[HouseTiger]

Thank you guys, but I still appreciate more comments on the photos (NOT the site, it will be changed, forget about that): If you think I have a good eye for this or not or whatever opinion!!

Hi Ares, I’ve been able to view the 5 photos that comprise your main menu (‘foto’, ‘video’, etc.) and think most of these are strong — and I LOVE the image you have for ‘contact’. Like another commenter, I am distracted by the halo around the angel but, again, this has more to do with taste than technical skill. However, I would like to argue that softening that halo effect might give a more polished photo than you might expect. Let the statue and the sky “speak” not Photoshop.  As I’m learning, we become attached (often unknowingly) to how a particular photo looks and lose sight, literally, of the big picture.

When I clicked on the link to your gallery I think I only saw about 5-7 photos and then the site froze but you have already addressed that you won’t be using Flash again. For the photos I saw, all of an event on stage I believe? I think you did well capturing the spirit of the performers. My background is in visual journalism, so two photos caught my eye as perhaps not adding to the story you were trying to tell: one of a young man in a jacket, very short hair, on stage, if I recall correctly (my laptop won’t reload it). I think it’s the weakest of what I saw and that’s because it doesn’t really enhance the viewer’s experience of the event, it’s a photo of a young man in a nice costume. The other, and where the photos stopped loading, was of a blond woman interviewing an older woman. I’ve had SO many of these where the subject’s eyes are closed or their gestures are just a second off! Unfortunately, especially since the interviewer’s back is to the camera, I personally think the interviewee must be especially visually compelling and in that shot she is not. So, those are my 2 suggestions for removals that will hopefully help you create a tighter portfolio.

Overall, I like your eye for storytelling, it is where my main photography interest comes from too. I think technically you are good, and I’d be interested in other’s feedback, as I feel I am less qualified to critique that, though I see no glaring problems like obvious exposure or focus issues.

Please post again once you update your site!

– HT

[HouseTiger]

If there is no way you can capture a horse jumping with a handheld Nikon D40, you need more practice!

Yes, I do need more practice but also, I want to clarify, I just wasn’t confident I could deliver a great shot of the daughter atop the horse in mid-air looking great against an overcast sky on a dark brown horse —  and they wanted a portrait of their daughter, not so much a horse jumping — so I felt I took a situation where I was unprepared and likely over my head and did a respectable, payable job. Which is perhaps not what a fauxtog might do?  (I’m hoping?) My worst fear was delivering a blown out or out of focus final product and also their check because I couldn’t accept payment for that poor of a product.

But your point is well taken and I’ve gotten a good sense of where I am technically and what I should work on just from this thread and reading others here : ) Your input has made a big difference for me already.

 

[HouseTiger]

Thank you for reminding me — it must have been on servo by then (as opposed to the horse’s head behind the blown out fence, which I am fairly certain was manual) because I’d just taken the main shots of what I was hired to do: document the rider on her horse. It was fast and very overcast so I set the camera to that thinking that would work best, and it did for three shots of those subjects. But, then that was over and I saw the bridles, wanted them in focus, horses out of focus. Then I tried a shot of the horses in focus with the foreground out of focus. Neither of those worked. So, it seems the first didn’t work because I was too tired and had gotten lazy, but the second idea was probably unlikely to work well with the 18-55 and, while I believe in always experimenting, it probably would have been a confusing looking photo (a lesson photo, not a “I’m growing as a photographer photo”!).

 

Not about focus, but about managing clients:

Something I was proud of about this shoot, and just want to pass on because it seems other new-to-the-business-side-of-it photographers read this forum, is that since I was a last minute replacement I did not have a tripod, etc. and I was asked to photograph a teenager practicing her horse riding — like jumps. Managing clients’ expectations is SO important and I knew there was no way I could capture horse jumps with my handheld Nikon D40! So, I explained what “action” shots I could get: rider and horse not actually moving, but in positions that suggested movement, like a shot of them just before the jump apparatus, and just after. Once I got the rider to look focused (the horse was fine) and forget she was “faking” a jump, it worked well and my clients were happy.

