So, am I doing Ok for a beginner?

[simoncookerussell]

Read you replies and then read everyone else’s, and then if you can’t see it then, your beyond help.

You noticed my replies to you compared to the others?

but hey, this place works for you, to me you sound like a jaded old photographer who is probably doing his best, but it ain’t good enough, so you’ll just hang shit onto others to make you feel good.

Walk away from this thread, will not reply to you anymore unless you actually want to help, instead of just criticize.

[Brownie]

You are trying to argue with a guy on the internet who was only trying to help you be a better photographer, but seems like you’re more content where you are now, so whatever works.

[simoncookerussell]

Others tried to help, you just critisized. I’m as new to this as I can be at this stage, you first reply made name wanna quit.

You  may be a photography student, but IMO, you’ll never be a teacher.

[Brownie]

I’m sorry to hear that you took my critique so harshly.

 

 

[simoncookerussell]

Well I did,  but it was the comments about saturation that bothered me the most. It seems that there are rules in photography that have to be followed or youll be shunned. Believe me, I get what has been said about saturation, but I still like the way I do the pics, especially the flower and sunset shots. Look at my Flickr feed again, and see the last flower pic, te yellow one with the blade of grass running through it, to “me” this is exactly how I like that photo to look.

The latest sunset pic I took I don’t like, it is too saturated even for me, and thought that at time in pp, but even the RAW pic was hard to deal with in that area.

My biggest problem I think is that I have no clue as to the technique of getting a picture to work “properly” and that is in the PP and camera setup. I know how to get the correct exposure in theory, but it doesn’t always work in reality. I NEED someone in person as a mentor, being as I learn 100x faster being shown than I do any other way. I know that I can be a good photographer, but I need to know the tools to get the most of of my pictures I take.

And if you want to see another reason why I might over saturate, my LR4 tutorial experience was from a guy on YouTube called Serge Ramelli, have a look at his tutorials, might be rather telling, but I do like his style.

Peace.

[Brownie]

No, rules are guidelines, just like in any other medium. Learn them, and then you can turn around and exploit them, but this takes a long time to use effectively. you’re only six months into photography and I have to admit, I can recall pictures I made when I started at like 15 that are hideous now, and photoshops that were hideous, it’s a learning  experience. And Serge’s work is mostly dependant on High Dynamic Range, not saturation. So maybe that’s something to think about. So, check into local photographers, or university photographers that live around you and Ask them if you can carry their gear to shoots, you’ll learn through observation and word, which will be very good. And then find out who inspires them, and look into their work, and talk to them if you can, and continue on and on… That’ll help you a ton.

 

Learning basic design principles will also help in going about composition. And having a small portfolio (8-12 images) for online, or people in person to critique, it’ll give you different inputs, Although I would highly suggest that you take the positive reviews with a grain of salt and people that have the courtesy to give you criticisms are the ones that want you to improve.

 

Good Luck

[cameraclicker]

Well, simoncookerussell, you certainly have attitude!  I thought Brownie’s critique was pretty reasonable and judging by the other’s comments everyone who has responded seems to be of a similar opinion about your photos.

A 7D saves files in two formats:  raw and JPEG.  Raw files have a CR2 filetype and JPEG have a JPG filetype.   DNG is Adobe’s digital negative format.  You must have asked Lightroom to convert the files when downloading them.  I don’t use Lightroom, or Apple products, so I only have a general knowledge of them, I believe when I trialed Lightroom on a PC, there was an option to convert the file, or not.  I believe Lightroom will convert both raw and JPEG files to DNG if the option is set.   In the Windows world, connecting the camera or a card reader makes the card into an extra drive and you can just use Windows Explorer to copy/move the files.  You should be able to do a similar thing with Apple’s file manager.  I recommend using a card reader because it saves your camera battery.

Being able to use Manual mode for shooting is a good thing.  Once you become proficient, check out Aperture mode (Av), it will save you quite a bit of effort and deliver the same result for about 90% of photos if you understand how your metering works.

[simoncookerussell]

Attitude, yes, but as you can see, I think Brownie and I have resolved it, so we can move on.

Thanks for the tip about the DNG files, like I said before, I have no idea how these programs work and never for one second saw the DNG or Copy option which I have just found now, but will the differences between a DNG and RAW file make any differences in PP? But after selecting Copy, I now have cr2 files, so thanks for that. I do use Av and Tv mode at times, but I use manual to make me think about what I’m doing more.

Ok, here’s a thing we can try, out of any of the pics on my flickr that you don’t like for all the above PP reasons mentioned, pick one and I’ll post it’s DNG original file (only from this point on will they be CR2) and we can start from there. Tell me if that pic in its raw state is a good picture exposure and I’ll edit it with some guidance if you feel like you may want to participate.

And I promiss, no more attitude.

[JanJan]

I hope I don’t get called an arrogant dickhead for defending Brownie, but here’s my 2 cents…

I actually don’t see any mean-spirited criticism from Brownie or anyone in this thread, and personally, I would see Brownie’s response as constructive criticism. To me, complete criticism to the point of insulting would be along the lines of “Your work sucks”, “Give it up, you’re not good enough”, etc. Brownie’s response is along the lines of constructive criticism because he spent the time to point out the areas and give examples of where you need to improve. I agree with Stef that Brownie’s comments were pretty tame. However, Stef also said he would call you a fauxtographer in a heartbeat if asked. I would personally find that comment more insulting and I’m pretty surprised you didn’t call Stef an “arogant dickhead” because of it.

It looks to me, in hindsight, that you were expecting the people in this forum to rave over your photography, considering that you’re a beginner, but you didn’t get the answer you wanted and you took it personally. The fact that you said, “I know I said I’d accept criticism, but by the looks of it, I haven’t” completely gave that away. I admit, whenever I show off my work, I hope that people raves over my photography with little criticism, but I know that’s not going to happen.

