[ebi]

http://stopstealingphotos.tumblr.com/

[ebi]

Who regularly shoots at f/18?

When you want to shoot with a lot of power so that you get some light on the background, but not a lot of depth. Take a look at the following link:

http://www.greglotus.com/story/s/beauty/

Most of the closer portrait images are shot with a very small but powerful light source. Typically, 2 Profoto 7A 2400 w/s packs, a bi-tube head with an extra small softbox, at a high angle. So it’s a soft light with very minimal spread. Sometimes it’s further back for more spread, but you get the general idea that if you keep the subject off the background, you can add just a little highlight to the background while still making it look like it’s not a million miles away. It’s still recognizable as something. You can have varying degrees of gray, all the way to black by just moving your subject further away from the white background. moving your light to follow (it’s typically on a roller) and adjusting power. Of course for this, you are going to need a pretty decent sized studio.

[ebi]

No, actually. If I want to shoot really low key (bright subject, black background), I need a few gallons of mat black paint for the walls and ceiling, or I need a lot of black cloth to cover the walls and ceiling.

Actually, you could probably get away with a couple of V-Flats on either side, if it weren’t for the very low ceiling.

[ebi]

Outpat,

This can be true for a lot of things but when you time is money and you are two hours behind and no you aren’t going to finish unless pick up the pace, AND you know that you can easily “fix that in post”, then just do it so you don’t look like an idiot. I also have years of retouching experience, so for me it’s pretty easy to say.

[ebi]

yes but f/8 on a lens with a max aperture of f/4 is not as good as f/8 with a max aperture of f/2.8. If you have to go to f/11 to hit the optimal aperture of the lens, then you are probably going to less depth of field then you desire. A lens with an aperture of f/2.8 is more desirable if you are wanting to shoot between f/5.6-8 (2-3 stops below max aperture). It’s usually the sweet spot of the lens.

[ebi]

and had the edit been tighter it would have been. But my impression of her was that she wasn’t focused and was all over the place and the images that i got a glimpse of didn’t look good at all.

[ebi]

shawna, make a tighter edit, organize it better and let me know and I will make a more in depth critique of images. But I think you catch some really great moments with portraits. The silhouette horse pictures were nice. But again. I cannot look at what you’ve got seriously until you edit it down. No one will. They just will lose interest very quickly. Tight edits, say what you have to say quickly and keep the viewer interested.

[ebi]

great, feel free to follow up my responses with that kind of critique. I only went in depth as a courtesy to her making the effort to edit and follow some advice rather than disregard it and pout. I felt compelled to do the same.

[ebi]

I cannot look at this from a hobbyist perspective. I am not a hobbyist. I cannot speak at that level. If you are a hobbyist, you arent’ taking it seriously enough. You have to understand that this is my career and I take it pretty seriously. I like helping others but have great disdain for those that waste my time, regardless if they intend to or not.

I realize that my frustration comes across as dissonance. That may be just me venting. If you can silence that and read between the lines, you’ll fair far better.

[ebi]

no need to dwell on the things you like. what works does, what doesn’t needs to be improved upon and that is where the focus needs to be.

[ebi]

“maybe”, in the sense  that i cannot guarantee a response. I try to respond to everything. sorry that did sound very arrogant but totally unintentional. If you are following the thread on Karen, you’ll notice that I provided critique of all her images last night at 3am, since she was kind enough to make a serious effort to edit it down. Do you see the vast difference it makes? I think my original comment, which she called mean, was pretty spot on.

[ebi]

It’s your opinion the idea isn’t good. That doesn’t make it a fact.

It also doesn’t make it fiction, either.

You have to be true to yourself in art and not try to please anyone else.

No. You have to do both. But 9 times out of 10 you have to please everyone else.

it’s being an asshole to just give one liners saying ‘it sucks’, ‘it’s shit’ etc. without saying why – and just leave people hanging.

The alternative is to say nothing at all. My opinion is that I don’t like the idea. He can take it for what its worth, which isn’t much, and move on. If he wants to know more, then he can ask for it and maybe i’ll respond. But I’m getting the impression that a lot of people on here are just looking for some sort of validation that what they are doing is good. I’m not going to be the person to give it to them.

[ebi]

@iliketag – everything you say is so pathetically wrong.  Are you an idiot?

People just starting out don’t always have a “better presentation” dude.

So i should just forgive it and ignore it? He’s sixteen and never taken an art class in his life. Someone needs to tell him. I think the blow will be much softer than what he’d ever get IRL.

The things you expect of them are incredibly impractical.

and if he decides to be a professional photographer someday he will be asked to do impractical and nearly impossible things all the time. Might as well learn now.

You can definitely ask that he put up his favorite image for critique, but I feel like you would find everything wrong and not touch on anything positive.

Oh sorry, didn’t realize that he was just looking for praise. People learn so much from praise only.

If he feels it’s his best work, that’s not always what should be offered up for critique first anyway. Things he knows have something iffy and he can’t put his finger on should be what he offers up.

Obviously he feels that what he has up is good. Why would anyone put up work that is bad? It’s very hard to think objectively. The work that you think is best is not always best. I run into that problem all the time. My favorite images aren’t always my clients’ favorites.

You are honestly running people out of this community and it’s really frustrating.

And those that are scared and run away weren’t made for this business to begin with. Best to weed out those people quickly and move on.

[ebi]

if you compare the fixed focal length to the zoom at the same focal length, i think you’ll find that the quality of the fixed lens is always better. 80mm is a good portrait lens for a standard headshot with DSLR – the equivalent to a 100-110 on a medium format system. But I also like wider lenses sometimes too. A good example of this is the close up celebrity shots that Martin Schoeller does – he shoots medium format. http://www.vh-artists.com/index.html#/photographers/martin-schoeller/ The lenses for some of his wider distorted celebrity stuff is probably about a 35, which translates to about a 50 on a full frame DSLR.

[ebi]

BCLC. i offered you some advice on your post. So i put up just fine.

[Author]

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