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Fun Stuff => MAKE => Topic started by: Runs_With_Scissors on 17 Nov 2007, 17:11

Title: I need some help!
Post by: Runs_With_Scissors on 17 Nov 2007, 17:11
I am entering a photo contest. Only black and white pictures. I'm choosing 5 or less pictures, so here is where you come in. I need some help deciding.

Flickr: www.flickr.com/hartleyk

If you have some time on your hands, help me please!

Here is one that I was thinking of entering:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/hartleyk/743636505/" title="Polka Dots and a Swing by -Queen of Hearts-, on Flickr">(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1412/743636505_40af048fb7_m.jpg)[/url]
Title: Re: I need some help guys!
Post by: celticgeek on 17 Nov 2007, 21:56
I like the photos of the draft horses, and the ones of the dancing shoes.

Good luck.
Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: mooface on 18 Nov 2007, 08:33
i know nothing of photography but i just wanted to tell you that i am browsing your flickr and i am really loving what i am seeing. 
Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: ampersandwitch on 18 Nov 2007, 08:57
Okay, Page 5 of your account is where it's at.  I love the whimsy of the Death of the Chocolate Bunny, and also the unexpected privacy of the Ladybug in the Plant. 
Great stuff!  I'll alter this post if I see anything else, but damn, girl you can take a picture.

ETA
OK, sooner than I expected.
Aisle Way is ENCHANTING.  That slight sense of vertigo, the overhead light a glowin
(can you tell I know nothing about photos?  I just know what I like)
Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: KharBevNor on 18 Nov 2007, 12:37
These are some fine photos. Compositionally, really excellent. What kind of camera do you use?

My personal choices:

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2238/1954943045_94b0777cb8.jpg?v=1194737947)

(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/176/476906491_7edec0366a.jpg?v=0)

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1190/528801374_34f655d62d.jpg?v=0)

(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1230/1486592550_320349a45d.jpg?v=0)

and if you're making prints from digital, try desaturating this one:

(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/144/335655173_1971a5af5d.jpg?v=0)


Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: Runs_With_Scissors on 18 Nov 2007, 12:50
I'm using a Nikon Coolpix, just a simple little camera but it works really well. I love it for its size and simplicity.So far I think I'll take Toe Stand, Ladybug in a Plant, and Run Away (the one with the horses,that was a ton of fun to take. 25 or so plastic horses hanging from my ceiling).


Anyways: you picked out one of my favorites, I had one chance to take that picture (my mom wanted to leave the store NOW) and I was pretty excited it turned out half ok.

Ampersandwitch: I took Aisle Way in a barn I used to ride at. It was a pretty run down place and my parents said we had to leave since it was no longer safe to be at,  I took that picture right before we moved my horse out.

Khar: Yeah, I think I will try and desaturated that shot. Maybe I will upload the outcome later.

Thanks for the compliments  (:
Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: Emaline on 18 Nov 2007, 12:59
I agree with most of Khar's choices, but I feel like Ladybug and Plant would be more stunning in color, as opposed to how you have it in black and white.

I also think the the girl on the swing, isn't that great, and that you do have better stuff. I'm more partial to Khar's last two black and white picks. I went through your album last night, and the one with the pointed toes is the one that stood out the most to me.
Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: KharBevNor on 18 Nov 2007, 13:26
Yeah. The thing about that one is that its really well composed, very classical. You've also got a good tension in there, plus its very minimalist in a way. You've chosen the absolute minimum of information necessary to describe the ballerina. We can imagine her in her entirety from just those feet and the shoes. It's a very nice image.

If you ever wanted to make a little bit of money, by the way, You couild easily sell a good few of these as stock images, no question.

Also, you should get an SLR, maybe film, and learn how to use it. You've already got a very good eye for framing and composition, but on a camera like the one you're using there's no real way to work with aperture or shutter speed, except very crudely. Understanding and using depth of field is, I think, the real trick to absolutely mastering photography. 
Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: Runs_With_Scissors on 18 Nov 2007, 13:35
The shoes in the picture are actually ghillies, otherwise known as soft shoes, for Irish dancing.

