Thread: LGK Photography Challenge #2

Added this weird car to my set.

Pictures from my NY vacation , they had the colors.
Looking at the other pitures I see I'm a long ways from being good

Originally Posted by FlyBoeingJets

Okay. I'm back from work. I hat four-day trips with a passion! So here I am finally getting around to commenting.

ValleyFan:

You've obviously done some touching up on some of the images based upon other's critiques (which I would have mentioned as well), so I'll critique the "finished" images.

"Red Kitchen Bowl" is nicely composed and I like the color a lot, but I'm not finding anything in the image that's in focus. Even the water droplet seems blurred, though I'd have figured 1/1250th would have been a fast enough shutter speed to freeze it. I might feel differently about that if I were looking at the as-shot image instead of the shrunken-down version. Also, the first thing that catches my eye in the image is the bright-white reflections in the top right corner. It's difficult to keep my eye from wandering back to that part of the image. While it obviously gives depth to the image, it's brightness is a bit distracting to me.

"8 Second Stoplight" appeals to me. It's very HDR-like. Technically, it's obviously well-planned. Composition is appealing as well...I like the angle from which it's shot.

"5 South" also appeals to me, especially in its final form. It looks to me that you're square enough with the yellow sign that you may have been able to get it to reflect a properly-aimed pop from your flash to illuminate it. That might have saved you some Photoshop work. The brighter that yellow sign is (so long as it doesn't overpower the white headlight streaks) the more that image is "made."

Welcome home! Yeah, with the Red Kitchen Bowl, I wasn't feeling good so I was trying to keep it simple as possible, which meant natural light. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what I was thinking when shooting it, because I was shooting at iso 200, I could have cranked that way up and stopped down quite a bit to get more depth of field. I did want a narrow depth of field, but I could have made my life easier by stopping down. There is a little motion blur on the drop, but not much, it is mostly just out of focus (it was really hard to get the drops exactly where I wanted them, and this one was a touch behind the focal plane). If I where lighting it again, and I had a choice where the light was coming from, I would think having the light a little higher would cut down on the intensity of reflection, as well as if I diffused it a bit so there is less direct reflection and more defuse, so there is still something bouncing of the surface of the water to give it definition, but perhaps not so distracting.

As for the sign in 5 South, that is an interesting idea. I bet I could have even done it with a flashlight, less likely to blind drivers . It was about 150' away but I bet even a flashlight would bounce back from one of those signs pretty well. I wasn't even thinking about how that sign would expose to be honest, I liked it in the shot, and was just kind of happy you could read it, and it wasn't until after the fact when it was pointed out to me that I saw how much of a difference it would make. But thinking about your suggestion, it does make me want to want to try traditional light painting like that.

I did want to reshoot some of these with the suggestions made, but I ended having to work this weekend so reshoots aren't looking to likely.

Thanks for the comments

Been extremely busy lately but equally grateful for the deadline extension...

Still hoping to get more up by the deadline, but I wanted to at least put up what I have so far. Joshua Tree is not overflowing with primary colors nor shapes.

They Might Be (Red) Giants

30 second exposure... no tripod, just propped it up besides my tele. Not the best Orion picture by far but I'm very happy with the results because I took it, and there are blue stars and a red one : D

STOP!!!

Motorcycle tail light from the inside... upped the contrast in PS, though not as much as it looks.

Inflammable, Flammable... Is There a Difference?


Myris

Had the camera pointed backwards for one shot and this was the result... Don't know if it's my camera or if I'm just a naturally grainy person : /

National Park

::shrug::

Finally, A Use

Telescope eyepiece filters

Cow Stitches

That is a baseball

Originally Posted by FlyBoeingJets

Only improvement left to make would be to go back and shoot that one off a tripod, but I know that's impossible. On the larger version of the image, there is definitely some camera shake visibile. I can't tell what the exposure settings were, but I'd suggest using a faster shutter speed at that focal length to help alleviate that problem. Also, since your subject is static, good breathing and a slow shutter-release squeeze might have helped as well.

Funny you mention that, the wind was very gusty up there on Diamond Head that morning. I remember trying my best to brace myself against the railing just to get a decent shot.

Originally Posted by FlyBoeingJets

"Twilight Tracer #1" is cooool. Lots of circles! Get the flash off the camera to avoid that wicked shine-mark on the ball and you've got a good image here. "Twilight Tracer #2" is too centered. Rule-of-thirds is your friend. Also, with a dark image like that it might have been better to place the ball on a surface that reflects the ball better. I'm not thinking 'mirror' here, I'm thinking more like a granite countertop or something with a smooth, somewhat reflective surface.

I've added another shot of the ball here.

It could definitely use some post work, but sort of gets at what you were getting at...

FBJ and ValleyFan, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on my humble offerings. Being very much at the bottom of the learning curve I appreciate it the input.

I agree with most everything said, and hope to post more refined shots as time goes by. Eager to put images up I'm being impatient and rushing in the "test" shots, thinking that I won't have the time (or the skill) to pull off what I actually want. Like the matchbox and the masks. Those again were the tests (I actually really like the mask shots though). I tried different angles and looks and got cool ideas even from the failures, but instead of waiting and re-doing it right, I just posted what I felt was passable and moved on. And that I have only household items in teh way of "studio" gear and just a halogen worklight and a cheapo clamp light thus far doesn't make it any easier. Guess I'll be adding bits and pieces here and there and studying proper techniques like probably everyone does.

Also, hopefully composition will improve as I get more familiar with the camera and don't have to think as much about just getting creatively correct exposures--which is my main goal at this point. Shooting fully manual it excites me to get good exposures--especially in challenging situations--even without perfect composition. It's a long road to put it all together.... but it sure is fun and this thread is really pushing me to think and try and progress. Thanks again for the feedback, guys! It helps. And keep up the good work, all. Really cool seeing through each of your "eyes".

Originally Posted by Watti

Myris

Had the camera pointed backwards for one shot and this was the result... Don't know if it's my camera or if I'm just a naturally grainy person : /

Awesome shot!

My only tweak would be knocking down some of the glare/reflection on the right side. It's a bit distracting, but otherwise eye am really digging it.

Added a couple more... I'm hoping to get some feedback for everybody's photos up tomorrow.