So I've devoured Understanding Exposure and Ansel Adams' The Camera, as well as Scott Kelby's first book, which is really more of a "handy tips" guide. I imagine I'll be going back to all three of these books often, but I'm looking for more reading to do that has less to do with the technical side of photography and more with the art. I've already added "Learning to See Creatively" to my shopping cart, but does anyone have any other recommendations?
I recently picked up Kevin Meredith's Hot Shots and I was really impressed. It focuses more on the application of technical stuff to create interesting images. Plus it's fairly inexpensive and it's nice to support a little guy.
This is another reason why I tell people things look like snapshots or look boring...because ignoring things you don't like does not end up helping that person. *glares at everyone else*
That doesn't mean helpful criticism has to be harsh. I've asked plenty of posters here what they were trying to tell me or why they chose a particular type of framing, dof, etc. Saying "this is boring" is just as unhelpful as "A+++".
Indeed a positive critique of the negative aspects of someones work goes a LOT farther than a (even unintentionally) one-off of someones work.
This is another reason why I tell people things look like snapshots or look boring...because ignoring things you don't like does not end up helping that person. *glares at everyone else*
That doesn't mean helpful criticism has to be harsh. I've asked plenty of posters here what they were trying to tell me or why they chose a particular type of framing, dof, etc. Saying "this is boring" is just as unhelpful as "A+++".
Indeed a positive critique of the negative aspects of someones work goes a LOT farther than a (even unintentionally) one-off of someones work.
Ya know what, we have been over this before just go read my last post on the subject.
CommunistCow on
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
...anyway, I was going to say I agree with CC, join some flickr groups. At the same time though, I'd definitely keep reading. You'll learn more from the work of others, but you'll learn that stuff quicker by reading up on the technical side as much as possible.
Goshinga: Those shots are excellent, the light was really working for you that day.
...
...
I love this one. However, it should be rotated slightly CW, in my opinion. I see it's currently aligned with the stuff on the right, but to look "straight," it'd be better to split the difference between the right references and the left references. That sounds pretty unclear, but hopefully you know what I mean. Love this shot, though. It does the ever-popular "lonesome, urban grittiness" a lot better than most. I am a sucker for good lonesome, urban grittiness.
The color accents of the yellowish light and the greenish glass really sell it, along with the oddly-soft gritty texture of the concrete. Visceral.
Personally I like this one because of the symmetry but I would crop it to be more square so the leading lines of the walls meeting the floor and ceiling are coming out of the corners of the frame.
CommunistCow on
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
Bombsie - I use a Promaster 7500edf . I once saw a chart that shows what Canon models these Promasters were equivalent to, and I think this is supposed to compare to a Canon 550 or maybe even a 580 but I cannot find the chart now or remember. I have never used a flash before this, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I like it. I use it standalone with its diffuser; I use it in a homemade ringflash setup; I use it direct and also bounced. Since I am still learning flash use, it's tough to say that I am getting from it everything that I should from a flash in general, but for now it seems fine. Here are some sample shots I did with the flash:
I don't think I have any shots with the flash bounced hosted online right now.
Anyway, hope this helps some. Oh! I spend $250 on the flash itself and another $60 for the off-camera cable attachment.
EDIT:
Saltiness - I really want to like that log/ivy picture. The colors totally draw me in. But my eyes keep sliding off the log due to the narrow DOF. It's a little disconcerting. It's interesting in that the focal plane is in such an angle that the upper (not quite top) of the log is in focus while the ivy at the bottom of the frame is, too.
Hey Canon flash dudes, what would you suggest for something with manual power settings? I have a 420ex right now but can maybe sell it for $150.
I'm a cheap bitch and use a nikon sb-24 on my canon but most of that use is off camera with a wireless remote. It still works on camera if you need it to. Also, it has manual power settings but you won't be able to do any TTL stuff. The lower end / older canon flashes are kind of suck since they don't have pc-sync connections and such.
Hey Canon flash dudes, what would you suggest for something with manual power settings? I have a 420ex right now but can maybe sell it for $150.
I'm a cheap bitch and use a nikon sb-24 on my canon but most of that use is off camera with a wireless remote but it still works on camera if you need it to. It has manual power settings but you won't be able to do any TTL stuff. The lower end / older canon flashes are kind of suck since they don't have pc-sync connections and such.
