Portfolio

[PixelRabbit]

I personally enjoy breaking the rule of thirds

We can only judge your experience by what you show us. If there were examples where you followed rules of composition, we would assume you "chose" to break them and could comparatively derive why you might have made that choice. Your portfolio, as it currently stands, leads folks to believe it was a lack of understanding and not so much a choice. This is why you received the comments you did.

To me, your portfolio indicates you made the "choices" you did because you were not aware that there were better choices.

THIS!!

Well that is to you, also, I only made my portfolio a few days ago, with a few shots I had to hand. I have many more that I have not included yet as I work full time and unfortunately will not be able to yet.

I am aware of better "choices". I just don't like to "choose" them. I didn't realize when I signed up for this forum that these "choices" would take me back to 1850, where If i didn't follow the "rules" I would be beaten and thrown back in the kitchen for being different.

Luckily I take all criticism and composure to the rules is something I will take on board, however, I cannot see this changing what I do. but thank you for your input.

This is your intro post:

Hi there! I'm a newbie from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, Uk!

Not really a member of any photo forums but every time I Google something this place pops up so here I am joining up finally!

Here is a selection of my photos http://jennagoodwin.500px.com

I have in the last couple of months purchased a Sony Alpha A200 with stock 18-70 and got a Tamron 80-210 with AF from a car boot for £8! Win! Also awaiting the arrival of a 0.45x Wide Angle convertoer (to play with, not serious, hence the £13 price tag)!

Looking forward to looking around and getting help!

Jenna :mrgreen:

Your responses to everyone who has tried to tell you that your composition is lacking (here and in your other threads for C&C) proves the bolded to be false. You claim in your intro to be a newbie but then when someone says "everything is centered" and suggests the simplest concept of composition (rule of thirds) as a jumping off point you say you are INTENTIONALLY breaking the rules.

I'm going to call you on that, IF there was a variety of compositions in your work I would say good on ya! break those rules! but alas there is not. Essentially every single subject is centered. If I'm wrong and you have other work that has strong compositions and the subject isn't centered then why did you choose the images you did to put on 500pix instead of your stronger compositions?

You don't seem to be looking for help, you seem to be showing your work hoping people will like them and defending it to the end. If you are happy with your photography as it is, as your defense of your centered subjects seems to indicate, then good, they aren't horrible! You are correct, your exposure and focus is pretty good for the most part but I think your closed minded approach to every person who has mentioned the shortcomings of your composition of choice will only hold you back.

I know it's not easy to hear bad stuff about your pictures. We can welcome harsh criticism but that doesn't take away the initial sting when we hear that criticism and that sting is what we tend to react to. I usually try to only reply to C&C posted on my work once a day, that way I can feel the sting, then get over it and read the C&C subjectively and answer with thought instead of knee jerk defense.

 

[theraven]

I'm a far from closed minded, I accept your comments and respect you for them much more than the "I don't like it" comments from other people. I enjoy constructive criticism like yours, I don't think anyone enjoys just criticism! I did say "Luckily I take all criticism and composure to the rules is something I will take on board" but I do like the ones I take now, the composition of others is better agrees, but as I said, I on;y put a few onto 500px which were readily available, I haven't had the chance to put more on!

I wouldn't be so defensive if people were CC instead of just C. I've noticed there are people on this forum who just rip into newbies etc instead of helping. Not everyone, just a choice few that ruin it. I am here for help and I will take on board the comments, but I can't improve with people just saying they don't like it it's crap, hints and tips on how to improve are a much better way forward.

i.e. Instead of "I don't like that, there are better views", maybe try "I don't think that view is the best, maybe further to the left, lower, a different angle, focus more on ____" etc.

 

[Rick58]

I personally enjoy breaking the rule of thirds, the first reason is it make the shots how I want them, not how the rules state, also it irritates people and gets people talking about my shots! They are exposed correctly, they are well focused, all in all reasonable shots, just not composed as they "should be". Thank you Rick58 for your agreement with this!

I take on board what you say Light Guru, in regards to my composition, it is not perfect and does need more thought, possible shoot further away and crop more, thank you for your comments all!

