele... you get popcorn at the beginning of the show!

 

[Raian-san]

Welcome to the forum Liz. As you already know, this forum is bluntly honest and there have been many, many online forum arguments and fights before.

At least you're taking it well and realize to look at all of this as advice instead of them being dicks. Keep practicing and one day you will become really good.

 

[onelove]

Some of use still shoot film and digital, i don't mind paying you don't get the same buzz shooting digital as you do shooting 120 film

I think that buzz is from the fixer fumes.

hahaha... sounds like you have been there, done that!

Oh yeah. I processed my first photo 51 years ago and did pro work (both camera and darkroom) for decade or two. I kind of miss all of that.
In the darkroom I got to make magic with nothing but light.

For now, I am more like Elizabeth. I am a rank beginner again trying to learn all of this digital stuff. I still don't even have photoshop or any other serious post production software. All I have is photomatix, but I am enjoying learning about HDR and I am in this strictly for fun. (of course I'll never turn down a sales opportunity)

We are fortunate that this is the digital age and we can burn through shots and see them instantly. When I was learning and even working, I didn't know if I had any usable images for at least several hours. (or even a week or more for Kodachrome) You don't know terror until the first roll of an important shoot comes up blank. All you can hope for is that the other rolls have something on them. And you can't imagine the expense of learning until you get your first 8x10 studio camera and each shot was the equivalent of $15-20 today

Elizabeth, hang in there. You have a wonderful feel for children's portrature. You can learn technique easily enough but the ability to bring out the essence of a child only comes from within. I could never do it.

Reading, participating in forums and class rooms are all great but the best thing to do is study the masters. Start with Ansel Adams to begin to understand exposure and the expansion or compression of tonal range. Study Edward Westin to learn about shape, texture and light as well as bringing out the inner being in a portrait. The list goes on, but once you begin to explore you will find the great ones and learn from them.

See what good photography really looks like. It is a humbling experience. I am playing with HDR as well as 3D photography. I thought I was getting pretty good...but then I saw what can really be accomplished with those techniques. (search ytf on flicker) I realized how low I am on the learning curve and how far I have to go. But at least I am on that curve!

Most importantly, keep making pictures. Practice, practice, practice. You hands need to operate the camera before your brain even knows what is needed. It does become an instinct. Be critical of your own work. Strive for improvement in every session. At some point you will "see the light" both metaphorically and physically. You'll get it and you'll see differently. It is part of the process. No one here was born a pro, they all had to start at the beginning just like you.

If you can make a living doing what you enjoy, you will never work a day in your life. It will all be play.

onelove

 

[Elizabeth30]

Ok, did some light editing. I want to know if there's anthing wrong with the color here. From what most of you have said it sounds like my monitor might be off or maybe it's my eyes LOL Either way, tell me if this color looks ok??

It's better but still lacking light and it's looking magenta-ish on my screen. You really should have used an off camera flash (not the built-in pop-up flash) positioned to the right of the camera as someone had already mentioned.

Yes, well I have a speedlite 430EX but I have no clue how to use it off camera. I was also unaware that it would do any good off camera while outside?? guess I'll have to read that manual too.

 

[Tony S]

Weclcome to the forum Elizabeth. It's nice to see someone take the info, no matter how hard it is stated and thrown at them, and use it to realize they have some serious work to do and take steps to do it. It's a lesson that could be learned by many others who come on here looking for advice.

There is so much to learn that a few months, a class or two, and being on forums is not enough to take it all in. It's a long learning process, and then just when you think you've got it, there's another way to look at it and do things. Continue learning and growing.

Look for the gems in the rough, I'm talking about the advice given, not the images. lol

 

[manaheim]

I'm sorry, is this April first and I just missed something?

My that's a lovely bridge up ahead. Are those ... goats?

 

[MLeeK]

Ok, did some light editing. I want to know if there's anthing wrong with the color here. From what most of you have said it sounds like my monitor might be off or maybe it's my eyes LOL Either way, tell me if this color looks ok??

It's better but still lacking light and it's looking magenta-ish on my screen. You really should have used an off camera flash (not the built-in pop-up flash) positioned to the right of the camera as someone had already mentioned.

Yes, well I have a speedlite 430EX but I have no clue how to use it off camera. I was also unaware that it would do any good off camera while outside?? guess I'll have to read that manual too.

When you are shooting outside-especially in the full light of day-flash is pretty much NECESSARY.

Had you used flash to illuminate the girl on the tracks your trees would have been in good exposure and your sky would have been blue. The flash never reaches the sky-it's impossible. Even if it were on camera in this case it would have worked beautifully.

 

[pgriz]

RE. editing... Editing is like salt in cooking. A light touch bring out the flavor, too much and it kills the taste.

 

[Elizabeth30]

It's better but still lacking light and it's looking magenta-ish on my screen. You really should have used an off camera flash (not the built-in pop-up flash) positioned to the right of the camera as someone had already mentioned.

Yes, well I have a speedlite 430EX but I have no clue how to use it off camera. I was also unaware that it would do any good off camera while outside?? guess I'll have to read that manual too.

When you are shooting outside-especially in the full light of day-flash is pretty much NECESSARY.

