Some photos for CC

blackrose89 · Dec 9, 2011

I know the focus is off in a lot of my photos, I don't know if it's camera as I am using an old compact, but let's face it... blaming your camera would be dumb LOL......
I posted up on some pretty blah beach photos not too long ago and people were guiding my on how to make them better. Here are the final products
#1

Here is a flower with a spider web
#3

o hey tyler · Dec 9, 2011

Well for one, fine tuning your focus is difficult because you don't have the ability to manually focus. Therefore it's completely up to the computer in your camera to achieve the proper focus; which it doesn't always do.

If and when you move up to a DSLR, you will see how much a role focus plays in normal operation of a camera.

naptime · Dec 9, 2011

i really like #2, even moreso if the woman OR the bridge were in focus.

i hate not having an slr.. (well, i do now, but i can't open it till christmas.lol ) everything i have done has been compact.. so i feel your pain not being able to focus on what you want focused.

blackrose89 · Dec 9, 2011

Well I'm getting a Nikon coolpix L120 for Christmas. I know it's not a DSLR, but I have played around with my uncle's and it definetly is a step up from what I do have now. I'm not the one buying the camera and a DSLR was out of the question from the person purchasing it for me. I have a toilet caving in on my upstaires floor and a broken A/C unit...... so yeh a DSLR is not a priority right now!

naptime · Dec 9, 2011

blackrose89 said:
Well I'm getting a Nikon coolpix L120 for Christmas. I know it's not a DSLR, but I have played around with my uncle's and it definetly is a step up from what I do have now. I'm not the one buying the camera and a DSLR was out of the question from the person purchasing it for me. I have a toilet caving in on my upstaires floor and a broken A/C unit...... so yeh a DSLR is not a priority right now!

we arent getting them either. out of the budget for now. (we being my 16 year old daughter and i) so i went with canon film slr's instead.. and we're gonna tackle processing as well

but i hear ya... dslr... ehh, not just yet

blackrose89 · Dec 9, 2011

That just means we have to work twice as hard... do you have a Flickr? maybe we could help each other out....

naptime · Dec 10, 2011

blackrose89 said:
That just means we have to work twice as hard... do you have a Flickr? maybe we could help each other out....

not yet.. i'm old school photobucket.

but i see a lot of people use flickr.. looks like i'm gonna have to setup there.

blackrose89 · Dec 10, 2011

Yeh I would def recommend creating a Flickr account

My Flickr

Flickr: blackrose1981's Photostream

LightSpeed · Dec 10, 2011

blackrose89 said:
Well I'm getting a Nikon coolpix L120 for Christmas. I know it's not a DSLR, but I have played around with my uncle's and it definetly is a step up from what I do have now. I'm not the one buying the camera and a DSLR was out of the question from the person purchasing it for me. I have a toilet caving in on my upstaires floor and a broken A/C unit...... so yeh a DSLR is not a priority right now!

Kinda makes me feel bad about driving a Lotus, a Lexus, and riding a zx1400r.
So if you could buy a DSLR tomorrow which would it be? I'm sure Pentax is out of the question.
Sooooo.............which canon or nikon?

blackrose89 · Dec 10, 2011

From what i have read, Nikon D3000 seems to be the best entry level to start with. I come from a Nikon family, if I showed up with a canon I'd be lynched lol

bazooka · Dec 10, 2011

Okie dokie, here we go...

#1 Technically the photo is fine. I wouldn't have clipped off the first two lightpoles or whatever those are.

But, most importantly, what about this scene impressed you? There must have been something there, but I'm not sure what it was. What was it specifically? Was it a thing? A feeling? A reltationship? The light? What do you think you could have done to more clearly communicate that intended "subject"? I feel like you've got several things that are going on this image that you could have been communicating so I'm unsure of the purpose of the image.

#2 Getting warmer. Now I'm seeing a clearer communication. A see isolation, and it isn't a pleasant version of it. Lone woman sitting on a seaweed ridden beach, with the more happy cheery boardwalk in the distance and somewhat out of focus.... out of touch... not connected to the beach, and therefore unreachable. The slight vignette in the bottom corner seems to corral her even more into this small area. This is good!

What I don't like is her outfit. I'm guessing you didn't plan this shot and you may not even know the person (or perhaps it's you?), but it's something to consider for future shots. I like the long sleeves because it gives the feeling of coldness, but the design seems a little too festive to me. I think something with a plain design would be more appropriate for the mood. Also, I don't like seeing her bare skin... that breaks the feeling of cold.

However, this image communicates to me, where as the first does not. It's not as strong as it could be, but it's definitely there. Some argue that the back of a person does not make an effective photograph, I would point to this image as evidence to the contrary.

#3 Yeah... it's a flower with some strands of a spider web. So what? :hug::

What attracted you to this? Was it the web? Was it the background? The yellow color? The yellow on green? A certain shape? Pick out what exactly interested you, and isolate it from the rest.

On the technical side, the yellow is clipping a bit... you could lower the exposure overall, or locally, or desaturate the yellow channel a bit.

Hope this helps.

blackrose89 · Dec 10, 2011

bazooka said:
Okie dokie, here we go...#1 Technically the photo is fine. I wouldn't have clipped off the first two lightpoles or whatever those are.But, most importantly, what about this scene impressed you? There must have been something there, but I'm not sure what it was. What was it specifically? Was it a thing? A feeling? A reltationship? The light? What do you think you could have done to more clearly communicate that intended "subject"? I feel like you've got several things that are going on this image that you could have been communicating so I'm unsure of the purpose of the .