I got into a "discussion" about this a while ago. Photography was around long before it was an art form. Imagine all the historical photos that would be lost if the photographer would have only concerned himself with composition and particularly the famous "Rule of Thirds". For example, we would have to read about the US Civil War in textbooks only without any visual reference. This is only one reference out of probably thousands.
I really enjoy when the topic comes up and and someone climbs on the soapbox and says "Some of the best photographs are record shots", yet when a member takes one, all the composition cops start writing tickets.
Suggestion to the mods. Would a "Record and Snaps" Category be useful or a poll set up to see if it would be used? This type of photography doesn't seem well received in the General Gallery and to be honest, I don't think record and snaps people care much about abstract and comp.. I'm certainly not a beginner and Record and Snaps certainly aren't necessarily "just for fun".


I think it's sad that few here give any regard to simply nice photographs. This forum isn't titled "Photography As An Art Form".

 

[pixmedic5 5]

RULE OF THIRDS!
PORTRAIT ORIENTATION!
MANUAL ONLY!

we should put together the 10 commandments of photography and it can be made a sticky post...would be fun to see what people come up with. maybe we can vote on a permanent 10 that are the best. :mrgreen:

 

[PixelRabbit]

I personally enjoy breaking the rule of thirds, the first reason is it make the shots how I want them, not how the rules state, also it irritates people and gets people talking about my shots! They are exposed correctly, they are well focused, all in all reasonable shots, just not composed as they "should be". Thank you Rick58 for your agreement with this!

I take on board what you say Light Guru, in regards to my composition, it is not perfect and does need more thought, possible shoot further away and crop more, thank you for your comments all!

I got into a "discussion" about this a while ago. Photography was around long before it was an art form. Imagine all the historical photos that would be lost if the photographer would have only concerned himself with composition and particularly the famous "Rule of Thirds". For example, we would have to read about the US Civil War in textbooks only without any visual reference. This is only one reference out of probably thousands.
I really enjoy when the topic comes up and and someone climbs on the soapbox and says "Some of the best photograhs are record shots", yet when a member takes one, all the composition cops start writing tickets.
Suggestion to the mods. Would a "Record and Snaps" Category be useful or a poll set up to see if it would be used? This type of photography doesn't seem well received in the General Gallery and to be honest, I don't think record and snaps people care much about abstract and comp.. I'm certainly not a beginner and Record and Snaps certainly aren't necessarily "just for fun".


I think it's sad that few here give any regard to simply nice photographs. This forum isn't titled "Photography As An Art Form".

Hey Rick, I would have to say that the difference between a "successful" historical record shot with a centered subject and an "unsuccessful" picture of a common flower/building/critter etc... centered is the subject, both in what it is and how readily available it is to shoot.

I agree that there is absolutely nothing wrong with Jenna's work as it stands. She records the world around her effectively with nice exposure and focus, sometimes the centered subject works better than others but they are overall "nice" shots. You are right, not everyone aspires to learn and ingrain the nuances of composition, balance, lines, shape, form, light (etc to infinity!) of photography and that is cool. If everyone had the same aspirations with photography it would be boring and no work would stand out as different.

Here we tend to look at images offered for C&C and figure out what is lacking in the image, why it isn't "wowing us". The plain and simple fact with Jenna's work is it isn't wowing us but it shows potential. The glaring consistent "issue" is her centered subjects. When we see a bad or boring composition we default to suggesting "rule of thirds" as the solution when we should be only calling it "composition" since the rule of thirds is only a very miniscule part of the whole and quite frankly is often as boring and mundane as the centered subject but easier to look at.

When I read the OP I assumed that her choice to use 500px was a very telling cue, it told me that she aspires to be as good as the best there and the best there don't center their subjects unless there is a good reason for it or as you said it was a record shot and the subject of the shot trumps all composition rules.

