So, am I doing Ok for a beginner?

[simoncookerussell]

Hi guy’s, great site, good laughs and things to consider.

Live started taking photography seriously as a hobby about 5 months ago, I have a 7D with a 100mm macro L series, Efs-15-85mm and a Sigma 150-500mm

heres a link to my Flickr account that I just started and put what I consider to be my best pics, feel free to be honest, all pics as a whole or pic a few to critique.

Ill listen to anything you say, good or bad.

my better more recent stuff starts at page 7. All my newer stuff was uploaded first.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94214228@N05/

 

and my ig account

http://instagram.com/simoncookerussell/

 

cheers

[Brownie]

Your images on a whole are ridiculously saturated and some feature bizarre edits that I rarely find interesting. I find this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/94214228@N05/8576388321/in/photostream/ interesting for its’ graphic nature, not really as a photograph, because it looks nothing like a photograph at this point.

 

I’ve seen a lot of your images where you’ve attempted to blur out the background and if you are to advance in photography, you need to understand how depth of field works, do you?

 

The work you’ve put up is cluttered and unorganized, considering you photograph insects, birds, that tower, and sunsets, they need to be organized efficiently so the viewer can check out what they want.

 

So, yes, for a beginner, your compositions are sometimes atypical, sometimes totally expected. Look into photographers that are very famous for the kind of photographs they make, then consider adapting their techniques to your own work. Color saturation and conceptual focus aren’t there at this point but that takes getting to know your camera inside and out. I feel like you have too much “zoom” in your lens collection. Consider photographing at a fixed focal length to where you have to make the composition, not the cropping of the lens.

 

There’s more but I’ve already gotten a bit long-winded.

[simoncookerussell]

Ok, the purposely blurred background pics are done on purpose, simply because “I” like the look. You don’t, no problem.

Overly saturated, again, i like the look.

 

As for the one you put the link up on, yes it ain’t a photograph as such, so I apologize if it inconvenienced you being in there. Funny that though, I’ve given away a few of those as prints from people in Canberra wanting it.

 

But I won’t take your criticism personally simply because you don’t like my style.

 

Note to self, what did you expect from an Internet forum Simon?

[simoncookerussell]

Ok, back to the subject of Saturation.

This pic  www.flickr.com/photos/94214228@N05/8575209843/in/photostream

i made this pic look this way on purpose, being if you saw the flower in real life, it was pretty uninspiring.

You see, here’s the problem. I make my photos look the way I do because of what’s how I like to see that particular image, and when it comes to flowers, sunsets, etc, you can have an artistic leeway to make them into something they weren’t originally. Otherwise it’s a typical pic that everyone else has taken of that particular sunset. If it wasn’t for post processing, every pic would look the same.

But I think we will leave this  here where we are.. I know I’m not as bad as the fauxtogs in this site, but simply being a hobbiest (will never take photography to a professional level) i won’t stand here a cop critisism from an obvious purists, because I don’t want to make a picture look exactly how it is in real life, because that’s simply no fun. As for human portraits, I can understand that there are rules in how to do it properly.

 

And as for criticizing the organization of my Flickr account, that’s hardly reveleant and its only been active for Week.

 

Just as well you weren’t an art critique when Picasso started out.

[simoncookerussell]

Sorry for the rant, I know I said I’d accept critisizm, but by the looks of it, I havnt.

But I had a think to myself after Brownie made his comments. I take pictures how I like, for my own personal enjoyment. I really don’t know what I wanted by coming on here to get approval,  especially when it really won’t make a difference to how I shoot. This site is intended to point out the frauds ripping people off, and I’m not nor ever will be, one of them, so in that case, how I take and enjoy my photos ain’t got nothing to do with anyone else, being a big part of photography is artistic and personal, whether I follow typical trends or be unique.

 

Sorry I wasted your time.

[stef]

I suspect if we let you self-examine and post a few more times, you’ll be back to your top post again. But the next time around, you might think about it more.

