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Someone Help! (College Portfolio)
Ok, I'm asking a huge favor of anyone willing to spend the time on it. Its coming up on College application time, which means it is time to crack down on the portfolio.
Out of the submissions you will see, around 15-20 of them can be selected for the portfolio process. There aren't much more than 20, but a few need to be canned. I'm shooting hardcore daily (as work permits), so hopefully I can get at least 1-3 more users for the portfolio.
I'm going for some variety here, so, my aim thus far is: documentary, portraiture, studio, and abstract. Maybe I have too many in one category, too little in another, I honestly cant make the decision on my own. I know it will boil down to my choices in the end, but any input whatsoever from my fellow grinners would be great.
Thanks everyone!
NJoy - Marshalls Portfolio
Out of the submissions you will see, around 15-20 of them can be selected for the portfolio process. There aren't much more than 20, but a few need to be canned. I'm shooting hardcore daily (as work permits), so hopefully I can get at least 1-3 more users for the portfolio.
I'm going for some variety here, so, my aim thus far is: documentary, portraiture, studio, and abstract. Maybe I have too many in one category, too little in another, I honestly cant make the decision on my own. I know it will boil down to my choices in the end, but any input whatsoever from my fellow grinners would be great.
Thanks everyone!
NJoy - Marshalls Portfolio
No time for the old in-out, love, I've just come to read the meter
0
Comments
Keepers
2 - I like the composition, contrast, and the lighting.
4 - Same as 2.
6 - Strong composition
7 - barely a keeper. Good composition, color is poor, but still interesting enough.
10 - 50/50 on the composition, vertical might help, but strong none the less.
11 - Nice visual action, and the selective color works well here.
13 - Makes you look twice. Clever perspective.
14 - This rocks (hehehe) I like the composition and high key look.
15 - I like the composition and color. Nice addition of the bee.
18 - Love the color and viewpoint. Very sweet.
19 - Love the concept and well executed too
20 - On the edge of Ok. I like the lighting, a tad too much wall or too much gal.
21 - Bold and low key in one. Looks sweet.
22 - Good composition and light.
23 - a little dark and low contrast compared to the others, but the subject and composition save it for me. Maybe rework the exposure.
Ok - Replace with better if possible
1 - Interesting texture and color. Tighter crop may help.
5 - Just not saying anything to me. I like the color tone.
8 - Don't care for the vertical composition. Crop may help.
9 - Composition, crop may help.
12 - Pose not intriguing or flattering. Tighter crop maybe.
17 - Famous, but lackluster.
Dump - Not strong
3 - Blown sky, just not enough happening, trees have pleasing arrangement, but not enough to save the photo.
16 - Just not doing anything for me.
All in all it looks really good. I especially like your BW treatments and use of light and your strong sense of composition. I enjoyed looking at your work.
"Failure is feedback. And feedback is the breakfast of champions." - fortune cookie
Seems like your strongest stuff involves people. Some really nice portraits and people shots. Plus the Flatiron puddle and the bee macro are outstanding.
As a layman, here are the ones I thought were the weakest: #3 (tree blown out sky), #5 blue plate (is it about the color? the textures? the lighting?), #7 flower bud (didn't have a lot of impact), #14 (plate of rocks, again not a lot of impact), #17 Dalai Lama (feels like it's there because of who he is, not because of the shot's technical merits), #21 Apple mice (just didn't work for me, personally.)
Remember, my eye's not nearly as sophisticated as folks who do this for a living. And you have a lot of wonderful work in there. #6 is an outstanding music shot. #16 snuck up on me - I think it's very powerful (almost too subtle?) And the colors, light and texture of #1 are great.
OK, those are my reactions, without having read Shay's notes. Now I'm gonna go back and see what he wrote. I'm curious.
And good luck, man!
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
I thought it would be easier to say what I thought were the weekest shots IMHO.
3) The trees are mildly intesting and the almost total white of the rest of the shot does make them stand out, but it really doesn't excite me the way some of the others do.
