Camera Block

[ethandavid]

I’d like to have my Facebook album critiqued. I have a favorite location and time of day to shoot, after dark. I know that I need to find some other places and ideas. I’ve got what I’ll call “Camera Block”. I’d appreciate feedback on my imagery, all of it, but mostly the after dark images.

To give a little context, I’m barely getting to the point of selling prints of my images. I don’t consider myself to be a professional by any means. I shot with Fujifilm Finepix cameras up until April, a s1500 and a s4500 (the 1500 was better for most things except for zoom). Now, I have an entry level DSLR, a Nikon D3100. I have two lenses, the kit 18-55mm and a 55-200mm. I do somewhat OK with what I have, but know that I have a long way to go, in compostion, in camera setup and in post-processing (pretty much all of it).

https://www.facebook.com/imagesofEthanRogati

[cameraclicker]

Briefly, most of them don’t do anything for me.  But, it may just be my present mood.  I will come back for another look later.  Facebook is not a very good place to view photos.  Flickr, 500px, Google, and a huge collection of social sites all display photos better than Facebook.

Your bee seems over exposed and not sharp.  The merry-go-round fence seems not as sharp as it should be.  I don’t know what you want me to look at in the paddle-wheeler photo — what is the subject?

In https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=453291814786171&set=a.453261814789171.1073741828.453138111468208&type=1&theater, I think I would crop starting a couple of weeds lft of the yellow truck.

I like the light trails, but I don’t love them.  I’m not fond of the windmill.  I like sun through the forest but it is kind of bland and I have lots of shots like that.

They’re not bad.  They just don’t make me say “Wow!”

[ethandavid]

Fair enough. Thank you.

[ethandavid]

I apologize. You gave me a detailed response and I didn’t respond in kind. I will do so in the next day or so. Sincerely, thank you.

[ebi]

Not horrible. A little boring at times. I like that you include something in the skies, besides the skies themselves, but I think you need to find better angles. Perhaps a higher vantage point?

[ethandavid]

Agreed. It has gotten boring and repetitive. I need to do better at scouting. I appreciate the feedback.

[Jones]

Seems you’ve got lots of nice environment/landscape sort of shots and then you get a nice cohesive flow; all of a sudden, some average shots of kids are thrown in. It’s cool if you shoot portraits, but there aren’t enough of them on your page to make it look like it’s something you focus on, so either nix them entirely or do it more often.

 

Personally, IMHO portraits are not your strong point. The worst thing that you can do (I won’t say NEVER, because that doesn’t apply in photography) but you ALMOST never shoot a kid from a top angle. That’s where we all see them from! Interest would be to get down on their level, interact, and shoot them there.

 

There is a way to make your photos look pretty much as sharp as they will on google or anywhere else (just not at full size like the other sites let you view). I never post any verticals on facebook (unless it’s a set of two verticals together, which is basically a horizontal) because it just isn’t as effective. Amanda Holloway Photography on facebook has this technique down. I’m still trying to experiment with how she does it. I’ve gotten very close, but it’s not quite there. check out some of her images for examples of actual facebook sharpness.

[ethandavid]

The pictures of the child aren’t from a shoot, they’re of my son at a party. I was sitting in a chair and took them in the spur of the moment. That said, I admit that people shots are not my strong point. They looked cool to me, mostly with the contrast against the grass, but you are spot on with the critique. I will take them down and keep them for myself.

I am glad that the rest worked better.

[cameraclicker]

Amanda Holloway Photography is using sharpening.  Too much sharpening, perhaps.  And probably is using a size that FB reproduces without resizing.  Though, some like this (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152243822578452&set=pb.403453453451.-2207520000.1381630475.&type=3&theater) are really large compared to what I usually see.

 

[Jones]

The sharpening is evident, but I am nonetheless curious at what she may do.

 

Please don’t take my comment as a “do not shoot or post this” sort of thing. I am just saying that you want to put business on business, and personal on personal. Or even business on personal, but not personal on business. 😉 Point being, really good photography on your personal page still looks like really good photography, but maybe not so exciting photography on your business one, and that’s what folks are going to remember, regardless of how many good photos you had on there as well.

[ethandavid]

OK, cameraclicker, I’m finally getting around to a response. Sorry for the delay. I’ll quote your post and respond to each piece.

“Briefly, most of them don’t do anything for me.  But, it may just be my present mood.  I will come back for another look later.  Facebook is not a very good place to view photos.  Flickr, 500px, Google, and a huge collection of social sites all display photos better than Facebook.”

Agreed. I find it easier to share them there though, as opposed to routing people to other places. Most of the people I want to show my pictures to are friends on Facebook. I’m still not terribly confident that my images are worthy of being much more than being shared with family and friends, not sold or marketed. I joined an local artist guild about six months ago and am getting about 10 of the best ones made up into note cards for an annual holiday gift show that they do, but that’s about the limit of any commercial venture at this point. So, very much agreed. I gripe about how Facebook displays images all of the time. I’m open to suggestions on how I could best share with others on Facebook and post the images somewhere else.

“Your bee seems over exposed and not sharp.  The merry-go-round fence seems not as sharp as it should be.  I don’t know what you want me to look at in the paddle-wheeler photo — what is the subject?”

The bee was a spur of the moment shot with the lens I had on the camera, a 55-200mm telephoto. I normally don’t take insect macros. It was the middle of a sunny day just before an appointment and I took a quick shot. I thought it had turned out better than it apparently did.

The merry-go-round fence is sharper in the original. This is probably a result of how Facebook processes images. I’ll take another look at it.

The paddle-wheeler photo is admittedly confusing. I thought that the boats underneath the main craft were interesting, but wanted to give it some context. The larger boat is on exhibit at a local museum and gets photographed a lot around here. I was trying to take it at a different angle. Any suggestions?

“In https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=453291814786171&set=a.453261814789171.1073741828.453138111468208&type=1&theater, I think I would crop starting a couple of weeds lft of the yellow truck.”

Thanks. As I told someone else, this wasn’t a planned shoot, just a picture of my son playing at a party, so the composition could have been better. I don’t tend to photograph other people than my kids. I thought the contrast of the yard added something, but I can crop it down.

“I like the light trails, but I don’t love them.  I’m not fond of the windmill.  I like sun through the forest but it is kind of bland and I have lots of shots like that.”

If you mean the light trails by the trees, I do tend to do them a lot. Initially, it was by accident. I like the location for other reasons, mostly because it offers a wide open view of the horizon for almost 360 degrees, but it’s right next to a busy two lane highway. I was doing a longer exposure and some vehicles passed by. I saw the results and thought, “cool”. I’m probably overusing that at this point, though.

The windmill is another local interest shot, which should probably be shown within a local context, not on Facebook. It was taken at an open house for the project of which that turbine is a part. It was a very sunny day, a location that’s usually inaccessible and I wanted to capture the movement of the blades.

The sun through the forest shot is admittedly not original. I had just never captured a shot like that very well, as I’m very new to this level of photography. I know it’s not terribly unique. Anything you’d suggest to make it more interesting?

“They’re not bad.  They just don’t make me say “Wow!””

Thanks. “Not bad” is actually a high compliment, given the caliber of photography I am up against. I will continue to work on “Wow!”.

I appreciate your input.

[Author]

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