Reply To: Feedback please?

[MBChamberlain]

All in all, you’re off to a great start. There are a few things that you should work on and half a dozen shots that detract from your portfolio. For example, I disagree with notaphotographer. I think the picture of the kissing couple is the worst in the bunch, it’s out of focus AND has motion blur, the angle and fisheye is disconcerting and the HDR makes it seriously over-processed.

By way of moving forward, a couple of things to remember, fish-eyes work best when the warp is visible and used for effect. A lot of your shots it doesn’t add, it just bends the trees, walls, etc. in uncomfortable ways. Hard rock works great, depot works OK and hallway makes me feel like I’m in a bad horror film.

There are 3 rules to HDR, nothing that moves, always use a tripod, and always bracket with either the flash or shutter speed, never ISO or aperture. Things that move include water, oceans, stars, clouds, the sun, the moon, trees in the wind, traffic, etc, etc, etc. All your shots must be identical in every way but exposure.

It looks like you’ve invested in some good glass at the very least. And in answer to your question, you are DEFINITELY on the right track. The reality is that none of your shots are good enough to be salable as artwork, but I see a lot of meticulousness and attention to detail in your work. You have a lot of real raw talent there especially with landscapes, and with 2 or 3 more years of practice and learning and tone down the HDR a bit, I think you’ll be great at it. What I would suggest is practice with your digital, then, when you’re ready to move up, buy a 4×5 rail camera. The type of work you are doing will work best if you shoot it on chrome, you won’t need to HDR them that way, and you will absolutely love what a tilt/shift lens can do for architectural photography, particularly in  perspective control and the Scheimpflug principle.