 

[Rick58]

Thanks Pix (sorry, I don't know your actual name). I like your post and what you have to say. That is why I think a category for this type of photography would be a benefit. People who take this kind of photography may be happy with what they do. Myself included. I've been snapping pictures longer then some here have been alive. In all those years I've never had any interest in "leading lines" or "rule of thirds" etc, etc. Sure I know about them, but it doesn't make me "wrong" for not caring about them. If the record and snap people have "a home of their own" the C&C can consist of "maybe a tighter crop or it's a little dark" type of C&C. A persons photography should be the result of the photographers taste.

 

[theraven]

Well I've managed to add a few more to 500px and a couple on the forum if anyone wants to CC them?

 

[Rick58]

I'm not sure where you added them to the forum and the problem with adding them to 500px is trying to find the "new" shots.
I did pick up on one in the Urban Gallery. It's not titled so I'll refer to it as the "Spitting Fountains". You might want to clone out the blurred figure on the left side of the frame.

 

[theraven]

I'll get onto that when I'm at home, there were a few shot of that fountain, that was the one with the least people in! I slowed the shutter speed down to try and remove the detail of the people a little more too. there were a lot of people there for some reason!

 

[sleist]

Just to be clear, I'm not defending or deriding rules of composition or their breakage. My comments were to point out what the OP's portfolio currently tells people about his ability as a photographer. If he used this to try to land a job, I think many people would assume the OP did not grasp the basics of photographic composition given the "current" lack of variation in the collection. Furthermore, the excuse that this was intentional is less believable for the same reason.

FWIW, I'm as sick of the same old stuff (including my own) and try to mix things up with varying degrees of success. I post these here to see what works and take my lumps when they don't. But successfully breaking rules requires some knowledge of why these guidelines exist in the first place. Otherwise you're just guessing, and any successful images are just dumb luck.

As for the comments that this is all just crit and no explanation - there were links posted to currently available sources that already go into the detail required. Typing it out again here is redundant. If the OP is interested, the information is a click away. Google is your friend.

 

[theraven]

I don't know how to spell it out that I understand the rule of thirds, I also understand about composition. I spend many hours reading and watching tutorials and looking at peoples work, this is how I found this site. I am slowly learning and changing and trying new things.

I know the rules, I just don't follow them. There is a very big difference.

 

[JAC526]

Simple answer: If the subject looks good in the center...put it in the center. If the subject looks good according to the rule of thirds use that.

But to just say that every image that has the subject dead center is just adhering to dogma with no independent thought.

 

[Tee]

With few exceptions it has been my observation here on TPF that those who proudly announce that rules are meant to broken (i.e. rule of thirds) are the ones who post less than pleasing images. I feel this is the cool cyber way of taking a defensive stance rather than just saying, "Hey, you're right. I'll work on that next time." These are also ones who received pats on the head from friends and family and then are shocked back into reality when joining a community of different skill levels. We see this all the time with the Facebook mommies with their Rebel cameras. A while back, a member tried to backup their claims that amazing photographs can be made by disregarding every rule. They posted links and guess what? Every photograph had some form of rule in the image.

Raven- you're explanation of why you choose to break the rules is not convincing. If you're new, then how can you state you know what you're doing without first mastering basic photographic guidelines? Saying you like to irritate people by centering shots is a cop out.

 

[Tee]

I know the rules, I just don't follow them. There is a very big difference.

Then keep an open mind when your images aren't appealing to the eye. Or you can always use the default reply of "You'e not advanced enough to understand my work."

 

[fjrabon]

I like your shots. But why do you need these shots in a portfolio? A portfolio is used to sell you as a photographer to a client. Nobody commissions these types of shots. These are the types of shots you just take on your own and hope to sell as prints. You don't need a portfolio for that, as the client sees the image you are intending to sell to them there, already made.

A portfolio is a way to say 'hey, if you hire me for X, this is the level of quality and type of style you can expect.' For these types of photos, that's pointless.

These aren't product shots, they aren't portraits, they aren't album cover shots, they aren't fashion shots, etc. Nothing here says 'hire me for this commissioned job!' They say "if you like these buy a print", which isn't what a portfolio is for.

Furthermore if you want a portfolio, make your own website. If you're going to do it, be a pro about it.