A few black and white

cleanbluesky · 1 Apr 2008 at 22:35

C&C welcome

cleanbluesky · 1 Apr 2008 at 22:58

cleanbluesky · 2 Apr 2008 at 15:53

mrk said:
Depth of field or scene, either of these e 2in the 2nd would make it an awesome shot! - even a small bit of dof would make have more impact but including more of the scene using rule of thirds for example would equally give more impact I reckon!

I'm wondering about the merit of what you've said - I've checked out your site and you're one of the photogs who post on here whose work I generally respect.

I've tried using the rule of thirds for this, but the rest is a little crappy courtyard that I think adds nothing - hence I included the bare minimum. I'll try a ro3rds tonight

cleanbluesky · 2 Apr 2008 at 16:08

syke said:
What were they taken on mate?

The ground.

If you meant gear - a 350D with a Sigma 18-200mm OS DC. The 200mm came in handy not to disturb my subjects, although the beggar realised after the 7th shot. I've got another of him looking at the camera.

Don't buy the gear hype though, I've got lots of shots with my kit lens I am happy with.

cleanbluesky · 2 Apr 2008 at 19:30

robmiller said:
Which is a largely unqualified statement because as far as I know you've never used anything else Being happy with your current kit does not mean that upgrades are "hype".

Compare your third shot (200mm on the Sigma 18-200

These two statements don't resolve

You might be happier with the former, but it's nonsense to claim that that means to buy the latter is to buy into "hype".

In order to test my comment, you'd have to know what I was referring to as 'hype' - shot 3 is a poor example as it was also massively underexposed

cleanbluesky · 2 Apr 2008 at 19:43

robmiller said:
The Sigma 18-200 is at or below kit lens quality. Change my "you've never used anything else" to "you've never used anything above that" if it would make you happier.

I think you'll find you're mistaken.

cleanbluesky · 2 Apr 2008 at 20:08

robmiller said:
You've used pro gear and consider its improvements vs. kit-standard stuff to be hype

No, I think you'll find that the Sigma 18-200mm OS DC is a considerable upgrade over the kit lens. Given the price difference I'd hope so.

Also, I haven't defined 'hype' - I have no doubt that more expensive kit is of a higher quality and versatility than lesser-priced items but I also hold that they are by no means necessary for good photography and that often basic kit can produce sufficient results for most situations and that many of the people who are so enthusiastic about buying extremely expensive gear take little benefit from its use.

cleanbluesky · 2 Apr 2008 at 20:11

Okay, I've tried to incorporate the rule of thirds - opinions?

cleanbluesky · 2 Apr 2008 at 21:39

robmiller said:
Not particularly, no. In versatility, sure, but not in image quality--compare any MTF graph of the two. That's the price you pay for a 11x zoom, and a cheap one at that.

I disagree. The general opinion of the Sigma seems to be that it is significantly better than the kit lens although the compromise of the zoom is that it is inconsistent throughout the range.

cleanbluesky · 4 Apr 2008 at 13:59

martinturner said:
TBH, your comment could have included a more balanced critique. Rather than just criticise, how about say where he could improve the shot. Or what is good about it. If they are all terrible, dont bother posting.

For me, I think the noise adds to the 'dirtyness' of the environment and subject. I am not a fan of the first two as composition/crops are too tight, but the third is really great (although I agree, the other people in the shot are annoying).

Not a pop at you neither, just my opinion

Thanks for this, in some ways I'd prefer people to say its crap if it were crap. The only thing that might be wrong about people saying that photos were crap, for me, is that what some people really like, others hate - even if they're both good photographers. Feedback is hard, but I don't post pictures to have my ego fed - I'm looking to learn and improve.

Anyone got any opinions on this one?

cleanbluesky · 4 Apr 2008 at 16:00

EnglishMack said:
It's okay.. not too sure about the image quality though. Looks rather noisy and a bit flat (the skin tones are the same tones as the pebble dashed building on the right?). What Camera is it shot on? Can't go wrong with the composition though, although I do prefer shots which retain their aspect ratio, I'm not really into liberal cropping but that's just a personal opinion.

It's flat because its a mild HDR then B&W conversion - I'm going to redo the source image