 

It’s rough to hear any kind of criticism, and it’s especially rough on this forum although I think Brownie’s was pretty tame.

 

You have a great lens collection, covering all the important stuff. All the ingredients are there, but you’re trying to bake before preheating the oven. While saying “That’s how I like the picture to look” seems reasonable, others see it like you’re dumping half a jar of salt into your soup and exclaiming that’s how you like it. And then inviting others to taste it, ready to jump on them if they say it’s too salty.

 

I looked through a few pages. The saturation in most of the shots is way too high for it to not look like a cartoon. Some of the shots work with saturation turned up to 11 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/94214228@N05/8577505302/in/photostream/) but most do not. It’s not abstract or art… it’s too much salt.

 

There’s definitely some bad photoshopping. Most of it is passable, but there’s some that’s just bad. http://www.flickr.com/photos/94214228@N05/8577509684/in/photostream

 

And your compositions could use some help. I see you’re having a lot of fun with that 100L, so maybe it’s time to start looking at making more interesting images with it. Nearly all your macro shots are bullseyes. You had one nice moth with a shadow under it that was pretty good, although I would’ve liked to see some more of his back.

 

If you asked, I’d call you a fauxtographer in a heartbeat. As a beginner, you’re not doing bad at all. You’re having more advanced issues right off, and already showing some real artistic skill. It’s not that you can’t make a good photo, it’s that if you hone your basic skills of composition and post processing, your good photos will be more than just 1% of the total. Saturate all you want, but that’s not the only issue you’re having.

[simoncookerussell]

I agree with your last paragraph, that bird photo you linked was done on iPhone apps, hence the crudeness of it, and just in the last few weeks “literally” I started watching many youtube vides of how to get the most out of Lightroom 4, as I’ve been using it for awhile without really knowing how to use it.

Ive been taking random shots regularly and trying to learn PP in Lightroom for practice.  But I disagree with some of the saturation comments, the bridge pic, point taken, but as of late, I’m liking flower photography a lot, and the style I do with them, is my preference, weather some think its too salty or not.

Everything I’m doing ATM is about figuring out what things do, being camera and software, but at the same time I’m figuring out what I like and what I don’t.

And I agree with you, if I ask for opinions, I’m going to get them, which is why I responded with the comments about why I had to ask in the first place.

Im in a situation where I know no one who knows anything about photography, I have no one to show me where I’m going wrong or right. But the majority of stuff,I like what I do, and that’s all that counts.

Remember, it’s for me, no one else

[simoncookerussell]

And I should point out, all the 1×1 pics are cropped for Instagram, hence why the composition may not be the best. Unfortunately I never saved the un cropped original pic. I have the raw files, but havnt been PP. all the setting are erased once I have saved the 1×1.

 

i started my IG account using an ipone only, only got a DSLR in December, so I can at least be excused for the errors mentioned, I only really wanted any opinions if I’m on the right track, any potential for years down the track.

[cameraclicker]

I agree with the others regarding your photos.  I’m not a huge fan of doing batch critiques.  I would rather have one, two, or perhaps up to five presented, rather than “Here’s the last 100 I took, what do you think?”  If you over-saturated, added a lot of grain, or did some other effect to the extreme on purpose, it is helpful to mention that when asking for a critique.

When you are talking about raw files are you talking about *.CR2 files?  Or just unprocessed JPEG’s?  To most of us, a raw file is *.CR2 or *.NEF and contains the sensor data instead of a processed JPEG or TIFF.   Your 7D came with a CD full of useful software, included on the disk is Digital Photo Professional.  Look at your raw files with that, you should be able to see your original camera settings.

Regarding work flow, once the files are transferred to your computer, you should make a backup of them (or even two backups).  Lightroom generally does not alter the original file, it stores edits in a database or optionally in a side-car file.  If you copy the files to another location, Lightroom can find them again and display them as the original.  If you move the files outside of Lightroom, then start Lightroom, it will complain it cannot find the files and will drop all your editing information.  Any time you edit a file, it is a good idea to save the file with a new name so you still have your original and any subsequent edits.  This allows you to go back to a previous edit later if desired/necessary.