Yes it works. Now go try it on something other than an office. :P
Get off me dawg!
Hopefully this weekend I can get out and shoot. I got a new computer and it's insane how much better cs4 runs. INSANE. I can have bridge and cs4 open at the same time. It makes me happy.
Hey Canon flash dudes, what would you suggest for something with manual power settings? I have a 420ex right now but can maybe sell it for $150.
I'm a cheap bitch and use a nikon sb-24 on my canon but most of that use is off camera with a wireless remote. It still works on camera if you need it to. Also, it has manual power settings but you won't be able to do any TTL stuff. The lower end / older canon flashes are kind of suck since they don't have pc-sync connections and such.
Jesus you can make your own 20-30ft pc sync cable for $20 or so. Strobist has a little write up on how to make it.
So I checked out his (strobist) howto, and it's actually ~$30 for the sync cord (2 PC-HH cords at $10 each, plus the other bits) and then my flash doesn't have a PC port on it, so I need the hotshoe adapter. To keep TTL functionality it looks like it would cost ~$80 for the adapter. Otherwise I can lose the TTL and get one from Adorama (very generic adapter) for $12 plus shipping.
So my $60 really isn't too too much.
Of course, I am now limited to the 2-3 feet that I can stretch my current cord. I may do this eventually to get the flash some distance from the camera in the future.
Bombadier!! A good thing to note about the flash I mentioned is that it doesn't have the PC port.
So I checked out his (strobist) howto, and it's actually ~$30 for the sync cord (2 PC-HH cords at $10 each, plus the other bits) and then my flash doesn't have a PC port on it, so I need the hotshoe adapter. To keep TTL functionality it looks like it would cost ~$80 for the adapter. Otherwise I can lose the TTL and get one from Adorama (very generic adapter) for $12 plus shipping.
So my $60 really isn't too too much.
Of course, I am now limited to the 2-3 feet that I can stretch my current cord. I may do this eventually to get the flash some distance from the camera in the future.
Bombadier!! A good thing to note about the flash I mentioned is that it doesn't have the PC port.
Ok so I was a little off:
2 pc to HH cords = $20
female hh adapters = $6
20ft of HH eletrical wire =$5
Total of = $31
Also this is why I refuse to buy flashes that don't have pc-sync ports on them. It just makes things more of a hassle and more expensive.
Edit: Incase anyone else plans on making their own PC sync cord this way just be sure you plug the pc to HH into the female part of the cord the same way on both sides or you'll end up just causing error 99s (at least on canons) until you correct it.
CommunistCow on
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
salti - Mmm, buttery. I have no suggestions, though I’m slightly puzzled about how you got what’s in focus in focus - the stuff doesn’t seem to be on the same plane.
Flyingman - 1 is good, but consider dropping your black clipping point a bit. As it is the bushes on the left and the front of the rider are pretty unnecessarily dark. The really heavy contrast is doing funny things to the bushes on the right too (which could do with some CA cleanup). 2 is lovely and I like it very much. Remove the overexposed sky and I like it 3x more. 3 just has too much of that sky. A CP or GND might’ve saved it, but as it is it’s just too overexposed. I really, really like the old rehashed shot. What is that beam of which running through the middle of the frame? I agree with gil regarding the underground shots. Make the most obvious vertical line straight, which is the one currently 3° CCW from vertical.
project, your red saturation is pretty ridiculously high there. The shirts are just exploding out the frame, in a bad way.
I finally got around to processing some shots of a concert I did last weekend. I was at ISO1600, f/2.8 and 1/90” for almost the entire thing. Noise reduction after the fact was difficult - the K10D is not renown for having good high ISO noise control. Shots are bassist heavy as it was his show, he's my cousin and he's the one who requested I shoot the show. Thoughts/Suggestions?
This photo is quite awesome with the color saturation, tilt, and composition. It would have been awesome if you could have gotten something like this with people on the stage. The rest are pretty meh IMO. Sadly most concert photography you are at the mercy of the venue's light setup.
