UKC

Well, heres the story. I've been to font for 2 weeks. I've taken loads of pictures and i've picked out the best ones. I think they're fantastic. I can see faults in somme, but i've narrowed down a few thousand snaps to 12 really good pictures. There mainly not of climbing so there on flickr. some criticism would be appreciated to see how I could make them a bit better. http://www.flickr.com/gp/60765004@N00/Psc77B

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In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

I really like the one with bloke who has a tree growing from the top of his head, the one of some character with phosphorescent flesh (or was that an film speed issue?), and the pram rolling down a flight of steps. A "classic"!

But what gives with the pictures of your feet?

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:
OK.
"You're a prat"

In reply to Hotbad Peteel: I don't like to be a wet blanket, but I really didn't think any of these photo's were that good. However, since you want some advice: think about your composition more ie, rule of thirds (don't put your subject center frame) try and keep your shadow out of the picture, along with other stuff that might distract; consider a lastolite to reflect light into areas of shade; try not to take cliched images.

In reply to Jim V:

are you thinking of any of those pictures in particular? I dont think there are any cliches in that set (maybe a couple)
p

In reply to Hotbad Peteel: Man with fag is a bit of a cliche no? Not a great one really. I thought most of the other shots at least okay though. Many good and just a few great.
Iain

In reply to IainWhitehouse:

true, better if you know the people. I want to crop some of the pictures but i've put them up as they are for now to see if anyone else suggests it.
p

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

well I think they're shite, not a french damsel in sight ..

In reply to JimR:

no, but there is a swedish one
p

In reply to Hotbad Peteel: I'm no photographer, but i thought they were all a shit attempt at trying too take some 'arty@ photos.

In reply to Hotbad Peteel: Oh dear, from a "few thousand" to 12 of your best, I was expecting something decent, unfortunately they're all very disappointing.
As already said, remember the rule of thirds, get the most from your lighting (there were a lot under/over exposed), and personally if it isn't razor-sharp I bin it.

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

So you met Rab over there? Wonder if he knows he's on your rogues gallery?

Davie

In reply to toiletduck:

Anything more specific? they aren't perfect, but which ones are good and which ones do you think are bad. I know which ones i think could be tweaked a bit more (or binned).
p

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

hello

I'm really liked number 3 and number 5 of the set - but the rest weren't really very good.



i think that with the others, some of them are kind of about things that mean something to you but won't mean anything to anyone else, and some of them aren't composed as well as they could be.

but I did like two of them (the one of the bloke on the roof problem, and the first one of the woman bouldering)

In reply to CJD:

I knew you'd give me a sensible answer . The bloke on the roof wasnt taken by me but its a good pic, dead centre but I cant be held to blame for the composition, cropping it would be a shame as its nice and colourful. The girl on the roof is a great photo i think. I've cropped it down loads, the original is pretty boring. You can have a look if you like. My favourites are the carp (as its such a sharp picture, i've got a photo from about half a second later when its broke n the surface and you can see the difference in the shot), the coach driving past the ferry (as its pretending to be black and white) and the 2 guys walking along the deck of the ferry for the same reason. The shos of people are better if you happen to be that person, otherwise they;re just run of the mill photos. The guy with his fingers up is good too if you know him.
p

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

hmm, maybe that's the difference between a good portrait and a great portrait, that a great one can be agreed by *anyone* to be a good pic.

interesting.

I liked the pic of the bloke with the fingers up but it did feel a bit 'in-joke'-y.

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

i would go with the bloke on the roof with some tidy up of the clutter.
i would have thought the girl would have been better out a bit, since seems a bit isolated.
I quite like the swan cos i am a hippy type.

the rest not sure they work so well, could try running them through photomatix to boost them a bit.

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

I counted 22 pictures.
Nothing I'd call "really good", sorry.
That said, there's 4 in there that I would bother to upload to a site: 7, 19, 20 and 23. The latter 3 are still unoriginal, but I don't think that matters. Technical flaws: bloke with fingers up should have been focused on the fingers, not the face; light trails have too little going on in the left half - crop it to where the little red things start, maintain aspect ratio by cropping out the road which spoils it, and increase contrast; cooking by torchlight seems fine as it is, I like the motion blur on stirring man's arm; contemplative man with orange chalk bag should have been shot wider angle (or farther back) and from a lower angle to show more rock and clarify the context - as it is, we don't know what he might be doing.
I suppose first one of the girl bouldering is nicely exposed and you have got her eyes in shot, but it's far too close a crop.
The rest of them, sorry but I struggle to understand why they're uploaded even to just a flickr site, never mind the "really good" aspect.

