let's talk about improvement...

[SciAggie]

Here is an example of an image that was effectively ignored. I was driving through South Texas and was heartbroken at the condition of the rangeland in this particular area. I stopped and took this image. I only had a 50mm focal length and couldn't get everything in the frame I wanted, so I took two frames and later stitched them together in CS4.

I suspect I may have been better off depicting the dry conditions with several seperate images in a series. They could have shown more detail. #1 I didn't think of that at the time. #2 I didn't have access to the private property. ( I was shooting over a fence) #3 I was traveling on business, and couldn't devote time for more invloved reportage. That's my story - what do you say?

 

[SciAggie]

Joe, I may be asking more for a critique. If this isn't what you had in mind, speak up. I'm just trying to participate.

For a tutorial, I want to know where Simon got his mojo lately.

 

[f16sunshine]

Here is an example of an image that was effectively ignored. I was driving through South Texas and was heartbroken at the condition of the rangeland in this particular area. I stopped and took this image. I only had a 50mm focal length and couldn't get everything in the frame I wanted, so I took two frames and later stitched them together in CS4.

I suspect I may have been better off depicting the dry conditions with several seperate images in a series. They could have shown more detail. #1 I didn't think of that at the time. #2 I didn't have access to the private property. ( I was shooting over a fence) #3 I was traveling on business, and couldn't devote time for more invloved reportage. That's my story - what do you say?

Gary thanks for posting this. It brings my thought to the surface.
This post brings up what I find to be my greatest weakness or better put greatest opportunity in photography.
How to separate what I see with my own eyes as a worthwhile subject from what I create with my own eyes and kit into a expressive photo.
There is a separation. One I can not always come to grips with and therefore come away with an image (or several) that make little impact to a viewer who was not present during the take.
I think many of the greats know who to strip down a scene to bring back an image that expresses something rather than one that simply records something.
I choose Ralph Gibson as an example.

 

[defektive]

This is a terrific idea for a relative beginner such as I. Not only to get advice on my own shots but also to see how those more advanced are trying to improve. I look forward to participating in whatever form is decided.

Sam

 

[SciAggie]

I think many of the greats know who to strip down a scene to bring back an image that expresses something rather than one that simply records something.

That is a pearl of wisdom. It reminds me of what I tell students when I give an assignment, "There is a difference between answering a question and putting down an answer". It is clear I simply recorded the scene. I may carry some emotion with the image, but that isn't conveyed through the image.

 

[maddoc]

If you want to change your photographs, you need to change cameras. Changing cameras means that your photographs will change. A really good camera has something I suppose you might describe as its own distinctive aura. – Nobuyoshi Araki

I like that concept.

 

[jonmanjiro]

If you want to change your photographs, you need to change cameras. Changing cameras means that your photographs will change. A really good camera has something I suppose you might describe as its own distinctive aura. – Nobuyoshi Araki

I like that concept.

The best justification for GAS I've heard/read to date 😀

 

[maddoc]

The best justification for GAS I've heard/read to date 😀

Obviously it worked out for Araki-san ! 😀

 

[jonmanjiro]

Obviously it worked out for Araki-san ! 😀

I think all the nude women he photographs helped more (he is quite famous for being an エロオヤジ after all) 😉

 

[jonmanjiro]

This:

I have to figure out first why I photograph and what I want to photograph.

Then how to improve showing what I want to show.

Followed by this:

shoot more, think more - not just about how you take photos, but also about what you photograph, the places you photograph in.

I think that's the key for improvement for me anyway 🙂

 

[maddoc]

I think all the nude women he photographs helped more 😉

Well ... I think thousands of other photographer tried the same thing but not that successful ... 😉

EDIT: I was thinking about if the following is true or not:

You are either born to be a photographer or not. The art of photography is not something you can learn in the classroom or by watching someone do it.

 

[jonmanjiro]

Well ... I think thousands of other photographer tried the same thing but not that successful ... 😉

haha, indeed that is true. but thousands of other photographers also changed their cameras but were not that successful 🙂

 

[lynnb]

Thanks Randy for the example - I've posted a detailed response here http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=168766
which shows how quick responses are not always the best! In short, I recognise it wasn't exposure at all that I was responding to - it was relative brightness and contrast across the image. You've prompted me to critically evaluate an image and that's A Very Good Thing. Posting on mental autopilot is not just bad for my photography, it sends wrong messages!

