50mm prime

86JR · 17 Oct 2010 at 23:18

I took your advice and took some shots with a 50mm prime and wondered what you thought ? The subject matter isnt great, tbh i couldnt find much to take photos off...the lens seemed a bit long for where i was (burrator resevior)

If they are bad quality its because i used save for web, the original files are 2.3mb and 9mb respectivly.

I like this as its faded and has weathered the elements and you can see this in the texture...

And I love this as the bokeh reflects the current season : autumn. I did change the colour temp in photoshop to reflect this, the original was more blue.

GTRacer · 17 Oct 2010 at 23:26

Don't use a center composition unless the subject matter absolutely demands it.

Mint_Sauce · 18 Oct 2010 at 00:45

Like GTRacer says, the second shot would have been more effective if the tree wasn't central. Also, having just autumn leafs in the background would have added to it rather than a white van covering a portion. Nice idea and bokeh.

Fr0dders · 18 Oct 2010 at 00:47

Is the non centre thing about the rule of 1/3rds ?

Mint_Sauce · 18 Oct 2010 at 00:49

MrLOL said:
Is the non centre thing about the rule of 1/3rds ?

Yeah, that's basically it. Generally speaking keep your subject on the thirds, it's not a rule to never be broken but just seems to be pleasing to the eye for 90%+ of photos.

33L · 18 Oct 2010 at 10:47

I would suggest keeping it on a bit more, experiment with positioning the focal point in the corners of the view finder (rule of thirds again). if you have to use the center point as ity maybe a bit more sensitive, step back give the image some room to breath so that you can crop into the desired position in PP.

The images you shot are technically not bad but could have been a bit more creative. There is no right or wrong, just how far you want to push the boundries of your creatism.

glitch · 18 Oct 2010 at 11:03

twoblacklines said:
I took your advice and took some shots with a 50mm prime and wondered what you thought ?

I'm struggling to see your focus point on both images. I know the DOF on a 50mm f/1.8 is going to be narrow, but neither appear to be sharp in the centre, which is where I'd imagine your chosen point of focus to be.

twoblacklines said:
The subject matter isnt great, tbh i couldnt find much to take photos off...the lens seemed a bit long for where i was (burrator resevior)

I think your seeming lack of inspiration comes through in your photography. Two relatively dull subjects and two not particularly impressive photos of them, although the second is head-and-shoulders above the first in almost every conceivable way.

Try taking photos of subjects that enthuse and excite you, not just any old thing that comes your way. If you're not finding the process of taking the photos exciting that will come across in the end-result.

twoblacklines said:
If they are bad quality its because i used save for web, the original files are 2.3mb and 9mb respectivly.

That shouldn't make the slightest bit of difference - it's what you're doing before you save that seems to be the issue.

Are you sharpening your images at full-res and then using the SFW dialogue to resize them?

Namistai · 18 Oct 2010 at 13:22

glitch said:
That shouldn't make the slightest bit of difference - it's what you're doing before you save that seems to be the issue.

I agree - they're not focused properly in the first place, and no amount of sharpening will help this.

bigredshark · 18 Oct 2010 at 14:02

twoblacklines said:
snip

I like this as its faded and has weathered the elements and you can see this in the texture...

snip

And I love this as the bokeh reflects the current season : autumn. I did change the colour temp in photoshop to reflect this, the original was more blue.

The first isn't terrible but needs developing as an image - what were you aiming for? I'm guessing you've had a play in photoshop, I think it's over the top. It's also too soft all round (what was the shutter speed?)

The second is better but the composition is off, the van (??) in the background spoils the affect of the tree against the autumn colours primarily. That the focus point is off is also true but of the two the composition is far more damaging to the image.

Also - rather than change the colour temperature in photoshop, set the white balance on your camera at the time. Autumn is a great time to get a feel for that as it happens but it's something you should get into the habit of doing.

BruceLee · 18 Oct 2010 at 17:20

I'll have to agree on the focus, it does appear to be off.

The subject matter isnt great, tbh i couldnt find much to take photos off...the lens seemed a bit long for where i was (burrator reservior

I had a quick look on Flickr at this place, I'm surprised you only have an air freshener and a road sign to show us, it looks a great place to shoot, I'd have filled up my cards there!

Secondly on your comment regarding being too long, don't see this as a negative, use it to your advantage, I've seen amazing landscape shots taken at 300mm+, pick out details around the reservoir, textures, shapes colours etc, you have a nice f/1.8 at your disposal to get some nice isolated shots of the area, I think if you'd transferred the shot of the car air freshener to the reservoir you'd have got some great shots. It's Autumn, there's not really a much better time to be getting out and shooting all these great colours we have now. Take this as constructive criticism please, places like Flickr are a great resource to give you some ideas on locations, try and be a bit more creative and if you lack inspiration use these sites to your advantage

Do you have any other shots you took from there or are these 2 it?