Alright, I'm putting these up partly just to keep things photo-oriented, partly because they were among the last pictures (and only ones in non-RAW format) I took with the Canon 20D my school's photo services group had, and partly for general critique; the model one is an exception, being from a lighting workshop I went to on a whim a few months ago, and taken with a Nikon (sadly, that's the best one of the lot). The two garden-planting ones was for an article on the rain gardens they were building, and the ones of the dog were pictures of my mom's dog a few months before she died; I really wish the first one were actually in focus, because I like that one better, and I do apologize for the lack of artistic consideration in the both of them, but if there might be anything in general terms (to the extent that you might be able to extrapolate generalities from so few photos) that might help me, especially with composition, I honestly would appreciate it.
Anyway, the other main reason I'm posting is for a question; I remember when I posted some of the pictures that I took here in Spain, there was some mention of the limitation of point-and-shoot cameras. I definitely realize that they are limited in their capabilities, but I was kind of wondering; what would be the best way of dealing with those limitations, seeing as I can't really get my hands on a DSLR here, and it doesn't seem to be very easy to accomodate the old SLR I did bring with me (a Canon TX from the 70s)? I'll keep trying to find both film and a decent means of developing photos from said camera, but until then, it seems like the p&s is the best I've got, and I'd like to get better at using it (and at photography in general). Spoilered is one of the exceedingly few "decent" pictures from that camera I've got (scanned from the film).
The first one is meh they are doing something but they are not interacting it might be better if you caught the point when they were handing the plant from one person to the other or putting it in the hole but still it wouldn't be that exciting IMO. The best thing to do with journalism type stuff is keep the camera glued to your face until people forget you are there or ignore you and then snap photos when they are doing something interesting or gesturing or laughing.
2nd one is decent with the low DOF and the lines of the shovles.
3rd one the studio portrait looks like a senior portrait with that background. Please god move the model away from that hideous thing and use a lower fstop.
4th and 5th Never take pictures of your pets. Ever. Unless they have a pancake on their head and look friggen hilarious. like:
CommunistCow on
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
4th and 5th Never post pictures of your pets. Ever.
Fixed that quote for you (at least, my mom seemed to appreciate the pictures, as moms generally do, but especially since she had that dog for 10 years, and was very glad to have had those last photos of her); I do, in retrospect, agree with the edited quote, though; I was kind of on the fence to begin with, but there you are.
Anyway, I greatly appreciate the crits for the other photos as well, especially the first and third ones; I don't really see myself continuing down the photojournalism path, at least in any remotely professional sense, but I think that building the skills that come with it certainly help in drawing composition, at the very least, and I would like to build my aptitude in that style of photography in general, because I'm fond of it. The model one...yeah, the most important thing that workshop taught me is that I have a lot to learn about studio photography, though as before, I think skills I could develop in that area would also help me greatly in many others.
P&S are severely limited in terms of DOF, ability to change lenses, and obviously aperture/shutter speed settings. The best you can really practice with them is composition and taking shots from odd angles.
..and yes I agree taking pictures of your pets is fine for yourself and your family but posting them here is usually going to be really boring to everyone else since they don't know the pet and have no emotional connection that really makes the photo interesting to them.
pope: I don't see why you would ever use a ring flash off camera other than making a flash light source a little bit bigger and slightly more diffused. Ring flashes are pretty much meant to be shot through. The first picture looks technically interesting because of the ring the second looks like a generic off camera flash.
CommunistCow on
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
That was my favorite lens when I was shooting Canon (I didn't have very many...). She was actually smoking it when I took the picture, but looking at it now, it does look staged. I think it's because I cloned/patched the wrinkles it was giving her...Sometimes you gotta leave those breadcrumbs of reality huh.
That was my favorite lens when I was shooting Canon (I didn't have very many...). She was actually smoking it when I took the picture, but looking at it now, it does look staged. I think it's because I cloned/patched the wrinkles it was giving her...Sometimes you gotta leave those breadcrumbs of reality huh.
Yeah, it looks to me like she is holding it up there because it's whats expected of her instead of it being what she is actually doing. If that makes sense.
SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
edited February 2009
Dag, that's a great shot. I like how the lines of the billboard cut through the frame and divide it. The left side is much more neutral than the high contrast of the girl on the right. I find the whole thing really interesting.
Posts
I recently picked up Kevin Meredith's Hot Shots and I was really impressed. It focuses more on the application of technical stuff to create interesting images. Plus it's fairly inexpensive and it's nice to support a little guy.
http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Shots-Kevin-Meredith/dp/0811866408/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234927449&sr=8-2
you can get an idea of what the book is like here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lomokev/3267257810/
took out her barrettes and her hair spilled out like rootbeer
Indeed a positive critique of the negative aspects of someones work goes a LOT farther than a (even unintentionally) one-off of someones work.
