Some of my best, at least for now!

Mr. Quiet · July 31, 2009

ENJOY!:ivar

Andy · August 1, 2009

What are you looking for?
Communication is really important. I know what you want because of the PM you sent me. Please, tell Everyone here at Dgrin what you want from them, with this post, thanks!

Mr. Quiet · August 1, 2009

I want you guys to tell me if I have potential and what kind of potential I have, if any. Also I want trait forward critiques, if you have ever posted in the WP then you know how to do that properly. I would like EVERYBODY to give me the best you have, please. I am not one of those people that think that my pictures are perfect, so feel free to tell me the truth.

Phenomenological · August 1, 2009

The simple truth: You need practice. As everyone does to ascend from a snapshooter to a photographer. You can read all the books and forum posts you like, and look at all the photographs you like online - It'll all help. But without getting out and practising your technique, then practising different methods of editing, you're not going to get far. Just devote an hour or so a day if at all possible, go out, and find things to shoot. But don't just aim the camera and click the shutter button. Think. 10 seconds of thought can make the difference between an average shot and a good shot.

The most important thing to consider IMO is the composition - Once you get that, everything else will fall into place. Just think about what should go where in the frame, do a bit of reading on the Rule of Thirds, then go out and fill up your memory card.

Phenomenological · August 1, 2009

I'm going to go through and give you some pointers on how I think you can improve - I'm not trying to be harsh, I just want to show you what you could potentially improve in each image.

Oh and first things first, remove the little LW. If I wanted to steal the pictures that would take me quite literally 30 seconds to remove, and that includes 15 seconds to boot up the editing software.

Perfect example of what I mean about the composition - A general rule of portraits (Though it can be broken to create very stunning portraits, at first it may be best to bear it in mind) is that you should leave space in FRONT of the person. Giving the subject space to look into makes the picture seem more natural and comfortable. Also, the background is very important in a portrait - A picture inside a car is never going to be as good as a picture taken with a nice natural backdrop.

I think the main thing you need to do for these ones is to have a look at some floral photography. Browse some online, see what works and what doesn't. Again in this one the subject looks a bit cramped up in the corner, and the focus looks to be slightly off. Look online, then go out into your garden, and take lots and lots of pictures. Try different composition, different focus, different flowers, everything - Just have a play!

Composition again - You need more space around the subject, especially at the bottom where the jeans obscure some of it. Don't be afraid to zoom out - You don't have to fill the frame.

First things first, almost perfect focus on the head of the insect, nice work there. Again what you need is the composition - Unless you have a macro lens and can get really close to the head to capture detail, it might look better to try to capture more of the insect for example. Just a thought.

Narrow focus shots like this can be very nice, but you need a bit of work here too - Learn to use manual mode or at least Aperture Priority mode. Do some research, find out the relationship between the two and what adjusting them both does, then experiment! Shoot things with wide and narrow apertures, and fast and slow shutter speeds, and see what happens. Again, you only learn through practise! And again you've cropped in to an awkward view - Either get closer or move further out, so you either focus very much on the detail or get the whole flower.

I may be totally wrong here, but the blur looks artificial - Did you add it in with software? If so, that rarely looks as good as doing it in camera. Again, read up on aperture control so you can sort your depth of field out. Alternatively this could be good as an environmental portrait - That is, one where you see the person in a surrounding relating to him or her. They can tell very potent stories that really make a photograph something special.

This one I like. It's cropped very unusually, but for some reason it works for me. I wouldn't crop like that too often, but for the occasional piece like this one, I think it works really well. Good work on this piece!

The subject looks good, here again it's that composition that stops it being such a good image. There needs to be more space, it looks very cramped and uncomfortable to me. Take lots of photos of the same subject from different angles at different zooms and then see what looks best. Practice again.

Again this one seems cramped. For portraits cutting off bits of the body can work, but shopping the head into 3 pieces like this makes it seem a bit unnatural, since you never see anyone that way - There are no straight dividing lines in your vision. Making the photos seem natural is very important in most fields of photography, especially portraits.

Watch the composition again. The stone of the pot in the bottom right doesn't add anything to the image, the subject is the plant - Don't just look at what you're shooting, look around the frame for anything that could be distracting, then try to avoid it!

Ditto what I've already said here, it's just the composition you need to work on. Depth of field is good, background maybe a bit bland as brown, but mostly you just need to take a few extra seconds to frame things. It'll make the world of difference.

Here I don't think the subject is very interesting, so it's going to be hard to get a good photo of. Not everything that looks good in real life makes a good photo.

I hope some of that helps you out a bit - You wanted critique on them.

Good luck with the photography!

NeilL · August 1, 2009

You make crit seem such an easy thing to give!

I think most people's first reaction to an image is not a critical one, the way you mean when you ask for crit.

You have lived with your photos for a while longer than we have had to look at them, so you have found things in them which we might easily miss.

Somebody's stuff, too, can sometimes only sensibly be critiqued in context. If you were submitting your images to your Photography teacher, the crit you would get would, I think, be different to what you would get if you were submitting them to a magazine for publication.

I'm painfully aware that my stuff is more in the former context than the latter - in photography age I am less than 2 years old. I sometimes freely splash about some crit, but I am always conscious of where my limitations are. You don't have to be a good photographer to give valid and valuable crit of photography, but you do have to have a certain amount of insight into the art and craft of photography specifically, and more generally you have to have enough knowledge and sophistication in art history, appreciation and criticism to be able to defend your crit. That is, if you are looking at an image in an art-critical way, and not just expressing your first/gut reaction.

I'm not good enough at photography to be your teacher, and I think the proper context for crit of your photos is the Photography course or workshop. So, I would suggest enrolling in as many courses and workshops as possible. You would get the sort of crit most relevant to your needs, and as importantly, you would be doing photography with other people who are watching your every move as they teach you or learn along with you. I was lucky enough to have a photographer-photoeditor friend just at the time that I took photography up seriously. He was part of the reason I did, because I saw my opportunity. He is a genius in his own way.

I think I see the point in all these images and why you like them. You like the colors and the patterns, and I think you like the way cropping in close gets at the essence of the subject. I think all those things are good points in your images here. In some of them I can see you are exploring the relationship of subject to background-frame, how the background-frame can allow the subject to be understated and partly absent, the more to reveal its essence. In my opinion, that's extremely interesting because I personally have a battle with the frame every image I take. In many of your images you put a lot of the subject outside the frame, I interpret, in order to emphasise that the frame is capturing an essence rather than an object. That's a beautiful idea!

I think you do put your images up for crit as a "student" and not a professional, but I'm not sure how many of us here realise that. As I said, get involved in some serious courses and workshops, maybe join a photography club and do it with real people. You are already past beginner and already have a strong direction. Things could only zoom along!

Neil

Mr. Quiet · August 1, 2009

Neil my friend, you the first to say that about my work, and you are spot on!

Every one else, I am not a pro, but I DO WANT PROFESSIONAL CRITIQUE, not meaning that Phenomenological is not, because it is!

Phenomenological, I have to go and check out my Micro lens now, so I will get back to you as soon as possible on what you said about my pictures. Again, Thank you very much, you are giving me a great learning opportunity!

PLEASE, DON'T STOP THERE PEOPLE, I WANT MORE!:ivar

Mr. Quiet · August 2, 2009

What do you mean by '' space in front'' ?

Phenomenological · August 2, 2009

In the photograph, in the direction the person is looking, you should normally leave a bit of empty space between their face and the edge of the image.

Some of my best, at least for now!

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