Had you used flash to illuminate the girl on the tracks your trees would have been in good exposure and your sky would have been blue. The flash never reaches the sky-it's impossible. Even if it were on camera in this case it would have worked beautifully.

The girl on the tracks was over edited. here's the original. I see a lot of cool tones and was trying to warm it up and got carried away

 

[Elizabeth30]

I'm sorry, is this April first and I just missed something?

My that's a lovely bridge up ahead. Are those ... goats?

Hum.... not sure what all the flattery is about...............

 

[Robin Usagani]

My Photos Are NOT OK to Edit
My Photos Are OK to Edit​

 

[Elizabeth30]

I think that buzz is from the fixer fumes.

hahaha... sounds like you have been there, done that!

Oh yeah. I processed my first photo 51 years ago and did pro work (both camera and darkroom) for decade or two. I kind of miss all of that.
In the darkroom I got to make magic with nothing but light.

For now, I am more like Elizabeth. I am a rank beginner again trying to learn all of this digital stuff. I still don't even have photoshop or any other serious post production software. All I have is photomatix, but I am enjoying learning about HDR and I am in this strictly for fun. (of course I'll never turn down a sales opportunity)

We are fortunate that this is the digital age and we can burn through shots and see them instantly. When I was learning and even working, I didn't know if I had any usable images for at least several hours. (or even a week or more for Kodachrome) You don't know terror until the first roll of an important shoot comes up blank. All you can hope for is that the other rolls have something on them. And you can't imagine the expense of learning until you get your first 8x10 studio camera and each shot was the equivalent of $15-20 today

Elizabeth, hang in there. You have a wonderful feel for children's portrature. You can learn technique easily enough but the ability to bring out the essence of a child only comes from within. I could never do it.

Reading, participating in forums and class rooms are all great but the best thing to do is study the masters. Start with Ansel Adams to begin to understand exposure and the expansion or compression of tonal range. Study Edward Westin to learn about shape, texture and light as well as bringing out the inner being in a portrait. The list goes on, but once you begin to explore you will find the great ones and learn from them.

See what good photography really looks like. It is a humbling experience. I am playing with HDR as well as 3D photography. I thought I was getting pretty good...but then I saw what can really be accomplished with those techniques. (search ytf on flicker) I realized how low I am on the learning curve and how far I have to go. But at least I am on that curve!

Most importantly, keep making pictures. Practice, practice, practice. You hands need to operate the camera before your brain even knows what is needed. It does become an instinct. Be critical of your own work. Strive for improvement in every session. At some point you will "see the light" both metaphorically and physically. You'll get it and you'll see differently. It is part of the process. No one here was born a pro, they all had to start at the beginning just like you.

If you can make a living doing what you enjoy, you will never work a day in your life. It will all be play.

onelove

Thank you! This encourages me a lot!! This morning I had a bit to much pride and now I'm humbly accepting that I am NOT the photographer I thought I was but I'm so glad I posted here and got all of the replies I did! I couldn't have need this more! Thanks again!

 

[HowlingWolf]

I commend you for sticking around and taking some of the crap you have gotten, just like anyplace online you will find a good selection of self righteous idiots. Especially in photography where people have forgotten it's still an art, and art is destroyed if treated like it's something "proper" because it's not, and never should be. That's why you have so many people who say "anyone can be a photographer", it isn't true, sure anyone can learn how to mimic other shots, but that makes it crap in my opinion, you want to do something that has never been done that's how art evolves, that means braking the rules, if you aren't willing to do that you won't get anything special in the long run, and where is the fun in that? Also don't forget plenty of the heavy hearted lads who don't understand the concept of constructive criticism throw out plenty of crap, they just don't make it obvious, but there will never be an artist who takes hundreds of "perfect" shots in a few shoots. It also seems they sometimes don't understand that if someone had the perfect shot they would have to be a complete idiot to post looking for cc for it, regardless if they have a business or not.

with that being said there are some issues in the original post that have already been mentioned and I see you working on (which is another wonderful trait of yours). Overall focus is your biggest issue, white balance maybe second, composition is the lesser. Make sure to always take these things into the next level, a lot of which can be fixed by better understanding your camera, read your manual, study different techniques and then practice practice practice. I don't care how much you read up on (which you should do), things are different when you actually work with the camera in the field, learn how to compensate for lighting changes, less then perfect conditions and most annoyingly white balance changes (get a grey card if you can, I don't have one but it will save you time, I heard you can print them out at 18% grey but you are better off just buying one).

To be honest I really like the third one, it can be improved but I love the color to it. Just watch out for obstructions, or use them to your advantage.

Most importantly always push yourself. If you have something you love more then you could love anything, go back and do it better.

One hint to white balance, reflective surfaces and shadows can change the over all color scheme, there is so much lying in photography, cloning and what not, I think it's an ugly thing to do, don't ever rely 100 percent on hardcore pp (lol), it's counter-productive (just my opinion), so don't fake it unless you are going for that desired effect (I do it a lot with saturation, because it's my art, and I love leaving a small amount of color in black and white transitions, I just love the effect it gives off). If you start faking everything in pp (I understand there are situations where that's a must, and contrast sort of stuff almost always helps the transition between camera to computer) you aren't going to learn to become a better photographer, just a better editor.

 

[PictureBox]

This thread puts me to sleep.