7) I think this shot has too much negative space and the flowers dont have enough punch to really pull it off.
8) A bit to centered and the grafitti graphics on the monument are just not enough to grab my attention. I may be biased by the fact that I dont know what the monument is or what it says, but it just isn't doin much for me.
16) Again with this shot there is IMHO too much negative space and I dont feel that the feet tell enough of a story. It seems to me that too much story has been left to my imagination here.
21) I didn't know what this was till wxwax said it in his post. Its very dark and I dont get a message from it.
Just some of my opinions for what they are worth.
Could just be another bridge shot, but I love the light. Oppinions?
Beautiful portfolio! Truly enjoyed viewing it!
A few that I would like to mention (I guess the numbers are changing...):
*High key close up portrait (#2?): Grabs me into the image. Makes me look deep into her eye.
*Pedestrian and graffiti (#13?): Very interesting combination of color and B&W or darkness.
*Girl lying upside down (#15?): My favorite. Interesting, I like the symetry, duotone and the uniqness of turning it upside down.
*Priest in red (#19?): Great portrait. Nice lighting.
*Blue reflection in puddle (#20?): Very nice colors, idea and abstract. Makes me look again to understand what I'm seeing better.
*Girl leaning on brick wall (#22?): Very moody, interesting, brick patterns and lines lead me to the girl.
*Plaza Once (#24?): Interesting lighting. Composition puts the girl in solitude. I like it.
These are the photos that most impressed me.
Good luck!
Nir Alon
images of my thoughts
Perhaps a substitute?
Shot today on my 828
Now, this shot clearly has a decent amount of PS involved, which I would think photography schools would frown upon. But it seems to be different than what I had imagined. They encourage PS use as long as I can show them its ME using PS and not PS using ME. Think I've demonstrated correctly? Folio worthy?
Lynn
p.s. I really like the last shot as well.
While not highly "different", I think this shot is well done and I also think it is different enough from the rest of the work in the gallery to show depth as a photographer. I think I would include it.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au
So... I'm late to the party, I 've been out of town.
Like Shay and other posters I think you have a large number of excellent images that I would be more than proud of if I could call them my own work.
Rather than praise the excellent images you have in your portfolio, I think I will discuss the culls as you requested since your stated desire was to eliminate the weaker work. I will also add that I am a total amateur photographer and have no formal training in photographic analysis - so take what I say with a large portion of NaCl
#5 - the portrait of the Hispanic(?) lady does not work for me, because I can't see her eyes well enough to relate - too dark on my monitor at least.
#9 - the flower with the black background does not work because the flowers are facing the wrong way - Maybe I am not flexible enough and fail to appreciate the different posing - just color me old fashioned, but I prefer to see flowers from the front or side rather than the back
#10 - Like a previous poster I do not understand the significance of the grafiti and the monument - the failure may be my limited knowledge of the history surrounding the monument, but the image just can't stand on its own to my eye unless there are historical significances that I am unaware of.
#19 - the image of the Buddist priest - Dali Lama? - is a satisfactory image, as a straight forward image, but does not seem any more than that to me
Less my comments seem critical I will add that I really dig images #3 - the bridge, #13 - the yellow grafiti with the passerby in B&W, #22 - the young woman against the brick, and #20 - the reflection of the building in the puddle.
Good luck with your application and keep us informed of your success. And continue to post images here on dgrin. I have learned quite a bit by looking at them and trying to evaluate them and to formulate why I feel the way I do.
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
I had some inspiring and excellent news while there. I knew I had missed the deadlines for scholarships by about 2 weeks, but I figured I would enroll now and try for them next year. I showed my portfolio to my interviewer and he loved it so much that he is going to slip me into the runnings for a scholarship. I'm stoked. Happy ending to a very nervous day.
Thanks again everyone.
Marshall
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam
http://www.mcneel.com/users/jb/foghorn/ill_shut_up.au