"When I grow up" B&W version....

[AMOMENT]

. Not to be calling anyone out specifically, but I haven't seen much work here on TPF that comes even close.[/QUOTE]


Wow! That was the kindest thing ANYONE on here has ever said on here. Most of the time a lot of people on here just want to be bullies. I'm all for CC like "try a different type of focus, use a faster shutter, increase DOF, but most the comments on here are simply personal attacks. NOT ALL, but some. Photography is supposed to be fun, or at least it is for me, but people on here act like if you post a picture against their expectations or in opposition to their advice, that it is a some sort of dis' on them. a little narcistic?

 

[MLeeK]

Because that is exactly what you did when I was working with you on still life.
You have so much potential, but you just seem to throw out everything you are told or that you seem to learn for a second.
You seem to refuse to slow down and take it one step at a time. When we told you don't add in flash you went out and bought flash...
You have yet to master how to do any one thing. Some people can learn a hundred things at a time, but not many. This is a very complicated thing. You have to build the layers of knowledge one. step. at. a time.
I think in your brain you KNOW a lot of things, but you can't apply them all at the same time.
First and foremost you have got to get focus. Everything else is useless if the image is out of focus.

 

[AMOMENT]

Okay, so 1. THESE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN WITHOUT A FLASH AS RECOMMENDED. 2. They were shot at a shutter speed of 1/200 or FASTER AS RECOMMENDED! 3. I shot in shutter priority to make sure this was the case! AS RECOMMENDED. 4. I rasied the ISO instead of using external light sources AS PER RECOMMENDATION! What gives?

 

[AMOMENT]

HOENSTLY....mob mentality "let's all just not respond to her." I'm sorry but are you joking? What are you guys from high school? BIG deal my photos are flawed. Let's just say for a second that I'm not improving....GET OVER IT! It doesn't mean I'm personally disrepsecting you or THAT IM NOT TRYING TO TAKE ADVICE. For what it's worth, I actually have been mentored on here by someone over the phone who has told me to do certain things in which I have...so maybe I'm not taking "your" advice, but I am taking someone's. I'll tell you something else. Foprget about what type of photographers you are but as people, ON HERE AT LEAST, you're kind of just mean and disrespectful. I don't care how frustrated I was with my students, I wouldn't let it get to the point that I completed IGNORED AND MISSED ALL OF THE ATTEMPT BEING TAKEN..AND ADVICE! I posted still like, I shot in shutter priority, I rasied ISO instead of introducing more equipment.....

 

[Jaemie]

Well, nearly all are OOF.

 

[AMOMENT]

Whether this is an online forum or not, let's not forget something... WE ARE "ALL" ADULTS on here and a general respect should should be given. I don't understand how you could say I'm ignoring all of your adgvice qwhen clearly I have given you the data to show you I am not! I think everyone on here just wants to gang up on me and REFUSE TO ACTUALLY see how much I am trying and listening. I think frankly, you just can't get past it...

 

[AMOMENT]

Okay, so Jaemi..let me ask you. I shot these in shutter priority because I KNOW IT WAS RECOMMENDED THAT I not shoot slower than 1/200. Obviousely, in shutter priority , it chose the aperture. I bumped up my ISO to 6400 (Around there) to compensate and shot in AF-S because someone on here said it was prob the best thing to use. I chose my FP but also shot in auto to eliminate at least some of the decisoon making processed for me, since I'm not ready to shoot in full manual. What would you have done differently? I wasn't "supposed to use a flash"......I rasied my ISO in order to allow for faster shutter speed, and no external light. I shot in shutter priority to take some of the decision away from me which I guess I can't handle yet....

 

[AMOMENT]

I am taking all of the advice. I recently posted a whole heep of still life .....

 

[tirediron]

Amoment, I think that the reason people are saying that you're not taking the advice that has been offered is because that is the way it seems. You've been a member here for almost a year, and you've posted a lot of work. That's good. However... despite all of the suggestions and critique that has been offered, there seems to be little overall improvement in your work. Your images suffer from focus issues in at least two out of three cases that I see, and while certain elements of composition and exposure can be "modified" in the name of artistic license, it's always best to understand the rules before you try to break them.

