Submitting my Photos to a Local Competition. Help me edit my entries down, please!

Worth everything you paid, remember YMMV......

Please keep in mind, these comments are meant to win competition, not are they good photographs.

Dump Smoke, nothing really grabbing me here.

Dump A Boy Dream #2, no eyes in the shot, again nothing grabbing me here. You need to show some face, get down to the boys level.

Dump don't tell mom, you need to know the title to understand the photo. Does not tell enough and a bit too busy.

Dump latenight, what are you trying to say here? We were out and I burned a frame? Nothing that grabs me.

Keep oh so shy, a fine shot will framed.

Keep a boys dream #1 if you must, I want to see his eyes in this, they must have been wonderful. You talk about them but we never see them. Shoot what draws you to the scene, nothing else will bring you a great picture.

Keep bus ride, great shot, great shot, my wife is wrong, square pictures do exist, great shot.

Dump Rendezvous, the plastic and foil make it an OK picture, not great. If there were some type of opening to the back or some food it would have been a great picture. Love the lighting and exposure.

Keep with the boy sleeping on the chair, it's the best of the series.

The series is wonderful but I'm not sure how many you really need.

Remember this is to win, not saying the others are bad, these are better. One of the hardest things to learn in photography, even harder than shooting without a meter is editing your shots. You have a lot of good stuff and a few great ones.

Again, Your Mileage May Varrry.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

B2 (;->
 
Pherdinand said:
LOL
jbf,
sam "bothered" to look at the images and give you a perfectly useful and well-intended response to your enquiry (for free!!)
i also don't understand what he wanted to say with that good neg stuff
BUT he was answering your question, he was wishing you good luck, he was giving you useful advice
so you were just ****in unpolite with your reaction.

it's amazing when people ask for oppinions or advices and then they cannot bear with the slightest criticism

And what he has in his gallery and how good a photographer he is, has NOTHING to do with the whole thing.

Some people are just so full of themselves here at RFF, lately.
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Ok, so yes I over-reacted to his post and I am sorry for that.


However, think of it this way, if someone had told you that you can't make a good print with a good negative and then proceeded to tell you good luck and do this or that, would you honestly think that he/she was really wishing you luck? I highly doubt it.

More than likely you would think he/she was being extremely sarcastic and very "jerk-like".


There is a difference between constructive criticism and criticism that does only harm.
 
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BillBingham2 said:
Worth everything you paid, remember YMMV......

Please keep in mind, these comments are meant to win competition, not are they good photographs.

Dump Smoke, nothing really grabbing me here.

Dump A Boy Dream #2, no eyes in the shot, again nothing grabbing me here. You need to show some face, get down to the boys level.

Dump don't tell mom, you need to know the title to understand the photo. Does not tell enough and a bit too busy.

Dump latenight, what are you trying to say here? We were out and I burned a frame? Nothing that grabs me.

Keep oh so shy, a fine shot will framed.

Keep a boys dream #1 if you must, I want to see his eyes in this, they must have been wonderful. You talk about them but we never see them. Shoot what draws you to the scene, nothing else will bring you a great picture.

Keep bus ride, great shot, great shot, my wife is wrong, square pictures do exist, great shot.

Dump Rendezvous, the plastic and foil make it an OK picture, not great. If there were some type of opening to the back or some food it would have been a great picture. Love the lighting and exposure.

Keep with the boy sleeping on the chair, it's the best of the series.

The series is wonderful but I'm not sure how many you really need.

Remember this is to win, not saying the others are bad, these are better. One of the hardest things to learn in photography, even harder than shooting without a meter is editing your shots. You have a lot of good stuff and a few great ones.

Again, Your Mileage May Varrry.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

B2 (;->
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Thanks bill. These comments are really great. These are the type of comments I love to get. You explain why you would remove a certain shot and give tips as to the framing and capture of them as well.

Great advice on the shots of the 'boys dream' esp with the comment about eyes, etc.

Thanks so much.


btw, thanks to everyone else for their explanatiosn and selections. Definately helped me quite a bit. Thanks so much.
 
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Boy's Dream 1. I'll not comment on technical values. Flicker, monitor rendition, etc. Just my own photo values. More than the others, there's a narrative embodied in this photo, and what's more, it's a narrative that I care about.

There are multiple, powerful elements that I can remember even with just a moment's glance and without the photo in front of me. The boy, tatoos, an older boy, and that boy's skate board. Is this about skate boarding? Dreams of? Or becoming that older boy with it's attendant dangers: maturity, tatoos, initiation? Or is it a relationship? They all work for me, individually and together.

As an aside, naming the pics is usful, but I'd prefer just a number and not being directed toward the photographer's narrative.
 
Sam R said:
I like the Rib joint pic and the last best. Some of your exposure would benefit from an incident meter. No very snappy blacks or whites in some outdoor shots. Can't make a good print with a good neg. Good luck in the contest. P.S give the shots interresting names....judges like that.
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I was always under the impression that good negatives were the key to good prints :eek:

But that's an interesting way to look at it.
 
now that i re-read it, i think Sam's comment only makes sense if he had made a typo there.
I think it shoudl read "Some of your exposure would benefit from an incident meter. No very snappy blacks or whites in some outdoor shots. Can't make a good print withOUT a good neg."
This sounds more consistent with his advice on the exposure meter.

I still think he was good willing, not sarcastic or jerky.
But i prefer to believe people are goodwilling in what they say/write until absolutely convinced of the opposite.
 
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