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sarallyn · Feb 23, 2008

alright... so I'm a complete noob to film photography... the only camera I've ever had is a $100 automatic digital thing, so aperture/shutter speeds are VERY new to me. these pics are taken with a canon ae-1 program. I'll be learning more when I start my black and white photography course next week, though. that'll help a lot (hopefully).

now these pictures are pretty random -- not particular subject or theme. they're whatever I could find really quick this morning so I could develop them and make sure the aperture diaphragm is working properly (I still don't completely know, ahaha). they're pretty boring subjects, and the focus/balance on a lot of them are HORRIBLE.
and also -- how do I get my downloaded pictures less distorted after going through the scanner? the pictures with snow get really washed out...

here goes (and sorry they're so big... for some reason, photobucket isn't resizing them correctly... I dunno) CC welcomed!;

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spiffybeth · Feb 23, 2008

number 2 is totally gross. (i love it!) what is it?

sarallyn · Feb 23, 2008

thanks! ummm.... I dunno what it is, ahaha. I didn't even check... there are dozens of those around my barns, I never really thought of them too much. maybe i'll check tomorrow...

sarallyn · Feb 24, 2008

anyone else? please?

cameramike · Feb 24, 2008

1st one- really no subject here, good depth of field but its really not helping to separate anything.

2nd one- composition is good, i like it, would be better if he image was better. a good rule is largest dimension should be 800 pixels (that way people even with slow internet and small screen can load it)

3rd one- way to over exposed and not sharp, what should almost be (i'm assuming) a milky sandy color is very white like the sky.

4th- I like, but "blended with havana" isn't in focus enough, i think your f-stop may be to low, which is causing your photos to have a very small depth of field.

5th - its to centered, also I have a feeling the birds were moving? its not very focused on them.

6th- again centered, not good composition wise, on animals and people its good technique to focus on their eyes, his eyes look out of focus to me.

7th- i like, i wish the snow on the top of it was more separated from the white of the sky. could be worked on post processing to burn it a little.

8th - good example i think of when a small depth of field is a good thing, helps the middle log pop, too bad its a little over exposed. (again could be fixed post process)

9th- this time its not too centered, but theres too much empty white space. a tighter crop would help it.

10th- same advice as above

11th- the toy in his mouth dissapears because of the snow being over exposed.

12th- again small, if you had taken a different angle, and of gotten the ends of the shears light it would look spot on.

13th- again, a little more light would of helped.

14th- the tree is very distracting to this, also the lack of light pulls my eye more towards the tree.

15th- a show looking down would be much more interesting, the shapes of the cones would draw your eye to it more.

well thats my 2 cents..

sarallyn · Feb 24, 2008

that's a really thorough critique, thanks a lot. it really helps!

as for the depth of field -- that maybe because my f-stop is stuck on the largest setting, but maybe not. I'm trying to figure it out.

and the snow ones -- I have to figure out how to adjust my scanner so it doesn't wash everything out (with that much white).

and I'm really bummed with the cigar box picture -- I really messed up the focus on that one.

cameramike · Feb 24, 2008

not a problem, glad you can accept critique and are willing to work on it. I've done very few scans, but don't feel like your cheating by doing some post processing it could really help out some of your photographs. Now you can go back and give some of these another go, that cigar box is just asking to be photographed.

sarallyn · Feb 24, 2008

cameramike said:
not a problem, glad you can accept critique and are willing to work on it. I've done very few scans, but don't feel like your cheating by doing some post processing it could really help out some of your photographs. Now you can go back and give some of these another go, that cigar box is just asking to be photographed.

I'll definitely look into processing some scanned photos -- nothing too dramatic, but something to make them look a bit better.

And I'm going out to shoot that cigar box right now, ahaha.

Thanks a lot again!!