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Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 92 total)
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  • in reply to: Fauxtogs who should end up on the main page… #9364
    dstone81
    Participant

    I don’t know why for some reason I thought they said they were from Oklahoma, but I see now it was Louisanna. Oops. But still, they were the ignorant ones acting the way that they did. I am proud to be from the South, but people like them give southerners a bad name. (And I come from a small farming community that is about 1/4th the size of where they are from. All that is in that town is 3 cotton gins, a convience store/hardware store, a gas station and a school. Oh and a church and post office.)

    in reply to: Before and After #9347
    dstone81
    Participant

    I don’t have any customers as I just do this as a hobby but here are a couple of my before and afters.
    024
    024

    Family 149
    Family 149

    My edits tend to be on the very subtle side.

    in reply to: Fauxtogs who should end up on the main page… #9298
    dstone81
    Participant

    This whole thing is hilarious.  I am from the south. (even further south than them, Texas) and I think her pics suck. My 11 year old takes better pics. At least when someone gives him critiques he takes them with grace and learns something from those critiques. But then again that is how I raised him. That is like with my own photography, I want people to critique my work because that is how I learn. I have learned tons just off of the photographers off of this site alone (and what not to do from the fauxs on this site. lol)

    in reply to: Yes more Practice shots- #8600
    dstone81
    Participant

    P.s. If you haven’t noticed yet…I have a thing for B&W. I think it has a lot to do with my color blindness issues. I have a hard time telling sutle shades of colors apart.

    in reply to: Yes more Practice shots- #8599
    dstone81
    Participant

    No I don’t have one. But I can probably get one.  Thanks for that tip. I never even thought about doing that.

    All of the pics I posted were straight out of camera. I am still trying to figure out how to edit using paintshop. I just feel so overwhelmed with it. Someone told me to try lightroom for editing or photoshop. Said that it might be easier to use. I have tried watching tutorials online on the post processing and it just seems to go over my head. I have a cousin who uses lightroom and photoshop all the time. I think the next time I go back to my home town I might have him show me a few things.  I tend to grasp things better when I do them hands on with someone verbally taking me step by step as I am doing it.

    I remeber reading about that on the older lenses and how they were designed. I get frustrated with my camera sometimes when I am trying to manually focus and it enlarges the focal point and then goes back a few seconds later before I have it in focus. I do agree with you though that it is better to use auto focus instead of manual for most shots and using manual for macro.

    in reply to: Yes more Practice shots- #8593
    dstone81
    Participant

    This is an edit of the first pic.
    024

     

    in reply to: Wanna see serious Fauxtographers? #8592
    dstone81
    Participant

    I know I am coming to this post a lil late but Cameraclicker- I liked the second link you posted and I found myself thinking to myself that I do a lot of those. LOL. Especially the ones about the neighbor kids and the one about family events. Oh and the one about going through a rough part of town and seeing it as a good spot for a session because of the gaffiti. And doing an illegal U-turn to go back to take a picture.

    in reply to: Yes more Practice shots- #8590
    dstone81
    Participant

    Thanks Clicker. When I shot these it was mid day. We were at a museum (converted from an old mansion.) and she was sitting on the front stoop looking at a lizard. I want to take her back and shoot during the golden hour and see what difference it makes. And I will be sure to have her step away from the door a couple of steps and open the lens more.. The top two were shot in manual mode. The last one I also shot in manual mode with manual focus. I think that is where I messed that one up. I think if I had used auto focus  it would have been better. And you are right it is a bit out of focus on the last pic. (Like you I have glasses specificly for editing and I can see the OOF when I wear them). I am definately seeing improvement though from where I started to now. Ya’ll’s critiques are really helping me. 🙂

    I want to find someone besides my own kids to take pics of to practice on.  Just so I can truely hone my skills without my mommy goggles getting in the way.

    in reply to: Fauxtogs who should end up on the main page… #8587
    dstone81
    Participant

    Gotcha. I thought she was referring to showing the gory part of the accidents.  I don’t have my cemetary pics on my flicker account. They are all on my photobucket account and facebook account. I was/ still am facinated by old cememtaries just because I am a major history buff and love to research the people buried in those cemetaries. My favorite cemetary to go to was the “old Burying Grounds” in Beaufort NC. They have a lot of interesting people buried there with interesting stories.

    in reply to: Yes more Practice shots- #8585
    dstone81
    Participant

    Gah I cropped her hands off weird. I need to fix that in editing.  Duh I know better.

    in reply to: So, am I doing Ok for a beginner? #8583
    dstone81
    Participant

    I agree with Loke and Clicker. I have learned a lot from the photographers here. I come here with an open mind and want their honest opinion about my pictures. I want them to pic them a part and tell me their reasonings for it. I have learned more from them than reading on my own on tutorial websites because I can take what they tell me, apply it and then get feedback on whether or not I achieved what they were just explaining to me. I don’t get all bent out of shape when they tell me that my photo just doesn’t do it, because I know that they will usually explain to me why it doesn’t work.

    In the photograpy/art industry you have to have thick skin because there are gonna be haters. And there are gonna be critics. The key is just learning to take what they say with a grain of salt. You can either take what they say and learn from it or you can take it as an insult and sulk about it. I personally choose to take what they say and learn from it.

    in reply to: Fauxtogs who should end up on the main page… #8580
    dstone81
    Participant

    Some people called me morbid because I take photos of old cemetaries, but the again I find them facinating and like learning about the history of the people buried in those old cemetaries. Most of them are from the 1600-1700’s. However I would never take and post photos of car accidents. Especially fatal ones.

    in reply to: Critique please #8336
    dstone81
    Participant

    You are right about the ones I need to pull they are bad and don’t need to be on there. This month’s challenge for myself was working on focus and DOF.  My next topic to work on is composition and subject matter. And I am going to add those to my  current skill practice topic. I am wanting to go to the dunes that are about an hour from where we are to take pictures. I think they would make for some awesome landscapes.

    Thank you so much for your input Camera clicker. I really appreciate the help and the opinions. I don’t know if it was you or Don’t care that once told me to take one of my pictures and to blow it up and have it processed based on technical merit alone. I still haven’t had that picture to wow me enough to do that with yet, but I am learning more and more each day to get me to that point. I am also working on a collage of my kids for my mom for mother’s day and I want it to be the absolute best photos possible. So ya’ll’s critiques are really helping me in my journey. Thanks. 🙂

     

    in reply to: Critique please #8322
    dstone81
    Participant

    Thanks. I like it. And I do see what you mean about the contrast. The Edit you did looks tons better than the one I took.  I need to play around with paint shop a bit more to learn more editing techniques. In your honest opinion, do you think I have improved any since I first started my flicker account? I can tell a difference in my old stuff on photobucket and my newer stuff, but I haven’t seen much improvement here recently. I just kinda feel stuck. KWIM? I spent 3 hours at that park today trying different things and applying different techniques that I have learned recently. I have noticed slight improvements since I have been using my meter more.

    in reply to: Critique please #8318
    dstone81
    Participant

    These were actually taken early this morning. About an hour after sunrise. I was thinking the same thing about the the building ones. The colored one I had used the custom white balance feature on my camera to expierment and that is what I came up with. I am currently still learning the post process of pictures in paintshop.  I am right now as we speak reading the how to on how to better fine tune the color balance in pictures without ruining the whole picture. It has been a lot of trial and error for me. And I agree on the B&W there isn’t enough contrast in that picture. It is way too flat and gray instead of  true B&W. Thanks for the critiques. 🙂

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 92 total)