Rakka's little photography thread
 

Over the past few months, I've rediscovered my love for photography...here's some of my more recent work with my new digital SLR. My photographic technique is kinda rusty (practice, practice, practice!), so any criticism or help would be appreciated!



...I'd post my film work from high school, but I left my portfolios and scanner at home. I'll add them sometime...this post has enough pictures as it is!

I will comment on the rest of the pictures later, but first I must comment on the picture of Blue's Brew's BBQ, because it is my favorite. It is the kind of picture I would take, especially with the blue clouds. This has so much potential to be a wonderfully moody image! The only things that bother me are the skewed perspective, and the color, or perhaps, the presense of color. I think the image would be far more captivating in black and white. Here is an example of a tritone I made in Photoshop. Feel free to try your hand at making your own:

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6643/bbbbqqg6.jpg

A picture such as this would have greatly benefitted from the use of a view camera, where you could have used rear tilt to stop the lines from converging vertically. A tilt-shift lens can produce the same effect. Canon makes some TS lenses, but they're extremely expensive.

More comments coming soon...

More comments, as promised.

"Stonewall": I think perhaps shooting the wall from closer up and a more downward angle would have increased the perception of the length of the wall.

"Bolt": I think this is pretty neat, but you should have lessened the depth of field to pot more emphasis on the connector.

"Tower": I see what you were going for here, because I've taken shots like this, but something isn't right. Maybe it needs to be zoomed in a little more? Perhaps the trees should be made totally black as well.

"Jones": I like this one a lot. The DOF is just right and the mood is nice. Great shot!

"Puddle": I wouldn't have tilted the shot, but that's just me.

Rainbow: Oh, if you had only gotten the behind-view shot with the fabric in the frame, that would have rocked.

Same with me too. I like things straight and symmetrical.

Hm. All the leaves in the first two photos make it really busy and sort of difficult to look at. There isn't a real distinct point of focus other than the cement. If it is the subject, what characteristics make it interesting?

Photo #5, there's just too much space that's going unused. You could use the edges of the trees to add texture to the subject, which I assume is tower, like this:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/4...titled2ob2.jpg

That picture with the boy, I think it would look more interesting if he didn't cut off the women in the back. If you had a different vantage point and got the women in one corner of the photo and the boy in the other while still keeping that shallow depth of field, it would create a lot of subtle context.

I find your photography to be VERY colourful. I love how the green comes out on the first few photos. I personally love those kinds of shots.

I love the wide shot of the people sitting on the hill and looking from behind them.

In the first two photos with the green foliage, there is nothing that really catches my eye. I see gray and green with little to contrast them.

The metal connector photo has a neat concept, but it needs much more focus on detail and shadow to really present itself.

I am in love with your photo of the pub, however. The color of the brick building is a beautiful color and the sky is perfect. The only thing that bugs me is the cruddy tan building and the moving car in the background. A more shallow depth of field could have blurred them out sufficiently, or may be a portrait-style shot (rotate the camera 90 degrees) would have cropped them out.

The photos of the people on the grass... Maybe it's just me or my color profile, but they don't look colorful or contrasty enough. I had this problem with my photos I took in Italy, and it was due to the solid gray overcast in the sky. It really makes these photos look plain. Also, the angle isn't very appealing.

PS: What gear are you using? Your Photoshopping stripped out the EXIF data.

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

About the angling on the picture of the Blues Brews BBQ...well, it was literally taken out of the window of my car at a stop light. Needless to say, I didn't have a whole lot of control over the framing and angling of the image. It's a bit distressing that my most-liked picture was taken, unplanned, out of the window of my car at a stop light, too! I guess that being able to see good pictures is the first step in becoming a good photographer, though...

As for the grayness of those pictures at the coming out parade, I had my camera set to +0.5 exposure for some reason...everything got blown out a bit, unfortunately. The sky in the first shot is completely white. That's probably why it looks kind of flat and gray.

All of the pictures were taken using a Pentax *ist DL with an 18-55 kit lens and a 50mm f/1.7 manual lens, by the way. I've had a couple of Canon film cameras (a Rebel G with a bad 28-80 lens that I sold, and an A1 with 50mm and 28mm lenses that I gave to my dad), and I just bought a Pentax ME Super with Pentax 50mm f/1.7 and a Ricoh 28mm f/2.8 lenses...I'm looking forward to using it!

Here are a few more pictures...I tied these to my deviantArt pages.

ME super with the 28mm is the best camera you have ~

It's a bit funny...the day after I finally add some more pictures to this thread, look what popped up at a junk store for $18.

http://imagesocket.com/images/IMGP068284b.jpg

A Canon Canonet G-III QL17 rangefinder! After I put a new battery in it, it seems to be in perfect working condition, too! I'll have to post some pictures from it when I get my next batch of film developed.

...is it cooler than the ME Super?

Haha we have the exact same model c:

And i don't know, its different i guess. My parallax viewfinder is kind of foggy so i don't like using it that much, and the first battery i bought for it was fluky and died quick. The lens on it is mega sharp though, so its still cool to take pics with.

Also i paid a bit more than 20 dollars haha ]:

I like the one with the boy.