Play Nice - Advice :c)
Hey there, fellow RedBubblians…
Once again I am browsing through hundreds of folios, numerous pictures, wonderful writings and great art… And over and over again I am thinking “How did they do that?” ... “What did they do to their cameras/pencils/papers/pens/canvas/lights/computers/add-form-of-art-here to get this effect?” ... “What the heck can I do to my own art to get better?”
I love all your kind words on my photos, and pictures. In my very own portfolio, those are my best ones. Compared to your works I have seen, they are crap… I want to get better. I want to learn about lighting, ISO, Shutterspeeds, DOFs, etc. I want to know, what I can do with my pictures, in my situations when I shot them, to improve the effects, to get the pictures clearer, to just make them more beautiful and more on par with what I WANT them to be.
I can’t manage on my own. In thus, this is a plea to all RedBubblians out there, who can give advice and critique.
When my pictures are really bad, tell me – but also tell me what I can do to make them better, so I can improve my works in themselves.
I do know, that some pictures, the quality itself is bad – the negative scans only are 72dpi on those that I shot with film. I couldn’t get bigger ones (the lab said, I don’t need bigger ones – I said I do, they said they won’t do it, since I am not a professional grinds teeth).
I have a handful on there now, that I shot with a digicam as well. A friend of mine bought a new camera and gave me his Canon D10 to play around with. Good thing is, that all my Canon lenses fit on that one as well.
I won’t give up on film! I do like the excitement to wait for the results too much. But I also realize, in order to improve my film works, I need to improve my understanding. And with the trial and error, it is just cheaper using Digital (I spent a FORTUNE just for developing lately and the successrate to get nice pictures was horrible).
But that’s just rambling. To get back to the point: Feel free to tear my pictures apart, tell me, what to do, what to change, how to snap, to snap better. Play Nice – Advice :c)
Thanks all for reading and thanks even more for maybe even reacting.
Best wishes from Vienna,
Giovanna
Martin Derksema
Well, I am not a photographer. But I can see you have a creative mind and a very sharp eye for beauty, composition, colour, contrast, texture and all the other components with which one can build great images. In other words: you have the soul and the eye of an artist. Technique you can learn best in a photography class, I think.
I think you make beautiful pictures. Comparing your own work with work of others is also a little bit dangerous. Your work has a large value of his own, just because it is the most individual expression of your most individual thoughts. I would say: be kind to yourself and cherish your talent and have lots of fun on photography class.
imageworld
hey your works are stunning, so no need to worry there, as for your 35mm photo’s we had that problem as well, so it’s not an isolated case, just keep on doing what you are doing & it will be fine, we joined a camera club to help us, there is alway’s some 1 willing to offer you advice or help you out
blod
Your work is brilliant, you have a good ‘eye’ for a great picture. To learn more about the mechanics of your camera and DOF and all the other ‘technical’ bits get some good books from your library and experiement with different settings, you do need to keep a notebook on what settings you use. As for film, well try using slides, they scan better and are much clearer, but do however show up mistakes much better aslo. I found ‘playing’ with the settings and keeping a note of them was much more fun. keep doing what you are doing and have some fun along the way and treat it as a learning curve.
ellymae
do you use any programs such as photoshop or creative digital?
thats where i edit all my colours, sharpness, etc. it works amazing for me ….i recommend photoshop. but it does take a little time getting use to all the functions.
Mark Ingram
I like your work, its great.
You must be in one of those periods where you get bored with what you do and require some inspiration I get the same feelings too.
Try something new, thats what I do. Try to be creative and produce something different you will be surprised with the result..
Steve Axford
If you want to learn fast – go digital. Take pictures, look at the result immediately, look at the histogram, go and check it on your computer. Figure out what you did wrong and go back and take a better one. Anyone can do it, but it does take work and most don’t bother. The Canon 10D (I presume you meant that), is a great camera. Unfortunately, RB isn’t a great place to learn because nobody wants to say that any photo isn’t great. Great place for encouragement, crap place for improving your photography. Try http://www.passionforpixels.com/ if you want a good critique site.
Zeanana
Thank you all very much for your encouraging words. They do make me feel better, I admit. But yet, it was not what I asked. I do know, my work is not utter BS … But I also know, that I have much room for improvement.
I have read much of the theory, have basically eaten a lot of theory books on photography (it’s just horribly lots with numbers – me and numbers don’t really get along very well). And sometimes, you can’t apply the book by book numbers directly to a picture. The most known example is – long exposure waterfalls. Everyone has seen those pictures. Technically and acc. to what theory wants to tell you, those are shot with a “wrong exposure” but it is an artistically correct exposure.
Those are things I need critique on. Would my picture be better framed, non-framed? Would you have suggested different Cropping? How would you have worked with the lighting situations?
How do you manage to get such nice, sharp nature/outdoor/animal shots? How do you manage to get your macros sharp (only yesterday I learned, that if I want to shoot macro I have to have the aperture as small as possible (high F-Stop Number), as that increases the DOF and gives more room for sharpness… I never knew that before and was peeved all the time, that my Macroshots turned out blurry and unsharp and that I was unable to create a nice Macropicture!
Steve, thank you so much for your words, too! My friend gave me his old Canon 10D to practice with and I only recently discovered the histogram. Now I just have to start understanding what it tries to tell me. Though the question remains: Can I always rely 100% on the histogramm? What if I purposely chose a wrong exposure for -> Waterfalls, Flapping wings, My statues for example,... etc.
I will try the passionforpixels site and see :c) I have basically given up to get advice on dA, FlickR (had a good laugh there :P ) ...
I like the community here and I enjoy chatting with you people, and giving my thoughts to other works I find :c) ...
Funnily enough though, I get more discouraged, by all the “beautifuls and greats” on my own pictures, than encouraged, because I KNOW there is room for improvement, I just can’t pinpoint it. Have you ever had the feeling of becoming “picture blind” to your own works. You try to look at it as objectively as possible, but you are just way too biased to your own works… And it is VERY tough to figure out on my own WHAT I did wrong. That’s where I need the more unbiased eyes of other photographers.
Thank you all for your feedback so far,
Warm Wishes from Wien,
Giovanna
marco britti
Go Digital it`s definetly the answer as it is inexspensive,second ,yes, a decent program to edit your pictures third keep snapping just like you`re doing ,enjoy your best pictures as you go ,treasuring them as you go without thinking of improving but maybe changing, jusy like you change your geers while you drive.Yes some pictures might be great and some may not be so great but so what !As long as you get some enjoyment from the experience that`s all you need to know! It`s about having fun!?
Highs and lows..Highs and lows..that`s how it goes and it`s easy to go through the highs but the “trick” it`s probably to be able to recharge while you having a low and then….you`ll jump back like a cat!
Ciao Bellissima!
TULIP73
Nice to read your thoughts Zeanana.
.I… agree though go Digital but yes I get what you mean with film, you can never beat the excitment of the BIG WAIT! Don’t lose that feeling…
I love your work, you have passion and a great eye..you will always see someones elses work, where you’ll say to yourself…”why wasnt I there then, how come I can’t take a picture like that?”
But I guess that’s why they have RB! this is why we all get the chance to apprieciate one anothers work.
Like you’ve said the best you are doing is picking up points of where to improve our own DOF, colours, and many other points! keep up the good work and i’ll still be watching…T73