I rock my 200mm to compensate for the [PHOTO]

CommunistCow

Also you need to learn how to do a full windsor

needOptic

Fucker, I know... that stupid tie is soooo thick that I didn't want to fuck with it. I don't really wear it with anything - it's been in the closet for like 7 years. Been sporting teh skinny ties lately (when i really want to dress up, otherwise it's polo and short to work every day).

erisian pope

And now for something completely different (from me)


IT'S



Life In Texas Is Oh So Classy!








for a larger copy, click image to go to its flickr page then click "all sizes"

CommunistCow

That captures Texas perfectly. Boring as fuck with racist undertones.

As for a real crit the first one is the only one that I think is interesting. The framing really makes it because it seems like you are peeping through someone's fence to see the hidden secrets in their yard. Which it is possible you did exactly that to get that picture.

The other two don't really have much of a subject or story to them. This could be because I grew up in Texas and I've seen such things for a long time. The last one could be made more interesting if you got down to the water level and filled most of the frame with the mucky water and used some shallow DOF.

muninn

I will have to go with CC on this one, as none of the shots with the exception of the first photo are terribly interesting, and in themselves dont really scream Texas to me. I could find you similar locations in PA, and if you are trying to portray urban decay or suburban neglect, these shots seem a bit tame.
Second shot could benefit from different framing focusing on the broken fence and the vegetation reclaiming the living space, instead of the brand new house.

Muncie

Trying out my aluminum foil reflector:


Then just a design idea with it:

Spoiler:

Projeck

erisian pope wrote: »

needOptic wrote: »

Cow - I dig the triptych and the simplicity of the shots. The middle doesn't fit as well as the other two.

I was gonna say this. I love the light/color/sky in the leftmost image - that is the best part overall for me.

---

Projek - the second shot is a tad over-saturated for my tastes, but I like the processing in the first one. Both shots feel a little lacking subject-/composition-wise. Van-next-to-wall possibly has promise, but ask yourself what in the image attracted you, and what else is in the image that isn't in the list of what attracted you (does the grass play a part in your vision? the remote building? the fence?) Then ask yourself if there was a different angle or distance from which you could have shot to focus on the elements you most wanted for the image and to exclude ones that you don't need.

In the Furniture picture I like the composition more, but I feel like I've seen the shot plenty of times (ha! This coming from the flower guy...) I'd encourage you to also think about what you want to show people ... not just the item(s) but what about the item(s) interests you and how can you communicate that to the audience while adding a bit of your personal flavor to it. How can you make your picture stand out? I don't pretend that this isn't a current struggle for me; I'm not some guru who knows how to do this stuff ... this is one place that I'm currently trying to grow/change. But your pictures seem ready for this level of analysis/planning.

As always, take all my thoughts with a healthy serving of salt.

you are the bomb diggity and I agree with 100% of everything what you said (and it is def. something that I need to work on in my illustration work too)

muninn

Color negatives are such a bitch to scan properly. It seems that there is no proper way to get a raw file out of a scan that takes into consideration the color correction for the film mask... at least i havent found a way with vuescan.
Anyways, I have been testing out a Ricoh g500 camera I picked up for a few bucks at an antique store, and got this photo:



I was very surprised that the mercury battery that came with the camera was still ticking.

anable

needOptic wrote: »

Another image from the shoot on the weekend that I kinda liked after I noticed all the cool textures.



edit: I just installed a new flickr extension for chrome and I'm loving it. Automatic lightbox, view on black links, navigation with keys, exif info shortcut, and more.
https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/fhaledancjhefginmkkondfjpnkhdglh

Great textures indeed. The processing in this picture makes me think of Jill Greenberg. She has a way of making textures pop as well.

erisian pope

Cheers, you guys. You're totally right. I'm not even thrilled with the crop on the confederate flag pic - it should have less fence and more knothole.

needOptic

anable wrote: »

Great textures indeed. The processing in this picture makes me think of Jill Greenberg. She has a way of making textures pop as well.