Ya know what, we have been over this before just go read my last post on the subject.
Goshinga: Those shots are excellent, the light was really working for you that day.
Here are some riding shots.
An old shot I re-hashed.
Some shots from the brisbane "underground"
I love this one. However, it should be rotated slightly CW, in my opinion. I see it's currently aligned with the stuff on the right, but to look "straight," it'd be better to split the difference between the right references and the left references. That sounds pretty unclear, but hopefully you know what I mean. Love this shot, though. It does the ever-popular "lonesome, urban grittiness" a lot better than most. I am a sucker for good lonesome, urban grittiness.
The color accents of the yellowish light and the greenish glass really sell it, along with the oddly-soft gritty texture of the concrete. Visceral.
Edit: I got left and right mixed up. :P
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
Personally I like this one because of the symmetry but I would crop it to be more square so the leading lines of the walls meeting the floor and ceiling are coming out of the corners of the frame.
This is a great shot, nice atmosphere. Makes me miss mountain biking a lot.
..the horizon really bugs me though
Yeah, I think that could be cropped out.
Direct flash (on camera) w/ diffuser:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i105/e--p/Portraits/IMG_8505.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i105/e--p/Portraits/IMG_8506.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i105/e--p/Portraits/IMG_8508.jpg
Flash off-camera in ringflash setup:
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i105/e--p/Portraits/IMG_7872.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i105/e--p/Portraits/IMG_7869.jpg
Flash in ringflash with camera in ringflash (lens through center of ring):
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i105/e--p/IMG_7935.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i105/e--p/IMG_7833.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i105/e--p/Pets/IMG_1898.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i105/e--p/IMG_7928.jpg
I don't think I have any shots with the flash bounced hosted online right now.
Anyway, hope this helps some. Oh! I spend $250 on the flash itself and another $60 for the off-camera cable attachment.
EDIT:
Saltiness - I really want to like that log/ivy picture. The colors totally draw me in. But my eyes keep sliding off the log due to the narrow DOF. It's a little disconcerting. It's interesting in that the focal plane is in such an angle that the upper (not quite top) of the log is in focus while the ivy at the bottom of the frame is, too.
My Website | My "photo-a-day" 2010
I'm a cheap bitch and use a nikon sb-24 on my canon but most of that use is off camera with a wireless remote. It still works on camera if you need it to. Also, it has manual power settings but you won't be able to do any TTL stuff. The lower end / older canon flashes are kind of suck since they don't have pc-sync connections and such.
Jesus you can make your own 20-30ft pc sync cable for $20 or so. Strobist has a little write up on how to make it.
Well it was Xmas moneys and I was lazy. :oops:
My Website | My "photo-a-day" 2010
Yes it works. Now go try it on something other than an office. :P
Get off me dawg!
Hopefully this weekend I can get out and shoot. I got a new computer and it's insane how much better cs4 runs. INSANE. I can have bridge and cs4 open at the same time. It makes me happy.
So I checked out his (strobist) howto, and it's actually ~$30 for the sync cord (2 PC-HH cords at $10 each, plus the other bits) and then my flash doesn't have a PC port on it, so I need the hotshoe adapter. To keep TTL functionality it looks like it would cost ~$80 for the adapter. Otherwise I can lose the TTL and get one from Adorama (very generic adapter) for $12 plus shipping.
So my $60 really isn't too too much.
Of course, I am now limited to the 2-3 feet that I can stretch my current cord. I may do this eventually to get the flash some distance from the camera in the future.
Bombadier!! A good thing to note about the flash I mentioned is that it doesn't have the PC port.
My Website | My "photo-a-day" 2010
Ok so I was a little off:
2 pc to HH cords = $20
female hh adapters = $6
20ft of HH eletrical wire =$5
Total of = $31
Also this is why I refuse to buy flashes that don't have pc-sync ports on them. It just makes things more of a hassle and more expensive.
Edit: Incase anyone else plans on making their own PC sync cord this way just be sure you plug the pc to HH into the female part of the cord the same way on both sides or you'll end up just causing error 99s (at least on canons) until you correct it.
