Amateur Photographer Magazine

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OK Simon, you ain't getting battered to death with constructive crits, so I'll throw in my toupee:

The boat pic is very interesting (a lovely exposure, in fact) but has a distracting background which I have rubbed out (quick 'n dirty) to create a totally BS skyline and added a whiff of border to stop the eye wandering:




The resevoir pic is also fine but (IMHO) is a bit fussy at the bottom, so I have simply shaved a bit off and added a similar border to match:




I don't know what you think - it's just my take on your two very interesting monos!

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Here is the 2nd re-cropped and the sky tweaked a little.Cheers
Simon

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That's good (better) apart from I prefer a little more tree on the right-hand side so it looks a bit more deliberate but, hey, it's your picture! There's two minor details in the bottom right-hand corner that (in micro-picky mode ) I'd change myself - the small white blob right on the bottom of the frame is a distraction and, because of the present crop, a strand of grass leads the eye out of the frame and looks a bit like a 'hair in the gate'!

The boat pic - viz. what to include, what to excude - is a matter of personal taste, but I personally don't like a view of modern fibreglass contaminating a shot of an old, wooden boat if it can be avoided - but that's just me. It is, incidentally, a perfect example of the 'mono eye' that we have been discussing elsewhere, recently - ie, what works in colour (main subject contrasting with the background, in particular) doesn't always easily translate into a mono due (mostly) to a blending of the similar shades of grey that different colours can and often do become!

Your own comment about 'walking about' to frame a shot is a very valid one - moving about is fundamental (and vital) to getting the best angle/view of a subject which, of course, we all mean to do, but I suspect use of zoom lenses which allow convenient cropping of an image without shifting yer ar5e is to blame for a lot of distracting backgrounds!

(With primes there's a lot more work to do: With a standard fitted, a 'wide-angle lens' is two steps back and a 'tele' is ten steps forward! )

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Here is the 2nd re-cropped and the sky tweaked a little.Cheers
Simon

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That's good (better) apart from I prefer a little more tree on the right-hand side so it looks a bit more deliberate but, hey, it's your picture! There's two minor details in the bottom right-hand corner that (in micro-picky mode ) I'd change myself - the small white blob right on the bottom of the frame is a distraction and, because of the present crop, a strand of grass leads the eye out of the frame and looks a bit like a 'hair in the gate'!

The boat pic - viz. what to include, what to excude - is a matter of personal taste, but I personally don't like a view of modern fibreglass contaminating a shot of an old, wooden boat if it can be avoided - but that's just me. It is, incidentally, a perfect example of the 'mono eye' that we have been discussing elsewhere, recently - ie, what works in colour (main subject contrasting with the background, in particular) doesn't always easily translate into a mono due (mostly) to a blending of the similar shades of grey that different colours can and often do become!

Your own comment about 'walking about' to frame a shot is a very valid one - moving about is fundamental (and vital) to getting the best angle/view of a subject which, of course, we all mean to do, but I suspect use of zoom lenses which allow convenient cropping of an image without shifting yer ar5e is to blame for a lot of distracting backgrounds!

(With primes there's a lot more work to do: With a standard fitted, a 'wide-angle lens' is two steps back and a 'tele' is ten steps forward! )

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Keith

Thanks for all of the feedback and information, I guess for me I have the basics right in that the images are well exposed and I have controlled the DOF the way I wanted to. So I feel confident that I am in control of those aspects. However, I now need to make sure (as much as possible) that I get the composition right when taking the shot so that I have less to do when I upload the images.

Interestingly on the boat picture the main one is fibreglass too it just looks like an old wooden one.

Out of interest and not wishing to appear rude do you do any camera club judging. Your comments seem to be in a similar vein to the ones we get at our camera club from some of the better judges.

Cheers
Simon

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My Gallery

An Englishman in Cwmbran, I like my toast done on one side!

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Thanks for all of the feedback and information, I guess for me I have the basics right in that the images are well exposed and I have controlled the DOF the way I wanted to. So I feel confident that I am in control of those aspects. However, I now need to make sure (as much as possible) that I get the composition right when taking the shot so that I have less to do when I upload the images.

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Simon, I'm not comfortable critiquing pix on this forum - I don't claim to know anything and am well aware of the old adage 'them as can, do and them as can't, criticise '!! (If I have anything going for me at all it's a bit of an 'eye' which is much to do with 'art' as it has to do with photography!!)

If it is helpful (and there's no better way of honing technique than hearing it from someone else), I'll use this pic I ripped off the 'Net to remake the point about moving the camera to the optimum point to capture an image:





Note straight off that it is a beautiful, atmospheric exposure with lovely colour that not only conveys a sense of 'being there' but also wanting to be there !

I've chopped a redundant chunk off the lefthand side to improve balance (and cloned out the remnants of a name in the corner ) and think perhaps another thin strip could be taken off of the left (?), but in true 'shift yer ar5e' mode what that pic needed (IMO) was for the 'taker' to possibly move back a step or two to properly get the rocks at the bottom and right fully into the frame and squat down a bit to get the distant landscape off those two little points of rock - they don't look like they can really take the weight!! (I'm aware there might have been a 'blending into the background' problem that would make this difficult and can't help wondering if a whiff of fill-in flash might not have helped pull the rock away from the distant background, if it didn't kill the mood?)

All that said, I would not have been at all unhappy to have taken that shot myself!

