My Black and White portfolio

[amolitor]

Practice, but with purpose and intent, don't just mash out photographs.

Look at the results.

Look at other people's pictures.

Compare, contrast, thing about what's different, what you like, what you don't like.

I have some blog posts someplace about this stuff, feel free to dig around in the July 2012 area. The titles should be obvious.

 

[amolitor]

Also, I like some of the stuff.

There's too many for me to easily identify which ones I am thinking of, but you seem to have an eye for form and tone that's not bad at all. There's probably 4 or 5 decent photographs in the stuff you posted. I don't see any great ones, but I see a handful of pretty decent ones, and then a bunch of discards. Don't be discouraged, it's obvious that you can see, at least a little, and that you have ideas, sometimes pretty good ones. That's all you need, really. The rest is trivialities that will take care of themselves, once the ideas and the eyes firm up.

 

[Tuffythepug]

amolitar is right about some of your shots displaying an eye for form. I have to believe that you do have a good eye for what might make a good picture but are having difficulty transferring that vision to a finished photograph. That's where experience and technical proficiency come into play. Look at great b/w photographer's work and notice what it is that stands out. then work towards getting that look in your own photos

 

[marcoborghesi]

I think the big problem is the grey overall tone of the series. In that way I think you lost the feel and probably some photos could lost their mood. If you work on flat tone probably there could be something more to say.

 

[ChristianBoyatt]

Thank you all for the feedback, I appreciate it very much. I will take all the advice and use it to my advantage. Most of these are taken with a very cheap cell phone, and i'm working on saving up for a real camera. As for the tone of the black and white being more gray, that is my phone's B&W setting which happens to suck. I have since stopped using that setting and started editing on my computer, as seen with the Cow/Bull photo. Once again thank you for the advice

 

[laurenvictoria]

The bull is definitely my favorite! I agree with what someone said above, your choice in subject matter is cool

 

[Tuffythepug]

Christian, now that I see what you're working with it's easy to understand how your pictures lack the visual punch that a "real" camera could have given them. It's fine to use a cell phone camera to practice your composition but you really don't have enough control over the basic photographic elements to produce real good pictures. When you do acquire a better camera I'm sure your photos will improve immensely.