[HouseTiger]

About the bridle pic: so, I was trying to get the bridles in focus and let the horses be out of focus and in every shot the fence or chain was what ultimately became the focal point of the image. I suspect had I moved around a bit more, I could have got the bridles in front of the lens — centered — and accomplished what I’d wanted but I didn’t do that. These were the last 4 photos of that day and I’m afraid that’s what (mostly) lead to the sloppiness.

I do have the raw file of horse w blown fence so will give it a try.

Thank you again : )

[HouseTiger]

It seems her style is driven by a particular taste her clients prefer and one she seems to like a lot. For the *most* part, I don’t see her work as good or bad, but there is a shot of a family on a staircase and while that can be very challenging, she was ostensibly being paid to document that family event and she framed it poorly. If her subjects insisted on those stairs I feel she could have made it much more interesting and what she produced was a snapshot. So, my 2 cents on one photo that caught my eye.

I do think there is some truth to the suggestion that fewer people have an idae of what a great or good photo should look like. Now that everyone has cameraphones, etc. and people aren’t exactly pausing to apply the rule of thirds before posting the 15th photo of their son that day, I do think we have accepted a broader range of what is photography.

And, oh dear, by the standards of  I Hate Fauxtography, some months I’m a legit pro photog but other times I’m not. : /

[HouseTiger]

Really admire your work, and tonight this one: http://cameraclicker.com/galleries/g6/m/pages/2006-06-02-06-57-40-DSCN3622.htm caught my eye. Going back now…

[HouseTiger]

And I meant to add I’m encouraged that some other eyes spotted that sign among the journalism set as a weak shot because that’s the one I had noted as being first to go, just visually, aside from being out of focus (and, that should be enough, I know), but from a photojournalistic viewpoint it doesn’t tell a story as I think the others do.

(Sorry for so many posts, didn’t realize there was an edit limit?)

[HouseTiger]

Um, can’t seem to get image posted. So will this again:

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeldablue/7831251958/&#8221; title=”ProPetPortrait: Untitled. by Washburn Photography, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8307/7831251958_e622062265_m.jpg&#8221; width=”240″ height=”192″ alt=”ProPetPortrait: Untitled.”></a>

 

[HouseTiger]

Here’s one I’m not sure about including:

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeldablue/7831251958/][img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8307/7831251958_e622062265_m.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeldablue/7831251958/]ProPetPortrait: Untitled.[/url] by [url=http://www.flickr.com/people/zeldablue/]Washburn Photography[/url], on Flickr

The fence is SO blown and I tried toning it down just in Pixlr (not Gimp or PS, yet). This weekend I will be downloading the PS trial, so perhaps that can help? But, if anyone has any suggestions or feedback on this photo — like about whether the fence can be toned down so it isn’t what the eye is drawn to, and can the horse’s neck and head be lightened ever so slightly, and just general impressions of this shot — it would help with my editing of my page because I’m, again, too attached to what this image could be to be objective.

As always, many thanks for experience and advice!

[HouseTiger]

The photo of the fence : ) was manual however the sign was likely AF because that was in the midst of a rally in the middle of a very busy intersection.

I’m learning from this just how much I get attached to photos — I took 3-5 of the horses and bridles but the only lens on hand was my 18-55mm (I was hired because the original photographer couldn’t make it and a friend knew I was visiting another friend nearby, so I only had my basic kit with me) and none worked — the fence always became the focal point! Was I using the wrong tool or could I have got the shot (at least of bridles, probably not the long shot of the horses, which was also what I attempted) using that lens? I know had I had my 50, I could have made this gorgeous. Anyway, as I started to say: I still want this to work so much it’s still up there!

What’s interesting is that I didn’t even notice the sign was out of focus — I’ve been looking at it since ’09.