Answer me this: Why, after a year are you still suffering focusing problems? This is something that anyone with a modern DSLR should be able to sort out in the first week or two of use. A number of people (including myself) have suggest to you, in one form or another, that you slow down and attempt to become skilled in one aspect at a time rather than trying to get the perfect picture each time.

How about going out right now and taking and uploading three images of your daughter where the face is in tack-sharp focus. Don't worry about the composition, don't worry about anything else, heck shoot 'em in Green Box mode, just get that focus nailed.

 

[vtf]

At one time I thought you couldn't use another's company name? Picturesque Photography is in use, can it be used because "by Erica" is in it?
You have many other companies ahead of you, I would look for something unique and then run a search on it, you want it towards the top of the page.

Depends on where you live. Here (BC), you can't use the trade-marked portion of a name, so I couldn't set myself up in business as "Xerox Photography" since "Xerox" is a unique, trade-marked name. Since "John's Photography" is not unique, and has nothing trade-markable, there could be ten of us on the same block.

I believe here you can still use a trademarked name such as Canon, Xerox, Nikon etc, as long as it's your name.

 

[MLeeK]

1. You aren't in shutter priority, you are in full manual. You have an f/2.8 lens, but you are leaving it at f/4 for one subject instead of dropping it down to get proper exposure. Then you are increasing exposure in your editing program. You are still missing focus. Why is that?


Image 2: You are not in shutter priority, you are in manual. Evidently you saw somewhere that your exposure wasn't so hot and you dropped some on the f/ and the shutter. Knowing already that you can't hand hold at a slower shutter speed. You still had to raise it in post, but it's not nearly as bad overall, you did have to bring up some shadows


The rest match these. Why try to BS us? You are only frustrating us more and cheating yourself. You feed us whatever you THINK we want to hear about anything and everything. It doesn't do you any good. You are still making the same mistakes and making it impossible for anyone to help you by lying about it. Not one of the ones posted recently is in anything other than full manual. The only thing you seem to change up in any of them is your metering pattern from spot to matrix.

 

[AMOMENT]

tirediron, I don't know =( I'm very frustrated. I have even shot in auto focus and have no where near tack sharp photos. I have tried shotting af-s byut at smaller apertures to increase my DOF and compensate for missed focus. I tried shooting in burst as suggested for a while, I tried shooting in Af-C an only using the center FP, I shot still life, I tried only using FP WITH THE CROSS SENSOR, I tried shooting in aperture or shutter prioity to make sure my exposure wasn't causing the noise. It's so hard to hear people say I'm not taking their advice when this couldn't be father from the truth. I TRY IT ALL....=(

 

[JAC526]

Have you tried more than one camera?

 

[dxqcanada]

When you are looking through the viewfinder at your subject ... do they look in focus ???

Hmm, Ok ... maybe you should stop and do a focus test to verify that:

image in viewfinder that looks in focus ... corresponds with what camera says is in focus.

 

[AMOMENT]

See, MLEEk...I did shoot with a higher ISO AS YOUR INTERPRETER SHOWS.. and a fast shutter speed. How can you say I didn't take that advice?

The last we spoke you said this to me vis PM and I'm only sharing bc it is nothing personal. That being said, we had been conversing, you were so kind, and I will even post replies where you said I was improving. Then you fell off face of the earth, came back and said you tried to help but I wasn't a good student basically.


You said months ago (last response from you )

"Cross type focus points are stronger. That's my primary ***** with my 5D Mark II-it only has one cross type focus point. If you are shooting in good light any of your focus points should work well. If you are shooting in something low contrast you may find that you need to switch to the center point. If you are focusing and recomposing using the center point bump your aperture up a bit to give you more leeway with the depth of field.
Focus is depressing until it locks focus, then shifting slightly to recompose the frame. The problem with that is that when you move left to right or up and down you are changing the distance from the sensor to the subject/focal point. You can wack your focus a bit-which is why I say to add to your aperture a bit to compensate for that.

Hope everything else is going great! It's hectic as hell here as I am getting knee deep in running a wrestling tournament-that means I get to do all of the planning, fundraising, ordering, staffing... you name it-for the 3rd and 4th of Feb. I am INSANE!!! Plus shooting 5 nights a week! UGH! I haven't been into 3 posts in the forum today cuz I just now got to sit down!
I can't really complain about it... If I weren't this busy I'd be bored!

Hope everything is great for you too!
MLee