Sukkah

lizzard_nyc

I took these today for B.D.'s PJ exercise, but these don't meet the criteria. I was so uncomfortable trying to get shots within 10 ft.


1.



2.


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damonff

this one is magnificent as far as the shower of light and the shadows...love it

I'd cut off the person on the left to focus on the man getting the light shower

nice

adbsgicom

Digging the tagging next to the sukkah on the street. Nice contrast. Cool series.

sara505

adbsgicom wrote:

Digging the tagging next to the sukkah on the street. Nice contrast. Cool series.

Nice shots and treatment.

Clarification: Sukkot is the holiday, a sukkah is the temporary booth we sit (eat, and sometimes sleep) in during the 8 days of this festival.

My friend Yaakov's sukkah pics, here. http://www.sarapiazza.com/Friends/Yaakovs-Sukkah-5767/2000987_n9kby#102256823_47LjD
Granted, Yaakov's sukkah is not a typical sukkah, but rather a quite over-the-top work of art.

Interesting - in the last shot, the lulav (the cluster of willow and other plants that are waved, ritually, in 6 directions, reminding us that we are surrounded by G-d's presence) intersects with the traffic signal, making a cross.

And yes, now I see the little sukkah in the first two images.
I actually like the last shot with the person on the left - adds context - it's a public demonstration.

Pedro

For me these images do not work. Its not clear what's going on and what are the main characters doing...

sara505

Pedro wrote:

For me these images do not work. Its not clear what's going on and what are the main characters doing...

I suppose, the reason these images work for me is that I know and appreciate what's going on.

I like the grainy bw - adds to the timelessness of an ancient ritual.

The slightly stand-backish and ethereal quality - faces indistinct and ghostly - add to the mystery, imo.

Yes, they could be better photographically, compositionally, but are good examples of moments caught - cinema verite-style.

lizzard_nyc

Damon and Andrew--you both picked up on some of the elements that I love about these shots--
Damon, I felt lucky to catch the backlighting on the hat, dont' usually shoot against the sun. Also while I like your cropped version as it isolates the main subject, I wanted to catch some of the people staring. I think maybe they both work.

Andrew--the graffiti next to the sukkah tents is definately one of my favotie things about that shot, especially with all the dirt and grime below.

Sara,
Thank you for the lesson. I walked up to one of the men after taking the shots to ask for details and he explained the sukkah tents, but I didn't know about Sukkot, I think he probably said that but I understood Sukkah on both for the tent and holiday. I knew it was important to get the Sukkah tents in the shots.

Pedro,
The more I look at people's photos here in PJ and the comments the more I realize that not everyone is going to get certain shots. Thanks for taking the time to look and comment.

divamum

Liz, that first one is spectacular - really a great shot IMO, and I love the bw grainy treatment you gave it (do you do that in camera, or have you got some pp software now?)

I really like this set, and brava to you for getting out there and shooting the exercise! I didn't even have to battle my personal street demons since I've been so busy that shooting has been out of the question,b ut I'm very interested and inspired by seeing others' work!

bdcolen

lizzard_nyc wrote:

I took these today for B.D.'s PJ exercise, but these don't meet the criteria. I was so uncomfortable trying to get shots within 10 ft.

Let me approach these in two ways - first, your attempt at the exercise.
I assume most people are uncomfortable trying to shoot within 10 feet - that's the point of the exercise. If all we do - in any venture - is the "comfortable," we will never accomplish anything really meaningful. The idea is to really push yourself out of your comfort zone. If you then want to go back into it afterward, that's more than fine. But the effort counts. It looks like you came pretty close here - and you get a lot of points for trying!

Now, the photos themselves. Sorry, but despite the oos and ahs of your fellow Grinners, I'm going to say these should all be tossed. They are either out-of-focus - for no particular reason - and/or way blown out. It's one thing to go for a high-contrast, tri-x look; it's another to end up with images with no detail, that are so blown out and contrasty that we really have no idea what's going on. Sorry. And lest you think I'm just being a nasty sob - go look at those really terrific images you produced in the coffee shop(?) and then look at these - and ask yourself if the photographer who shot those should want anyone to see these...:D

lizzard_nyc

B.D.
Thanks for letting me enjoy my fellow dgrinners accolades before bursting my bubble.

While I do like the shots, if only because it forced me out of a comfort zone, I know I have a problem with major blow outs--All these are SOOC and I have a devil of a time metering properly in bright light, still learning, but have a long way to go. I've tried to take regular color shots to later convert to b&w but dont' have proper PP tools and they come out horrible muddy and gray when I try. So I must learn to use my in camera b&w setting and meter properly.

As for the blurry shots, well there is just no excuse--although I've seen that you are ok with blurry shots sometimes and sometimes not, not sure as to when it's ok.

Thank you for your brutal honesty.
Will keep trying.

lizzard_nyc

divamum wrote:

Liz, that first one is spectacular - really a great shot IMO, and I love the bw grainy treatment you gave it (do you do that in camera, or have you got some pp software now?)

I really like this set, and brava to you for getting out there and shooting the exercise! I didn't even have to battle my personal street demons since I've been so busy that shooting has been out of the question,b ut I'm very interested and inspired by seeing others' work!

Divamum:)
You should have seen me--I'm so obvious when I'm out trying to shoot PJ style from up close. I'm so nervous that everyone within 50 ft of me knows I'm up to something. But it felt good doing it.
If you check the exercise, I actually got one up close within the rules, but also note that it was of a nice kid who did not intimidate me in the least, so I was comfortable getting in his space.