Great catch. Same "type" of lighting - two kickers and a key overhead.

CommunistCow

muninn wrote: »

Anyways, I have been testing out a Ricoh g500 camera I picked up for a few bucks at an antique store, and got this photo:

I'm usually not a giant fan of pictures that just contain broken down or old things but I really like this one. I think the light and shadow is what really makes this image pop. The sun creates a nice large gradient on the windows fading to a blue which provides some good color contrast and then the shadows of the window frames provide an excellent leading lines. The furniture on the right provides both negative space and interesting shadows because the streaming light breaks them up when it goes through those sheets.

anable

needOptic wrote: »

anable wrote: »

Great textures indeed. The processing in this picture makes me think of Jill Greenberg. She has a way of making textures pop as well.

Great catch. Same "type" of lighting - two kickers and a key overhead.

Ha. Now I feel smart.

Also, that Chrome extension you linked is pretty sweet.

CommunistCow

Trying some new processing techniques.

A


Edit: old B version pope commented on:

Spoiler:

or C (Closer to my normal style)

erisian pope

CommunistCow wrote: »

Trying some new processing techniques.

A


Edit: old B version pope commented on:

Spoiler:

or C (Closer to my normal style)

I can't see A but I think I just commented on it in your flickr stream. I like them both. The drama in the more contrasty one really caught my eye and after having seen it the less contrasty one seems a little bland. That said, if I try to blank out my expectations and see the less contrasty one on its own merits it has a lot going for it too (and also benefits from looking less heavily processed). It's tough to really speak to a single favorite. Maaaaaaybe the higher-contrast image.


@ Munnin - that shot is gorgeous!

CommunistCow

Whoops sorry about that. I fixed it in the original post. Also I updated the last post with a version, C:

mts

CommunistCow wrote: »

Trying some new processing techniques.

A


Edit: old B version pope commented on:

Spoiler:

or C (Closer to my normal style)

really nice. i like A than C than B. but i think i prefer the darker look

needOptic

Took some pictures of my buddy last night in his jiu-jitsu kimono. Have more but didn't get a chance to process yet. You guys will have to help me pick the best for the dpChallenge "sports" submission...

anable

Cow, I'm a fan of C. I really like how that color pops in front of the white of the cloud. The contrast and color of the shadows on A makes it look like the apocalypse is coming. It's a cool look too though, so I guess it comes down to a question of the mood you want?

Uberslug

C is definitely the best. needOptic, the background seems distracting to me, but I'm not really sure if everyone would feel that way, so take it with a grain of salt.

Time for some generic, boring shit:























Also, a panorama:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3911100/cool/panorama.jpg

mts

took pope's advice about using the close up filter and their lack of DoF. so heres another attempt

had to go up to F11. probably a little bit of noise since i didn't realize i left the iso at 800








much better than the candle i posted

CommunistCow

nO I like the color and background I just wish the wall didn't end right in the middle of his face. If you stepped to the left a little bit I think that would work better.

Uberslug wrote: »

C is definitely the best. needOptic, the background seems distracting to me, but I'm not really sure if everyone would feel that way, so take it with a grain of salt.

Time for some generic, boring shit:




[IMG]

I like these two shots. The exacto knife has quite a bit of a halo around it which usually bothers me but it doesn't in this image. The rock is excellently separated from the background from the light and the DOF. Also for the street sign I think you could heal/clone out the thing in the bottom right and that would make it look a lot better.

erisian pope

Uberslug - the shot with the blue house has really excellent light in it. The rock shot has an interesting perspective on it.

mts - of the bunch my favorite is the white flowers. As a matter of personal taste, I like a narrower DOF on flower shots to separate out the background stuff, but since you were going for larger DOF I have to say you did a good job. In the white flower shot, you notice how the only bits the eye spends much time on is the flowers themselves? But in the red-flower shots (espeically the first) the eye spends a lot of time on the less-interesting bits. Just something to think about when composing.

mts

pope
thanks for that. this close up filters are still pretty new so i am still trying to get a feel for them and how they effect DoF. i agree about the shallower depth for flowers and agree. the white flower was at F11 and it still gave that what i consider shallow depth. i think i need to find the sweet spot for them

The Reverend Dr Galactus

Uberslug wrote: »

I love images of strange, abandoned things. There's a story there, but it'll never tell...