[Gerbles]

I would suggest maybe asking for regular critiques on a different site. Digital-photography-school.com is a great site and is really conducive to learning and getting meaningful critiques from knowledgeable people (not that there are some here that aren’t knowledgeable- it’s just not an ideal site for critiques). If you were to get a critique done even once a week on one photo, it will help tremendously. That’s what I do (well, maybe not that often anymore), but I started asking for critiques before I even had a DSLR several years ago and it’s made me a better photographer. And at some point, you will get to a point when YOU are the one giving critiques and that will  benefit you as well. Just keep in mind critiques are NOT meant to be a personal jab and even if you see a particular attribute to your photos as being part of your “style”, it doesn’t mean it’s the right way to go about projecting that “style” and you may need some help in refining it- e.g. the saturation/vibrance issue or the textures you’re using.

[dont.care]

Advice you want? Get rid of the Sigma 150-500 5.6-6.3, it’s a horrible len. The closest and furthest ranges are soft.. The colors, contrast, build, sharpness,  AF, all weak. Not to mention the perpetual lens creep.. That lens needs to be taken and thrown from the steepest, tallest precipice you can find. The end.

Get a decent lens, like a 100-400 if you want DECENT L with everything short of 100MM that completely annihilates that atrocity of a lens aka 150-500 sigma. You can always use a 2x extender and still have better everything.

Or, get something useful like a 70-200 2.8 with a 2x extender (you still lose 100mm) but it’s 2.8 without the extender in a very useful 70-200 range or 140-400 @ 5.6  ..

Or, you can get the fixed primes like a 200 2.0 or 300 400 500 600 800 😉

 

But really, the weakest lens you own is a 150-500

 

 

[simoncookerussell]

It’s funny you said that about the Sigma, I was just saying yesterday to the guy that sold me it, that now after using the Macro L and the EFS 15-85, that I cannot stand the Sigma anymore ( I owned the sigma before the other two) but it was a lens bought because of budget reasons a the time. I will be selling it and replacing it with a 70-200 L 2.8. I don’t really need 500mm of zoom and I’ve really only used that lens (Sigma) once in the last few months. It really is shit, and for all you said wrong about it, it’s its saturation I cannot stand, and its blurry all the time, but not an out of focus kind of blurry if you know what I Mean.

 

Believe me people, I’m hearing what you are saying, but the first reply was just to brutal and IMO, unfair way to talk to a beginner. I realize now that this is really not the place to get proper constructive criticism being that its a site that’s used to being exceptionally hard on bad photographers, and they are the bad photographers pretending to be good ones, and the key word is “Professional”  which I never claimed to not nor ever will.

All I know about the RAW files is that I’m shooting in RAW, my Mac Book Pro has .dng next to them, and in the file description it says “Type:RAW”

ive actually thought if my 7D converts them into anything different while file transferring, but there no setting on the camera to do so, so as far as I’m concerned, the files are being transferred as they were shot. I transfer them using Lightroom. And this is simply because the software that came with the camera to handle file transfers always crashed from day one, tried reinstalling, but to no avail.

And yes, my file management for my pics does need improving. But look at it this way, all I have are the original RAW’s and the edit I use for IG, so if I ever need that pic again elsewhere, I’m going to have to re-edit it, and by the looks of the opinions here, that may not be a bad thing 😉

And I should mention that I’ve been shooting in Manual Mode in the last month (read the book “understanding Exposures”) and are taking pictures with the correct exposure. All generally at ISO 100.

ill give that digital photography school site a look.

Cheers.

[Brownie]

Woah, broski.

I don’t even know where to begin…

[simoncookerussell]

Start by being less of an arrogant dickhead maybe?

 

and how about you share with me your fine portfolio, after all, you are talking the talk, I wanna see your walk.

[Brownie]

How did ANYTHING I said in critiquing your work HONESTLY make me into an arrogant dickhead?

 

 

[Author]

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