Hope my comments on the 4 that I kind of like, are useful.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

cheers. Bloke with fingers up was a case of hit the button and it turned out well so its lucky its as good as it was. I'll have to get in the habit of leaving the camera with a small aperture in future. Its been set to a fast shutter most of the holiday which is probably why the auto focus didnt work like magic. Light trails is an odd one but yes definitely needs cropping. I just think its pretty pictures, and its a bit difficult to look at it when you happen to know the blue line is a tv screen in a coach. I'll play about with them later in the week when i've got back on top at work. I'm surprised you havent mentioned the carp and any of the pictures on the ferry. I think at least 1 of he shots on the ferry are good. I like the way it looks very black and white but with little islands of colour; not very good if you want to reflect whats actually there, but I think they look cool. The pic of the toilet block is actually quite shit now i've had a chance to look at it properly.
p

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

I don't need to tell you to ignore these piss takers they aint pro photographers anyway.

..... you're bald and do something about your breath.

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

As long you are not SELLING your photographs, the ONLY thing that matters is that YOU are happy with them.

Fingers pic, I wouldn't necessarily have changed aperture, just focused on the fingers and let the face go out of focus a little.

Here's a focus-on-finger-with-out-of-focus-rest-of-shot pic
http://members.lycos.co.uk/kenny2mri/ElectreTour04/Winter/one-key-wonder.jp...

<Straggler's self-critique>
Would have liked to have had a higher viewpoint, better angle on the keys, but it was impossible (and I was drunk and shooting in low light and busy having a whale of a time at the gig anyway). This is still one of my favourite pictures but I don't think others think much of it - like with some of yours, it's a case of having been there and knowing the context. And again, it's not original, indeed a little cliched, but at least it's a real-life shot rather than a studio set-up <end critique>

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

Incidentally I try to NEVER crop unless there's really a lot of dead space and/or I want a square format or a 7*5 print, or there's something "unfinished" (perhaps an elbow) that is truly distracting at the edge of a frame. I try to compose correctly in the first place. So it's quite telling, that I and several others are suggesting crops on a fair few of your pics.

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:
Looks like you had a great time. Came back full of the joys of spring and got slapped back to reality by the critics.

I like 3 & 4 for the climbing. 13 'cos I dont know what it is and the light looks nice. The guys cooking by torch light is the best one for me. The serious look on their faces and the motion blur says it all to me: its late, we're hungry, let's get it right.

In reply to CJD:

you could see the photographer's shadow in that...which i guess to a purist would be a big no no.....on the whole they seemed fairly uninspiring, not particularly sharp or well exposed or composed.

i guess you don't want to fall into the cliche of b&w mid-send shots but there is more to bouldering shots than that....not sure the point of the guy holding a back pack? eg going to the crag or coming back from the crag?

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

Each photo depends on how light is at that moment, you could pick any photos there and think how could it have been improved in different light. The one of the shot of the front of the ferry could be much brighter if the sun was battering down. All the shadows would be really clear cut giving really weird and interesting shapes. The carp could be amazing if it was taken on a really sunny day and the sunbeams were shooting through the water, reflecting on the particles in it and lighting up the stones on the bottom.
Think about light, sometimes you are lucky, sometimes not and sometimes you need to wait for an occasion of good light to get a great photo.

In reply to Regis Von Goatlips:

he asked for our opinions!

nobody suggested we were pros!

Morgan: i liked number three better than the others, I didn't say it was a great shot.

In reply to CJD:


I reckon you liked number 3 because of your back fetish . I didnt take that one btw, it was taken by a friend. I took some of the same bloc but had a hard time getting a good position with the shadow out. I was hardly expecting a load of compliments off ukc
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In reply to Hotbad Peteel:

ha ha!

my back fetish isn't *that* bad is it?

oh lord.

In reply to Hotbad Peteel:
Ok, I like the swan and the carp (it'd be superb pic if there wasn't any bread - although pretty tricky to setup the photo without it I can imagine), but all the climbing ones seem to suffer from the lighting, with the contrasts being far to harsh and therefore detail in shadows and light areas get lost.
If you don't already, try taking your photos in RAW, and then in Photoshop, or something similar you can view the histograms and extract the most detail from your pictures.
One thing I should have said earlier though - it does look like you had a fantastic time out in Font!

In reply to CJD:


It's far worse!