Flyingman - 1 is good, but consider dropping your black clipping point a bit. As it is the bushes on the left and the front of the rider are pretty unnecessarily dark. The really heavy contrast is doing funny things to the bushes on the right too (which could do with some CA cleanup). 2 is lovely and I like it very much. Remove the overexposed sky and I like it 3x more. 3 just has too much of that sky. A CP or GND might’ve saved it, but as it is it’s just too overexposed. I really, really like the old rehashed shot. What is that beam of which running through the middle of the frame? I agree with gil regarding the underground shots. Make the most obvious vertical line straight, which is the one currently 3° CCW from vertical.
project, your red saturation is pretty ridiculously high there. The shirts are just exploding out the frame, in a bad way.
I finally got around to processing some shots of a concert I did last weekend. I was at ISO1600, f/2.8 and 1/90” for almost the entire thing. Noise reduction after the fact was difficult - the K10D is not renown for having good high ISO noise control. Shots are bassist heavy as it was his show, he's my cousin and he's the one who requested I shoot the show. Thoughts/Suggestions?
This photo is quite awesome with the color saturation, tilt, and composition. It would have been awesome if you could have gotten something like this with people on the stage. The rest are pretty meh IMO. Sadly most concert photography you are at the mercy of the venue's light setup.
This is my friend's concert photography which I think is pretty darn good to give you some ideas:
http://www.craigchapman.ca/galleries/portfolio/
here is another good link:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/top50music/pool/
Edit: fine its just link dump time:
http://livebabylive.com/
http://richardgin.org/portfolio/?id=101
Anyway, the other main reason I'm posting is for a question; I remember when I posted some of the pictures that I took here in Spain, there was some mention of the limitation of point-and-shoot cameras. I definitely realize that they are limited in their capabilities, but I was kind of wondering; what would be the best way of dealing with those limitations, seeing as I can't really get my hands on a DSLR here, and it doesn't seem to be very easy to accomodate the old SLR I did bring with me (a Canon TX from the 70s)? I'll keep trying to find both film and a decent means of developing photos from said camera, but until then, it seems like the p&s is the best I've got, and I'd like to get better at using it (and at photography in general). Spoilered is one of the exceedingly few "decent" pictures from that camera I've got (scanned from the film).
The first one is meh they are doing something but they are not interacting it might be better if you caught the point when they were handing the plant from one person to the other or putting it in the hole but still it wouldn't be that exciting IMO. The best thing to do with journalism type stuff is keep the camera glued to your face until people forget you are there or ignore you and then snap photos when they are doing something interesting or gesturing or laughing.
2nd one is decent with the low DOF and the lines of the shovles.
3rd one the studio portrait looks like a senior portrait with that background. Please god move the model away from that hideous thing and use a lower fstop.
4th and 5th Never take pictures of your pets. Ever. Unless they have a pancake on their head and look friggen hilarious. like:
My Website | My "photo-a-day" 2010
Fixed that quote for you (at least, my mom seemed to appreciate the pictures, as moms generally do, but especially since she had that dog for 10 years, and was very glad to have had those last photos of her); I do, in retrospect, agree with the edited quote, though; I was kind of on the fence to begin with, but there you are.
Anyway, I greatly appreciate the crits for the other photos as well, especially the first and third ones; I don't really see myself continuing down the photojournalism path, at least in any remotely professional sense, but I think that building the skills that come with it certainly help in drawing composition, at the very least, and I would like to build my aptitude in that style of photography in general, because I'm fond of it. The model one...yeah, the most important thing that workshop taught me is that I have a lot to learn about studio photography, though as before, I think skills I could develop in that area would also help me greatly in many others.
Any thoughts on the post-photos quesiton?
..and yes I agree taking pictures of your pets is fine for yourself and your family but posting them here is usually going to be really boring to everyone else since they don't know the pet and have no emotional connection that really makes the photo interesting to them.
pope: I don't see why you would ever use a ring flash off camera other than making a flash light source a little bit bigger and slightly more diffused. Ring flashes are pretty much meant to be shot through. The first picture looks technically interesting because of the ring the second looks like a generic off camera flash.
Also, got this in the mail! (and yet for some reason I took the shot with my blackberry)
Yeah, it looks to me like she is holding it up there because it's whats expected of her instead of it being what she is actually doing. If that makes sense.
ahh, photomerge.