Glad you like the first shot. It is SOOC, tried using Gimp but my old laptop comes to a screeching halt when I try, best to do SOOC for me, sometimes I use picnic, but it's slow as molasses.

bdcolen

lizzard_nyc wrote:

B.D.
Thanks for letting me enjoy my fellow dgrinners accolades before bursting my bubble.

While I do like the shots, if only because it forced me out of a comfort zone, I know I have a problem with major blow outs--All these are SOOC and I have a devil of a time metering properly in bright light, still learning, but have a long way to go. I've tried to take regular color shots to later convert to b&w but dont' have proper PP tools and they come out horrible muddy and gray when I try. So I must learn to use my in camera b&w setting and meter properly.

As for the blurry shots, well there is just no excuse--although I've seen that you are ok with blurry shots sometimes and sometimes not, not sure as to when it's ok.

Thank you for your brutal honesty.
Will keep trying.

Please, please do - keep working at it because it's clear you're headed in the right direction. One thing that might help in terms of exposure is an incident meter - you'd definitely have to adjust for your camera's sensor, but in those difficult situations, it might get you closer to where you need to be.

In terms of pp - what are you using?

lizzard_nyc

bdcolen wrote:

Please, please do - keep working at it because it's clear you're headed in the right direction. One thing that might help in terms of exposure is an incident meter - you'd definitely have to adjust for your camera's sensor, but in those difficult situations, it might get you closer to where you need to be.

In terms of pp - what are you using?

I download to my laptop on to Olympus Masters 2 which came with my camera--I can work with exposure, cropping, color saturation there, basic basic stuff--then if I want anything funky I use Picnic a free editing program offered by smugmug and flickr but it's oh so slow and a little cheesy that I usually give up. Remember my Newsboy photo in the people forum--that took me over 1 hour to do, but once applying certain treatments it's hard to edit in detail, it edits as a whole. I'm hoping to get a new computer soon, my desktop is fried, but there are more pressing matters I must attend to first. So, I kind of stick to SOOC when I can.

I will look into this incident meter--Thank you:D .

bdcolen

lizzard_nyc wrote:

I download to my laptop on to Olympus Masters 2 which came with my camera--I can work with exposure, cropping, color saturation there, basic basic stuff--then if I want anything funky I use Picnic a free editing program offered by smugmug and flickr but it's oh so slow and a little cheesy that I usually give up. Remember my Newsboy photo in the people forum--that took me over 1 hour to do, but once applying certain treatments it's hard to edit in detail, it edits as a whole. I'm hoping to get a new computer soon, my desktop is fried, but there are more pressing matters I must attend to first. So, I kind of stick to SOOC when I can.

I will look into this incident meter--Thank you:D .

Ouch! Think about Lightroom....It's not PS, but it will get you a lot of what you need.

And here's a good, cheap, tiny, meter
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/257033-REG/Gossen_GO_4006_Digisix_Ultra_Compact_Lightmeter.html#reviews

lizzard_nyc

bdcolen wrote:

Ouch! Think about Lightroom....It's not PS, but it will get you a lot of what you need.

And here's a good, cheap, tiny, meter
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/257033-REG/Gossen_GO_4006_Digisix_Ultra_Compact_Lightmeter.html#reviews

Great! thank you for the meter info. When I first clicked on it, I saw a price of $14.00 and I thought "wow that is cheap" but that was for some battery, then I scrolled up and saw the meter--lol.

I will look into lightroom when I get my new/used computer--if I add any other program to my lap top it will come to a screeching halt.

One more try--I didn't post this one because I thought the others were better-- Again, I know the light is off.



cropped on the left--otherwise SOOC.

adbsgicom

Knowing the context, I like it. You kinda lose the fellow holding the lulav (palm branch) so unless you know the general context, the spear sticking up is a bit disjointed. I like the one gal carrying her crutch as she goes by. "East" is great because Jewish tradition is to pray in the direction of Jerusalem (East), there is a Halal food cart across the street (Muslim Kosher for a lack of a better term). There's a lot going on around this guy.

damonff

absolutely, positively get Lightroom...I can't live without it and it's older, beefier cousin, PS...you will love Lightroom...it pretty much does 99% of what you will ever need.

adbsgicom

damonff wrote:

absolutely, positively get Lightroom...I can't live without it and it's older, beefier cousin, PS...you will love Lightroom...it pretty much does 99% of what you will ever need.

+1 on LR. The ability to apply very rapidly setting to whole sets of photos, batch export/print your stuff, the cataloging features all make it really a great tool. Adobe has had a 14 or 30 day free trial setup, so you may want to go that route as well. I was hooked by day 4....

Also LR is non-destructive in its editing. You can go back a year later and undo a change or start over -- this includes cropping as well as color modification. It is all stored in a metafile (either sidecar .xmp, or embedded in the .dng (Digital NeGative = cr2 + xmp file)).

bdcolen

lizzard_nyc wrote:

Great! thank you for the meter info. When I first clicked on it, I saw a price of $14.00 and I thought "wow that is cheap" but that was for some battery, then I scrolled up and saw the meter--lol.

I will look into lightroom when I get my new/used computer--if I add any other program to my lap top it will come to a screeching halt.

One more try--I didn't post this one because I thought the others were better-- Again, I know the light is off.


cropped on the left--otherwise SOOC.

Much, much, much, much better!!!! Both technically and in terms of the subjects...

Prezwoodz

I really like your photo's although I think that the first two are a bit overexposed for me. I do love the grittyness of the pictures and don't think it would be the same without it.

Placement is excellent in the third photo, it is my favorite of the bunch.