I spend quite a lot of time looking at images and asking myself why I like then and why they work.

I really like the idea of posting an image and discussing all the considerations behind it - what you were thinking, what made you want to photograph the subject, what aesthetic and technical decisions you make to get the final image, whether it was preconceived or a grab shot.. and so on.

Which images to post and discuss that way? Maybe by invitation in the gallery - see a photo you like and post a comment against it asking if the member would like to put it in a dedicated thread like Joe suggested.

 

[Austerby]

I've always found it very instructive to be able to see the sequence of shots surrounding a particular image - the contact strip that shows earlier and later attempts of the same subject. As well as working out why a shot works its good to understand why one doesn't.

 

[zauhar]

I was not there, so I don't know the details of the circumstances you were facing. I find myself wondering if you would have been better off shooting from the opposite side of the street? Then you would have been shooting into the shadow of the building at your back, Could that have eliminated the high contrast background?

This is certainly the type of considerations I face regularly - I find a flaw in an image that often I did not recognize at the time of the exposure. I have to chalk it up to experience for the next time.

Gary, that is a good point - I did not check out the view from the other side, it may have been better (and less bright light).

Not to make excuses, but I was having trouble keeping up with the crowd - maybe I can figure out a way to shoot from my bike.

Randy

 

[Sparrow]

It's a good idea Joe, but anything that's posted along these lines simply gets subsumed by all the new posts landing on top.

A couple of years back I posted an extended and illustrated essay on Art History, Composition and Colour Theory, it was well received at the time, mostly, but was gone from the home-page in a few hours and the forum-page in a few days ... it's hardly worth putting the effort in to write it that being the case.

 

[paulfish4570]

we've got that forum asking for criticism of a shot, but it is seldom used. and when it is, there are few comments.
i'd like to offer a couple of tips anyhow:
1) if composition is your weakness, cut out a cardboard 3:2 window that is, say, 20-30 percent smaller than a full-size 35mm photo on your monito. click up one of your shots, and use this window to crop your shot, moving the frame to various areas to see if there is a more dramatic photo with the faux frame in one corner or to one side or the other, or to see what the photo would looked like if you had been closer. cut out a square empty frame, too, and move it around, looking for a photo within a photo.
2) visit a major museum if at all possible and look at paintings, from the renaissance to the abstract expressionist masters. look at how light was used, how composition was used, how perspective was used. after my own whirlwind tour of the met and moma a couple of years ago, i am now amazed at how the way i see was affected by holbein, mondrian, picasso, rothko and klee. i had grown up reading my dad's art books, and after seeing so many of these artists' and others' work on printed pages. seeing them "live" was revelatory, and seminal because i took up photography again shortly thereafter ...
3) when you bracket, bracket from different perspectives as well as exposures.

 

[zauhar]

Thanks Randy for the example - I've posted a detailed response here http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=168766
which shows how quick responses are not always the best! In short, I recognise it wasn't exposure at all that I was responding to - it was relative brightness and contrast across the image.

Lynn, wanted to thank you here for the very detailed comments you made in the gallery - makes me glad I am part of RFF.

Randy

 

[lynnb]

thanks Randy - I am very glad to be part of this community too.

 

[shadowfox]

1. Don't Dream, Practice

Stop pitying yourself for the lack of time, beautiful subjects, wonderful sceneries, 'happenings'. Anything in the world can become your subject including those readily accessible to you. A subject looks mundane only when the photographer didn't want to spend the time or the effort to make it look otherwise.

2. Aim higher

If you decided that you want to use your cat as a subject, don't be satisfied with just taking snapshots of your cat. Do your homework, look for cat photos that engages you. Don't copy, synthesize, create your own version.

Obviously, substitute 'cat' with anything you like to use as a subject.

3. Don't bore you viewers

Before you post multiple pages of your 'work', stop and think, what are you trying to convey?
This simple question is what distinguishes posts like those of Chris Crawford's and some threads about using one of the most expensive camera in the world by showing *lots* of shots that cannot be distinguished from those shot using a P&S.

Again, not because the poster is not a good photographer, just need a little friendly nudge to kick him/her into higher gear.