Am I a fauxtog? :S

[nothereanymore]

Hey guys,

I’m a 22yo film graduate from Portugal. I have recently acquired a camera (Canon 550D) and I’ve been playing around with it, learning how to use it. Wondering if I am a fauxtog or if I have some actual skill. I really want to know what you guys think.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpereiraphoto/

I haven’t edited any of the photos. They’re uploaded as they were taken (in JPEG I’m afraid).

[Brownie]

Hi,

I am going to critique your work by comparing it to a scene I could possibly imagine in a film. Alfred Hitchcock films always stand up to this scrutiny. If you take a frame of one of his movies, it could probably stand strong as a photograph.

 

So let’s dive in to your work…

Immediately, I’m greeted by this…Oh my gawd: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpereiraphoto/7632393354/in/photostream

Incredibly contrasty, and not in a good way. The image is technically really bad. There’s nothing redeeming about it. our subject is a mile away.

 

The next one is really contrasty, not as bad as the other. Composition and subject are ‘meh’ for me.

 

Same issues on the next one…

 

This one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpereiraphoto/7632406768/in/photostream/ is getting there. technically it’s not exposed properly but the composition is more interesting as well as multiple subjects with a pretty good framing job. I’m digging the reflections off of that car too,  nice.

 

The next one is pretty interesting as well. I am drawn more to the guy carrying the bags as to the little girl with the tennis racket. but one thing I love about that girl is her form, her arms are all twisted with this playful expression that counters the ambiguity of the bag man and the girls. compositionally, its okay. the top frame and the side frames are not held in very well, which makes the eye kinda wander where you don’t want it to go. The blank sky is nothing you want in monochrome photography, so overall it’s a little too contrasty.

 

I’m going to skip around a little bit and harp on the ones I like and the ones I don’t like…

Focus is off here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpereiraphoto/7617737068/in/photostream/lightbox/

The contrast is still high in this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpereiraphoto/7617740260/in/photostream/lightbox/ but since the whites aren’t blown out, it’s not nearly as off as some of the work we first looked at. It basically looks like a less flashy ad.

 

This image is far too saturated for my taste: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpereiraphoto/7605483136/in/photostream/lightbox/ I can’t speak as confidently about color photography but it looks like it will ooze off of those flowers. Maybe someone else has an opinion on this.

 

I think out of all your images, this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpereiraphoto/7605499954/in/photostream/lightbox/, is my favorite. Tonality looks decent, blacks are blown out, so is the sky but I could see this as a frame in a film. Composition is pretty centralized but that doesn’t bother me too much.

 

This is one of your weaker images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpereiraphoto/7605486220/in/photostream/lightbox/,

There’s some weird fog around the right corner and it’s boring.

 

I hope you found something redeeming out of this, Hah. I go back to school Monday at my University so I’m trying to get the summer rust off by critiquing more. Haha…

 

Just watch your contrast, composition, framing and avoid the cliche.

[AndyF]

I’d have to disagree with Brownie on this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpereiraphoto/7605499954/in/photostream/lightbox/

It looks like some man/dog beast.

Watch your composition and how things line up in the frame.

Not sure what a Diana F+ lens is, but I’m not too keen on the results either. It’s giving you CA and also bad focus

 

[Brownie]

Maybe that’s why I like it…

 

Hahahaha

[nothereanymore]

Thanks for the feedback guys. 🙂

Let me just start by talking about the Diana F+ Lens. That lens is made of plastic. It’s a lomography lens, not exactly something I intend to use professionally, it’s just something for me to have fun with. The thing with it being plastic is that everything always turns out a bit blurry and out of focus. It also brings out the colours a lot, which explains that photo with the flowers.

Now about the composition, that has always been my problem. It’s something that I need to improve, specially being an aspiring filmmaker.

The thing with the contrast and the composition, specially in the photos with people who are not aware that the camera was there is that I snapped them really quickly, I didn’t have much time to adjust aperture or shutter speed or anything like that. I just ended up not hating the photos completely, because I find it more interesting to take photos of people rather than landscapes or inanimate objects.

I am not in any way trying to excuse myself, I really appreciate the feedback and I’ll definitely take it into consideration. And thank you guys for taking the time to go through the photos and commenting on them.

I’m going to do a photoshoot with a friend of mine, hopefully having more control over the lighting and camera settings and everything before I start snapping the photos. Let’s see how they turn out.

Thanks again. 🙂

[AndyF]

Cool, let us know when they are up. Oh, and have fun.

BTW, there are quite a few shots I liked. The car one: maybe a bit more DoF though. I’d like to see both the car and the shop? But then both are equally interesting in their own right, so I’d probably take three images.  The girl playing tennis. maybe a bit more closer? Maybe not. The 550D has an 18MP sensor: you can crop away at most of the image and still have a high res image left!

One thing I can see though is that you at least are moving around and trying different perspectives which is great to see. Keep it up. I guess that comes from film experience?

[lovethissite]

Keep it up

[Author]

Posts