A Few Photographs

[o_osiris]

I want for a walk around my area today with my cousin and decided to give my digital camera a try to get some of the artistic urges inside me out and into some pictures. I used a Fujifilm A700 I recieved for christmas which up until now has only been used for snapshots, I've never used a point/shoot for art shots but having not taken any for nearly 6 months, I decided to forego the wait for a digital SLR. The first 3 pictures are just ones that I took of my cousin, the fourth-on is of a schoolyard near my house, while the last 2 I got him to hold the camera and described how I wanted the picture framed and took the role of subject myself. Please let me know what you think and how I might improve my pictures if needed. I shot all the pictures with the camera set on ISO100 to try and get the clearest shots I could, but without a tripod there was only so much I could do. I used Photoshop CS2 v9.02 to edit.

All pictures are thumbnails to the fullsize, as well as all pictures were edited by myself.












Thanks for checking them out, as well as any constructive comments. I only wish I had a DigitalSLR already, I'm not happy with the quality of some of the pictures.

[o_sh4x]

The quality is poor but I like the composition of the 5th.

[o_osiris]

Could you be more specific? Do you find the quality poor in terms of an issue with the poor camera, or is it the style that you dont like?

[o_uber]

5th picture is only good picture. Would have been about 26x better without the random person sitting in the middle of the photograph.

[mervaka]

if you get a dSLR, you can get image stabilising lenses (i find the canon ones to be especially good)

the composition of the first picture is pretty cool, if it didnt have the guy there, and focussed on the graffiti instead.

[Lost]

He probably means the camera takes poor quality pictures.

[o_ihmhi]

The quality on some of them is a little iffy. Remember that if you really want to get into photography you also have to work on post-production (i.e. working with the pictures in Photoshop or a comparable program).

And always remember, take 2-3 shots of everything... you never know if something is not gonna turn out alright and it can not hurt to have backups.

[o_luminous]

2nd and 5th are the best of them imo, but the fence in the pictures looks far too pixellated

[mervaka]

Originally Posted by Ihmhi

The quality on some of them is a little iffy. Remember that if you really want to get into photography you also have to work on post-production (i.e. working with the pictures in Photoshop or a comparable program).

And always remember, take 2-3 shots of everything... you never know if something is not gonna turn out alright and it can not hurt to have backups.

post production is not always needed. i've had many photos which came out beautiful without any adjustment. remember, there isnt an option for such adjustment with film photography.

i'd say the best thing to start with is in fact a 35mm SLR camera. i did, and i learned to appreciate the ins and outs of photography, rather than just a bunch of variables.

start with black and white film, and try to get interesting shots from that. then try some colour films.

[o_sh4x]

I would say the exact opposite of what Mervaka said is the way to go imo. If you wanna learn photography, get a good dSLR and learn with that. Then if you feel like you wanna get in touch with the analog style, try film out.

Saying "I started with film" is probably a good line to impress some ppl but it's still not very useful and it hurts your learning speed imo.

Concerning my comment earlier about the poor quality of the pictures, I was essentially talking about your camera beeing sucky and you not using a tripod when you needed it.

[mervaka]

it helped me bagloads! also, dont forget the difference in cost of a 35mm SLR compared to a new dSLR. you can pick up a used 35mm film SLR for at least a tenth of the price of a new dSLR

[o_paft]

Apart from the 5th they look like everyday pictures but with high quality and clarity.

[o_osiris]

I actually do have some experience with a 35mm film SLR. I used a Minolta K1000 for a single semester of "Intro to Photography" in grade 10. Since then I've been interested in it but I havent had access to a camera of my own. I found out last night that my sister has a basic, fully-manual 35mm SLR that I can have as they dont need it anymore, so im going to grab that for this weekend. Me and a friend are going to spend the day taking pictures.

I did actually grab a few different versions of each shot, here's the one with the rock like requested. I edited it in a different way and converted it to black and white

Improvement? What else could I change?


My current camera just cannot match the quality of the film camera's I used in class so the editing is a must. We always shot black and white film and the only editing we applied was our two, very basic filters (one warming, one cooling) and the length of time we developed them for.

[o_uber]

About 17x better.

[Lost]

Yep, much better.

[o_sh4x]

It's still missing something of interest in there.

I think the picture is just too busy and there is no point of interest or subject. Some might say the grafiti is the subject but to me it's not. I don't find anything interesting about that picture.

[mervaka]

its a lot better, although looks a fraction underexposed.

when editing:

* always bump the bpp up a notch. for example, if you're shooting at 8 bits per pixel, up it to 16 when editing, then take it down at the end. it saves on quantisation noise, or whatever its called in visual terms.

* always think twice before applying something. don't do things for the sake of it. lots of adjustment and filters can ruin an image.

[o_darkness24713]

wtf is he doing in that third picture drugs???????????? real cool

[o_()))crayola))_>]

Aren't you banned yet?

[o_darkness24713]

Originally Posted by ()))Crayola))_>

Aren't you banned yet?

no but i know your ignored