I think you nailed the scale here; the "appliance" is just big enough to be jarring yet still mysterious.

The Reverend Dr Galactus

So, I finally got that old Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 I'd been hoping to find, and am now addicted to shooting full manual.

ASimPerson

Hi all, quick question.

I may need to rent a telephoto lens in the near future. Has anyone tried an online site before for this, or should I stick to local shops? If anyone's done the former, would you recommend it?

Dark Moon

ASimPerson wrote: »

Hi all, quick question.

I may need to rent a telephoto lens in the near future. Has anyone tried an online site before for this, or should I stick to local shops? If anyone's done the former, would you recommend it?

What country are you in? This will affect our suggestions for online renters (of which there are a few good ones).

erisian pope

Here's the pic I took for the NY Times Moment In Time project:

CommunistCow

Trying to learn some hi-key processing. Please ignore the floating head syndrome I couldn't really avoid it since she was wearing a black turtle neck in the original.:



original which was already kind of hi-key

Spoiler:

The Reverend Dr Galactus

I think that might look even better with the turtleneck left in.

needOptic

The high key stuff looks ok as a test, but you need to ground that floating head.

Sheri

So far liking that first one (posted earlier) best, nO.

EggyToast

Had a chance outside this weekend, thanks to 80F+ days. (All clickable)

Mr Obersmith

Hey guys, I've been lurking this thread for awhile. Just picked up a new camera and here are a couple of shots from my first go-around with it.





And another of my cat trying out the black and white mode.

CommunistCow

Ok different try leaving the black in:




Also I'm taking a photoshop course this july with this guy.

Who has some pretty damn awesome work:

Spoiler:

He also has some cool tutorials:
http://vimeo.com/7357426

needOptic

The black is a bit heavy, but much better than floating head.

Aknancer has some cool stuff in his stream, I've been following him for a while.

A couple more from the shoot:







And godson!

saltiness

Cool idea with the forklift n0. You just need like 3 to 5 more lights to make an effective use of it though.

needOptic

Thanks. Yeah, it's a bitch to work with 3 lights on some things. D: I keep telling myself I won't buy more equipment, but sometimes It's like "OH, and I could do THAT! Wait, I need an extra light. DAMNIT!"

CommunistCow

saltiness wrote: »

Cool idea with the forklift n0. You just need like 3 to 5 more lights to make an effective use of it though.

I'm going to have to disagree. nO I think you over thought this shot portion of the shoot a little bit too much. The forklift seems so incongruent with the main subject. I am a fan of the cliche "put a beautiful thing in a broken down old place" that is often done in fashion photography. In this case it seems half way between that and "wtf does a fork lift have to do with anything".

The first one looks like you were trying to play off the idea of balance like you see done in sword fights in so many movies, but why balance on a fork lift? The angle doesn't help much and it looks like he is almost falling over backwards.

The second one has some lighting issues with the right side of his face being too dark and his right leg being too bright because of the rim light. In this case I think you might have to use a strip box or a wider grid to get the rim you want. It just seems odd having his lower leg stand out and nothing else.

The third one has some odd shadow on his face and too much wide angle distortion up in that corner. His head looks really odd because of that.

Mr. Obersmith: I like the 2nd photo because it has an excellent background and rim light on the bunny-thing without having the front of it shadowed too much.

Pope: I wish the grass would take up more of the frame it just seems so tiny.