Now on to your work…I’m on the same boat as you are. I’ve loosely been a hobby photographer since 2006, but I got more serious with it a few months ago when I started taking pictures of people, so I’m not one to pinpoint exactly what you need to work on. Overall, I think your work is great for someone who started only 5 months ago. I’m into bright and bold colors in pictures, so I think you have the right amount of saturation in your images.

Edit: I realized I’m too late with this post and that you guys worked it out! 🙂

[dont.care]

Critique, criticism… Eh, It’s all pretty much rockin’ the same boat. So many people who think they take great photos come to sites like this looking for an affluence of praise to separate themselves from the regular cockroaches that taint the world of photography with atrocious works.. Most of the time, people generally think by coming to something like this will make them a ‘notch’ above the rest. People here are generally more prudent of what they think is good works and very much more inquisitive of the same. Notwithstanding the fact that the guys from which you’ve requested your, ‘critique’ quite literally pick apart photos.. When you come to a place that generally despises bad photography and in general is not a help desk/support/tutorial center–You should expect harsh critique. I would venture to say with your stomach and mentality toward being looked upon as mediocre in your beginning stages and feel disdain for that, you probably wont make it far sharing your work publicly. I was earlier going to rip your photos apart but I felt you admittedly spouted off that you were a beginner, I thought you were humble at least.. Apparently not.

Just another bad apple I suppose

[simoncookerussell]

Don’t. care, we have sorted this shit out already, move on please.

 

i get it, I was an ass, ok?????

 

And I apologize to Brownie, he was the first to say bad stuff about my photography, and it did hurt, but the saturation comments I’m still defensive about, because at some point, personal colour preference is important, professionally no, as a hobby, yes.

[dont.care]

You certainly are a futile little ass clown aren’t you? I don’t really care if you’ve ‘sorted shit out’. You’ve earned all the disrespect you get. A dash of sarcasm and a pinch of narcissistic personality disorder with a hint of sanctimoniousness.. Sums up rather nicely, doesn’t it ? As aforementioned in a previous post, minus the lens + one Simon; steep precipice, toss self over.

 

p26

[simoncookerussell]

Ok. I guess you won’t be participating any further.

 

Cheers mate.

[stef]

How to avoid being called a fauxtographer in 10 steps

 

 

[IHF]

This is obviously the first time, and we all are used to “I wanna be a pro” or “I already am” and we aren’t nicey nice over here (not that I think anyone’s critique went badly) .  I’m sure it was unexpected, not because this tog is full of themselves, but quite the opposite.

Simon, you are so very close.  I mean you are just missing by a hair.  And I don’t mean that in a bad way at all.  I think you see very well, and with time, I think you may just have a fabulous port.
Be patient with yourself.  My goodness you have only just begun, and it takes time.  Once you start getting more comfortable with the exposure triangle and have a good understanding of it, I want you to start studying good composition.  Not just rule of thirds, dig deeper than that.  Learn about leading lines, the golden rules and so on.  No more adding blur, or weird effects that change your photographs into something they aren’t.  You played, you got it out of your system, now no more of that fiddling around until you have a better grasp of photography.  This is not because i am a purist.  this is because you must first learn to photograph, before you learn to manipulate/change your photos effectively.  learning how DOF works and plays in photography will make you never want to touch that blur tool again.  Too saturated…  I want YOU to be the judge of that.  Have you made prints yet?  Are you pleased with them?  Do they match both what you see with your minds eye, and what you see when working on your calibrated monitor in the appropriate color space?    Is your soft proofing yielding correct results?  Prints and finished photographs are where your editing is truly put to the test.  If you haven’t been printing and turning those files into photographs then you truly and honestly don’t know how you like your colors yet.
I personally don’t think you over saturate (on my iPad though and that may play a part in how I see things), but I’ve been told my colors are too saturated as well.  Even though I never edit with any sort of saturation, and in camera custom white balance every shoot.  I just work with very bright bold vivid colors, and also shoot with a 7d (maybe there is something to that?). My port
http://www.redbubble.com/people/onegoodeye/portfolio
This is my very favorite shot of yours.  It stood out and said “look at me!” Right away.

Very nice comp.  love the contrasting colors and beautiful simplicity of the shot.
This is where “by a hair” comes in.  If you had been absolutely straight on, and made those lines perfectly straight, bam!!!  Perfection.  Go ahead and get a piece of paper or ruler and have a look at those lines again using a guide.  See how you were slightly tilted towards the subject and it threw it off?  If you can go back and re shoot, and perfect that pov, I’d love to see the results.  A lot of your photos leave me with the same feeling.  Ex The moth and shadow, ugh! Just a slightly different pov and wow!

Lots of centered flowers, shot straight on.  Try shooting experimenting with different points of view.  Flowers are beautiful, and one of my very favorite subjects.  Problem is… Flowers are beautiful, and everyone’s favorite goto subjects to shoot.  For people who are looking to shoot more seriously, it’s important to try to shoot them not as everyone sees them.  It’s important to capture them in a very special way.  Otherwise, our flower shots look just like everyone else’s, and no one will bother clicking/viewing to get a closer look.  The flower shots become something people have to sift through to get to the good stuff in our port.  So play around a little more.  Give us a bugs eye view, or even a neighboring flower’s view.  Don’t be afraid to manipulate the surroundings either.  If there is a blade of grass in the foreground getting in the way, pick it out.  If there is dirt on a petal, clean it off. Etc

I think a little organization would help your port quite a lot as well.  I feel as though I might have missed some good ones just because there was so many many many photos, kinda thrown about.  Culling our images is tough, but it’s good practice, and a good habit to get into as we go along.

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