If anyone wanted to put themselves into a strict regimen for sharpening up their composition skills I would suggest they fit a prime lens only to their camera (slightly long is good) and see what they can do with it!

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Interestingly on the boat picture the main one is fibreglass too it just looks like an old wooden one.

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Jeez, it seems I need to redevelop my own seeing skills!! (No-one's immune!)

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Out of interest and not wishing to appear rude do you do any camera club judging. Your comments seem to be in a similar vein to the ones we get at our camera club from some of the better judges.

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That's a very nice thing to say, Simon - but, no, it's been a long time since I attended a 'camera club' and when I did, I was a lot more 'judged against than judging'! I'm not really a 'camera club' type - only an old teuchter who's been round the block a few times, but one who has always had a strong interest in images and visuals (photography included)!!

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I'm not really a 'camera club' type - only an old teuchter who's been round the block a few times, but one who has always had a strong interest in images and visuals (photography included)!!

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Actually, given how literal people tend to be these days, I'd better qualify that by saying I'm probably the only person here who can claim to have been (honourary) 'Assistant Works Photographer' * at no less than Kodak Ltd in the 60s and very likely the only person here who has spent 2 weeks grinding lenses as a sprog QC technician on an 'all department' Management Training programme!


* In reality: 'tripod carrier' to Freddie Gant (Works Photographer proper) when we had to go and photograph spilt loads in curtain-sided trailers from Germany!!

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Thanks for all of the feedback and information, I guess for me I have the basics right in that the images are well exposed and I have controlled the DOF the way I wanted to. So I feel confident that I am in control of those aspects. However, I now need to make sure (as much as possible) that I get the composition right when taking the shot so that I have less to do when I upload the images.

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Simon, I'm not comfortable critiquing pix on this forum - I don't claim to know anything and am well aware of the old adage 'them as can, do and them as can't, criticise '!! (If I have anything going for me at all it's a bit of an 'eye' which is much to do with 'art' as it has to do with photography!!)

If it is helpful (and there's no better way of honing technique than hearing it from someone else), I'll use this pic I ripped off the 'Net to remake the point about moving the camera to the optimum point to capture an image:





Note straight off that it is a beautiful, atmospheric exposure with lovely colour that not only conveys a sense of 'being there' but also wanting to be there !

I've chopped a redundant chunk off the lefthand side to improve balance (and cloned out the remnants of a name in the corner ) and think perhaps another thin strip could be taken off of the left (?), but in true 'shift yer ar5e' mode what that pic needed (IMO) was for the 'taker' to possibly move back a step or two to properly get the rocks at the bottom and right fully into the frame and squat down a bit to get the distant landscape off those two little points of rock - they don't look like they can really take the weight!! (I'm aware there might have been a 'blending into the background' problem that would make this difficult and can't help wondering if a whiff of fill-in flash might not have helped pull the rock away from the distant background, if it didn't kill the mood?)

All that said, I would not have been at all unhappy to have taken that shot myself!

If anyone wanted to put themselves into a strict regimen for sharpening up their composition skills I would suggest they fit a prime lens only to their camera (slightly long is good) and see what they can do with it!

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Interestingly on the boat picture the main one is fibreglass too it just looks like an old wooden one.

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Jeez, it seems I need to redevelop my own seeing skills!! (No-one's immune!)

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Out of interest and not wishing to appear rude do you do any camera club judging. Your comments seem to be in a similar vein to the ones we get at our camera club from some of the better judges.

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That's a very nice thing to say, Simon - but, no, it's been a long time since I attended a 'camera club' and when I did, I was a lot more 'judged against than judging'! I'm not really a 'camera club' type - only an old teuchter who's been round the block a few times, but one who has always had a strong interest in images and visuals (photography included)!!

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You nearly had me going there I looked at the post and thought I can't believe he's picked one of my images at random to illustrate the crop thing. Until I read further. My leg feels well and truly pulled.

Cheers
Simon

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My Gallery

An Englishman in Cwmbran, I like my toast done on one side!

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Hi Simon, I liked your original shots. The background in the boat shot gave it a sense of location.

The reservoir shot however did need tilting to make it horizontal. I think you had the composition just about right though - with the waterline about 2/3 up the page. I don't personally like the crops where the waterline gets near 1/2 way.

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You nearly had me going there I looked at the post and thought I can't believe he's picked one of my images at random to illustrate the crop thing. Until I read further. My leg feels well and truly pulled.

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Actually, so does mine! Was your 'Baio Vento 2' shot on your gallery when I first looked? Because it is exactly what I was trying to describe about the viewpoint!

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Adrian, thanks for the feedback. I think I need to give myself 100 lines:

"I must straighten my horizons before submitting my images!!!!"

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You nearly had me going there I looked at the post and thought I can't believe he's picked one of my images at random to illustrate the crop thing. Until I read further. My leg feels well and truly pulled.

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Actually, so does mine! Was your 'Baio Vento 2' shot on your gallery when I first looked? Because it is exactly what I was trying to describe about the viewpoint!

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Yes, I haven't added any there for a while. That one was from the same shoot

Cheers
Simon

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My Gallery

An Englishman in Cwmbran, I like my toast done on one side!

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Yes, I haven't added any there for a while. That one was from the same shoot

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In that case it's me looking but not seeing again - I really need to work on that! As I said, the second pic is exactly what I was trying to describe about the first pic!

(Not on your gallery atm, though? I just had another look and couldn't find them, but you've got some lovely pix there! )

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