Raymond Lin · 18 Oct 2010 at 17:35

First, stop blaming other things, i.e. The environment for lack of subjects, and file size for quality of the shot.

Lack of subject is lack of imagination.

Low quality is not to do with output to web, its just you selected too high compression. Its only a 800x600 pic after all, 2mb is plenty.

Please stop blaming other things and giving excuses, it is getting rather tiresome. Post a photo that you like, take the crit on board, go out and do it again. Rince and repeat. We have all been there and STILL going through it. No one is perfect and you should see (or shouldn't) see some of the rejects I bin, except I have learnt to self crit to a point where i can be quite brutal if i need be.

ElDude · 18 Oct 2010 at 17:55

Raymond Lin said:
Lack of subject is lack of imagination.

I'm suffering from this at the moment. It's damn annoying! I look around me and I see houses and businesses. My brain is refusing to see abstract images at the moment!

As for the photos here, I'd say what's already been said is accurate, especially the centred shot. Generally speaking, the shot being off centre is better as it breaks up the image rather than having the in your face, this is the image I'm looking at kind of thing.

All that being said, with the tree shot I get the feeling you didn't have much influence of the composition if it was in a moving car, as it seems to be.

86JR · 18 Oct 2010 at 20:25

BruceLee said:
I'll have to agree on the focus, it does appear to be off.

I had a quick look on Flickr at this place, I'm surprised you only have an air freshener and a road sign to show us, it looks a great place to shoot, I'd have filled up my cards there!

Secondly on your comment regarding being too long, don't see this as a negative, use it to your advantage, I've seen amazing landscape shots taken at 300mm+, pick out details around the reservoir, textures, shapes colours etc, you have a nice f/1.8 at your disposal to get some nice isolated shots of the area, I think if you'd transferred the shot of the car air freshener to the reservoir you'd have got some great shots. It's Autumn, there's not really a much better time to be getting out and shooting all these great colours we have now. Take this as constructive criticism please, places like Flickr are a great resource to give you some ideas on locations, try and be a bit more creative and if you lack inspiration use these sites to your advantage

Do you have any other shots you took from there or are these 2 it?

Well heres some more i took all have been photoshopped as i shot them all in raw, i dont really like any of them but someone else might.

Thanks for the constructivism

BruceLee · 18 Oct 2010 at 20:34

Thanks, I like no 2 and 6 from those, can I ask why you are shooting in manual mode rather than aperture or shutter priority? Not that this is a bad thing, just interested that's all.

Number 4 is an odd shot, firstly compositionally with the branches taking up most of the frame, and secondly why you chose to use flash, all it would do (and did) is blow out the foreground branches which in turn is distracting. Perhaps a better composition next time

Last one is interesting, although I think you got caught inbetween getting silhouettes and just underexposing in reality.

Again, these are much better and more interesting than a road sign and an air freshener and show something from the trip you took

86JR · 18 Oct 2010 at 20:39

The last one is exposed properly in the original shot however you cant see the fence so i underexposed it in adobe raw.

Number 4 i meant to do that, i was trying to get something interesting for a change

I was shooting in Av (A on my camera) letting the camera choose the shutter speed.

The_Abyss · 18 Oct 2010 at 20:56

I think 5 would work better with the focal point on the chain rather than the post. With a b/w conversion, there could be some interesting bokeh on the ground.

Getting the focus right does seem to be an ongoing issue.

laiman · 19 Oct 2010 at 15:16

Definitely a better selection than the first two you showed, what do you not like about these particularly?

I agree that 2+6 are probably the pick of them but 5 is quite interesting as well, its not technically spot on but I think it feels a bit creepy.
I'd also be interested in seeing 1 in colour, I think it might be better balanced than 2 but can't really tell with the B+W.

D.P. · 19 Oct 2010 at 15:23

The main problem with these is composition.

Landscapes 1-3 would work much better with more land and less sky, especially 1 and 3 have very dull skies.

For landscapes a good rule of thumb is 4/5ths. A nice composition has 4/5ths of the image height as the landscape and 1/5th as sky. Or vice versa, 1/5th landscape and 4/5ths sky if it is a nice sunset etc.

Of course, you don't need to be precise and anywhere from 2/3rd will work (following rule of thirds)

Vary rarely do yo want the horizon line in the middle, only for something that needs to be symmetric does this work well ( a classic example is reflections in the lake).