I'm hoping I will get a new camera this Christmas (I have some money saved up for when things start going on sale). I was actually thinking of maybe going for film, and seeing what I could do with that. I'm still pretty undecided.
Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: Emaline on 18 Nov 2007, 13:47
I'd love to tell you that you should definitely go for film, but with the way things are today, you may want to go ahead and attempt to find an affordable digital slr. The main thing is, get a slr. Film is all kinds of fun to develop, and play with and I love it to death, and love all of my manual film slrs way more than I have ever loved a digital camera. I've played around with two digital slrs, and both are nice, but I still think I would miss my film cameras.
Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: KharBevNor on 18 Nov 2007, 15:40
The problem with Digital SLRs is, really, to get a decent one, you are looking at some reasonable expense. Most lower end digital SLRs are just a digital compact with a few extra megapixels maybe, arranged like an SLR, with an extra screen in the eyepiece. They don't always, or often in my experience (though I admit I'm not that much of a camera nerd) have good lens support (or ANY lens support, though those two you've mentioned seem ok on that front), a flash shoe or proper aperture and shutter speed dials, but just the same shortcut settings as a compact. The only real advantage your getting is a (faked) single lens view. What you really want is essentially a film SLR with a digital back, which basically just means that it has a CCD and a memory chip, and often a preview screen and whatnot, in place of a film canister and spool. At least, that's what I want...but then again, as I said, I'm no real camera nerd, I've just picked up information and expertise along the way, as it were.

Though I gotta say, having had a little browse, that Nikon is pretty nice. How much does one of those set you back?

Edit: Jesus christ £550.

On the other hand, a cheap film SLR can be pretty much as good as the most expensive film SLR in the right hands, as a lot of what makes up the price of more expensive SLRs is basically just computerised gadgetry that makes taking pictures easier without necessarily adding that many technical options: autofocusing, computerised aperture/shutter priority options, auto-light meter, motor drive, etc. Not that this stuff can't be really handy. The camera I use is a Canon A1, which despite being a lovely, high quality piece of kit, is pretty shit for casual or action photography, because each shot has to be manually focused, and the film wound on manually between each shot. The manual focusing can also be a real bitch, because you really need a good vertical line to get the focusing crosshairs set properly. It takes me at least five seconds to set up a shot properly. But, I just fucking love film. The only real problem is that it's pretty expensive. If I'm doing a posed shot, or landscape, or studio work or something, I often carry around a cruddy little digital compact with me to preview the shots I'm going to take.

Also, I got my camera for £50 second hand. So hey.

Oh, and whilst we're on the equipment thing, the cheapest and best camera accessory you will ever, ever buy is a Sky Filter. Srsly.
Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: KharBevNor on 18 Nov 2007, 17:16
You can turn the ISO on my A1 down to 6 or up to 12800, though I've never actually needed to.
Title: Re: I need some help!
Post by: KharBevNor on 18 Nov 2007, 17:56
Yup, at least six. There's this sub dial on the same wheel as the ISO that I keep on a safe neutral '1' because I can't actually work out what it does, but I think it's either something to do with film size, something to do with using films with DIN numbers or logarithmic ISOs, or it's a fine gradient control for the ISO. That one goes from 4 down to 1/4.

Actually, anyone got any better ideas what it is? There's also two buttons on the camera that both seem to do the same thing (Bring up the light meter in the viewfinder), but I'm pretty sure that they don't actually do the same thing, so one of them must be doing something else, but I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS.

That's the disadvantage of second hand cameras, no manual.

Edit: I just googled it. Apparently, one of the buttons saves the current light meter reading to memory so you can use it with the shutter priority mode later. The sub dial is an 'exposure compensation scale'. I still have no idea what it does.