I went to the beach, an honestly was pretty blah. I felt underwhlemed and overwhlemed. I really didn't have much to work with. There aren't a lot of different and contrasting elements to work with. I had sand, a pier, sky and a relatively calm ocean. My goal was really just trying to practice and composing an image as best I could with as little as I had to work with. I know it's not an excuse, because a good photographer can make a q-tip look great. So to make up for lack of an interesting subject I tried to make up for that in strong composition. I added the foreground which was the activity of the ocean, I had a leading patter on the pier, I filled the frame with my subject, there are no distracting elements on the background from my main subjects,I tried limiting an empty sky as far is I could. It may not be super exciting but I feel like this is a step forward for me, this me trying to really put an image together, not just taking a random main subject and adding some blur in the background. I had a blasé scenery in front of me, and I did my best! Not saying its a fantastic image, just saying it has a lot more effort put into it.Thanks for your compliments on #2. I know you don't like her outfit, but that's mainly personal choice I guess...#3 again more of a practice shot. I was trying to get a photo of a flower, but didn't want it to be the same snapshot of a flower ive done 100 times before, so I thought the fact that neither the flower nor the spider web was centered, it might make it more interesting. I just started and I'm really trying to take it one step at a time. I'm trying to focus more on composition at the moment.

Futurelight · Dec 10, 2011

naptime said:
blackrose89 said:

Well I'm getting a Nikon coolpix L120 for Christmas. I know it's not a DSLR, but I have played around with my uncle's and it definetly is a step up from what I do have now. I'm not the one buying the camera and a DSLR was out of the question from the person purchasing it for me. I have a toilet caving in on my upstaires floor and a broken A/C unit...... so yeh a DSLR is not a priority right now!

Click to expand...

we arent getting them either. out of the budget for now. (we being my 16 year old daughter and i) so i went with canon film slr's instead.. and we're gonna tackle processing as well but i hear ya... dslr... ehh, not just yet

It's much more expensive to use film but (and it's a big but) you learn SO much more from your mistakes! When you carry the information you learn from using film across to digital you will already be light years ahead of most photographers who have only ever used digital. Personally, I think you have made a VERY wise choice going for film to begin with! When you have a film with 24 or 36 exposures on it, you need every single one of them to count! With digital you can just snap away until you finally get one that works and delete the rest. Film teaches composure, asa/iso, shutter speed and depth of feild much better than digital as the is SO much LESS room for mistake. Basically, it teaches you to THINK about the shot you are taking, about the light around you and about the conditions of the environment you are in.

I use digital mostly now but I only started a few years ago. I'm 32 and started photography when I was 6 and, until a few years ago, I was only using film. I still don't like digital and I don't think that will change. When I do a pro shoot, I always use film. The responses are far superior. Instead of capuring X amount of pixels with digital, film just captures ONE pixel.

My old lecturer at college pulled me to one side one day and told me that most photographers using a 24 exp film would get one usable shot and he was so impressed that (to his complete disbelief) I was getting over 15 per 24 exp film. The lessons I learnt when I was a kid still stand strong in my mind and even with digital I use the same rules.

Good luck and don't give up the chase!

Futurelight · Dec 10, 2011

and just to add, I like the 2nd one. It is peaceful. The first is slightly over-exposed with too high a contrast level. They are both framed well and, even though they are not quite sharp, there is still a good image in each of them. In sepia toning you could get away with the 1920's look which will compensate for the lack of focus.

bazooka · Dec 10, 2011

blackrose89 said:
bazooka said:

Okie dokie, here we go...#1 Technically the photo is fine. I wouldn't have clipped off the first two lightpoles or whatever those are.But, most importantly, what about this scene impressed you? There must have been something there, but I'm not sure what it was. What was it specifically? Was it a thing? A feeling? A reltationship? The light? What do you think you could have done to more clearly communicate that intended "subject"? I feel like you've got several things that are going on this image that you could have been communicating so I'm unsure of the purpose of the .

Click to expand...

I went to the beach, an honestly was pretty blah. I felt underwhlemed and overwhlemed. I really didn't have much to work with. There aren't a lot of different and contrasting elements to work with. I had sand, a pier, sky and a relatively calm ocean. My goal was really just trying to practice and composing an image as best I could with as little as I had to work with. I know it's not an excuse, because a good photographer can make a q-tip look great. So to make up for lack of an interesting subject I tried to make up for that in strong composition. I added the foreground which was the activity of the ocean, I had a leading patter on the pier, I filled the frame with my subject, there are no distracting elements on the background from my main subjects,I tried limiting an empty sky as far is I could. It may not be super exciting but I feel like this is a step forward for me, this me trying to really put an image together, not just taking a random main subject and adding some blur in the background. I had a blasé scenery in front of me, and I did my best! Not saying its a fantastic image, just saying it has a lot more effort put into it.Thanks for your compliments on #2. I know you don't like her outfit, but that's mainly personal choice I guess...#3 again more of a practice shot. I was trying to get a photo of a flower, but didn't want it to be the same snapshot of a flower ive done 100 times before, so I thought the fact that neither the flower nor the spider web was centered, it might make it more interesting. I just started and I'm really trying to take it one step at a time. I'm trying to focus more on composition at the moment.

I think #1 is a solid composition. I can only gripe about the two clipped lights up top, and that's a pretty small gripe. I can tell you took your time. I know you have a strong artist background but I can't remember how long you've been shooting? 2 months? My point is, it seems to me that you have become comfortable with solid composition and avoiding noob mistakes. This is good. Now it's time to take the next step and to really start making some bold statements with your photography. I think you did that fairly well with #2. #3, not so much, but I'm certain it was better than the way you are describing your previous attempt.

It sounds like you're on the right course, so keep truckin'.