 

[HouseTiger]

Yes, you’re right that just as I titled the humans’ portraits “Client_Ex_blahblahblah” I need to do that with the cats, etc. Otherwise yes, it’s, “Hey, this chick might be a good photography but, err, will my prints smell of cats?” 😉

[HouseTiger]

@nesgran and @cameraclicker: GREAT info, suggestions and visual example, thank you!

In Gimp, I took the original, which at the time I thought was underexposed, and separated the subject from the background and played with the exposures which resulted in TONS of noise in her face, chest, and top. I panicked, because I was on deadline, and tried ‘denoise’ and some other auto-fix options and that’s what led to an even noisier, fuzzy photo.

Another layer was involved too because the wall on the right had a fire alarm and some other stuff that I and the client thought were distracting.

Nesgran, your suggestions are very helpful and yeah, I should just download the 30 day trial and retrieve the RAW file of this photo and give it a try instead of going the Gimp route (which I think would be a great program for those who already know what they’re doing, but I didn’t and don’t and felt like there was little help, unlike PS where there’s loads of info online).

Camerclicker, thank you! I like this and am encouraged to see how this photo could be easily improved. What really caught my eye is that in your edit, the subject actually looks like she’s IN a building whereas my version lost depth of field through post and she was kinda floating there in pretty glass.

And, I cleaned up my Flickr and here are the results: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeldablue.

I whittled down all photos and deleted the duplicates.
Made one set of what I think are my best photojournalism shots.Any feedback on this set would be welcome, I’m ambivalent about several. It’s tough for me to be objective because I know the stories behind these photos and can no longer “see” them outside of their context.
Deleted (most) sentimental favorites that aren’t technically good because this is my advertisement and also, my own site can have a section of “first film shots” where I indulge in telling the stories about why I think they are pertinent to my career as a photographer, but people can choose whether they click and read about that.
Tried to combine Street photog set with other possibly similar work. *Think* it works? Not sure.
Emphasized that the photos of kitties, etc. are paid work; I do pet photography too. But, this set is a toughie too because I feel some of the shots are good and sharp while others are snapshotty while what the clients actually wanted. So, this is still a work in progress, I guess.
Annoyingly, even though I actually deleted some photos Flickr is still showing them in my photostream?! I’ll try again in 24 hours if it hasn’t changed.

Again, loads of thanks for all of your input and help. I’m so happy to have found this community and will definitely stick around in case others like me show up.

– HT

[HouseTiger]

Does anyone have any suggestions about where I could find a good tutorial about how to properly edit the photo above that sarah5string linked to? I feel like the photo had such potential but I likely made a not-awesome shot more noticeably not-awesome: I think I managed to enhance it being out of focus, for example.

I have access to Gimp (not PS), the very amateur Picasa and not-too-bad Pixlr.

Thank you for any suggestions or recommendations.

[HouseTiger]

@sarah5string: Thank you, I’ve been ambivalent about this photo because the original image was relatively small (I forget exactly, but it was shot with a Nikon D40x which is 6.5MP) and very hard to edit because I think I overexposed it? At least, it wasn’t properly exposed and I was not experienced enough with Gimp to do this justice. (I do of course have the original so I can try again.)

At any rate, good point that I should re-edit to highlight her phone more. This client specifically requested to be shot with her phone (to reflect her line of work).

This whole thread has been very helpful for me, thank you!

[HouseTiger]

@nesgran: Thanks, that’s exactly the sort of help I need, I think. It’s likely true that prospective clients see the nice shots I use to advert on CL then follow the link to Flickr and while I think I’m sharing a portfolio of a lifetime of work, it’s confusing and ultimately makes them not so sure about hiring me.

And the tips about lighting with the two portraits are also very helpful. Yes, the guy did basically ask for a mugshot ; ) but when one is paying a photographer they should get what you have described.

Many thanks!

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