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Topic: Take a picture once a day, whether you need to or not (Read 1150688 times)
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IainC
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I've been working on a photo blog, mostly as a place to talk about Soviet cameras but also as a portfolio site. If anyone cares to check it out it's here. Feedback appreciated.
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apocrypha
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Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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Nice. When you say a portfolio do you mean just a personal one or is photography work something you're looking to do?
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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IainC
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Posts: 6538
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Nice. When you say a portfolio do you mean just a personal one or is photography work something you're looking to do?
Personal for now. Maybe doing some collaborative work with other people too. I don't really want to make photography my job but I'd definitely like to open up and do more with it. Mostly for now it's a place to point people at and to froth about terrible cameras.
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Mosesandstick
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Posts: 2474
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Yo Moses, your pics no worky.
Snapped the moon just now with my smartphone pointed into the telescope objective:
Thanks for the heads up, had a Lightroom cock-up and ended up re-uploading the photos, which broke the links. Pretty impressed you managed to get such a good photo with your smartphone! I can't help with the Russian cameras Iain, but if you want the website to show your portfolio, my preference has always been for sites with less photos. The feed of all your photos at once can be overwhelming and hide the impact of your most eye-catching photos (which might not even be your best ones). It does have a nice, clean interface.
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IainC
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Posts: 6538
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I can't help with the Russian cameras Iain, but if you want the website to show your portfolio, my preference has always been for sites with less photos. The feed of all your photos at once can be overwhelming and hide the impact of your most eye-catching photos (which might not even be your best ones). It does have a nice, clean interface.
The frontpage is a dynamic gallery made up of photos that have the 'frontpage' tag. It's a curated selection but I should probably be stricter in my selection. All of the galleries work that way, they are dynamically generated based on the tags assigned to uploaded photos. Some are content type tags (urban, animals, etc), others are camera type tags (mediumformat, Kiev60, FED3, etc). That way I don't need to fuck about with updating galleries if I add more photos, I just need to assign the right tags to new images.
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calapine
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Posts: 7352
Solely responsible for the thread on "The Condom Wall."
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Not a great picture by any means. The scene was better in natura...the sun shone exactly to light up the trinity and keep the rest of the statue in the dark. That was the effect I was trying to catch. Maybe some cropping might help?
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« Last Edit: January 10, 2017, 06:53:04 AM by calapine »
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Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic!
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IainC
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Posts: 6538
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Do you do any post processing? Just pushing contrast a bit and maybe flattening the shadows slightly might do it. I'd crop it anyway, because the edges and foreground don't add to the picture and, if you want attention to be on the gold trinity and its contrast with the dark column, then the rest of the image doesn't need to exist.
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calapine
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Posts: 7352
Solely responsible for the thread on "The Condom Wall."
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I'll give it at try, thanks.
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Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic!
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apocrypha
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Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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It's also the kind of scene that may very well benefit from carefully choosing the time of day to take it. You'd get a wildly different with the sun either behind or in front of the monument too.
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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IainC
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Posts: 6538
Wargaming.net
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It's also the kind of scene that may very well benefit from carefully choosing the time of day to take it. You'd get a wildly different with the sun either behind or in front of the monument too.
This is very true. It looks like you were there in the earlyish morning based on the angle of the shadows and the relative lack of people in the area. Maybe a late morning shot would show it better? I've been in a bit of a rut recently and have done very little photography except running test rolls through old Soviet cameras, however I was at Betliar Manor a couple of weeks ago. I took some medium format slides (which my lab has to send to Germany for processing) and some 35mm colour negatives (that my lab usually does in-house overnight) but the lab fucked up and sent them all away for processing so I only have my digital shots until the films come back. Betliar Library by Iain Compton, on Flickr Night photography from my living room window. untitled-8.jpg by Iain Compton, on Flickr Black and white test roll from a 1959 Moskva medium format camera. Moskva 4 by Iain Compton, on Flickr
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Furiously
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Posts: 7199
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Awesome pic. I got a telescope for Christmas and I gotta figure out how to attach a camera to it..
It's expensive and difficult. Which is why I'm just pointing my phone at it :p Depends on the telescope. I have an old tiny celestron that I can put a tmount adaptor on and then just attach the camera. Turns it into a 900mm f11 lens or something.
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apocrypha
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Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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Yeah true, but if you want more than just moon & planet pics you end up looking at tracking options and things like big equatorial mounts and tracking scopes to get several hours long exposures. That's when shit gets crazy
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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Viin
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- Viin
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Furiously
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It's all fun until you decide to get your IR filter removed and make it a real astro-photographic camera! Iain, I'd like to make a suggestion, take a go pro with you on your next photo-shoot and film your interactions with the model. Also, here are two Jesus ducks. It's really cold and frosty here so colors are horrid right now.
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IainC
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Posts: 6538
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Iain, I'd like to make a suggestion, take a go pro with you on your next photo-shoot and film your interactions with the model.
Interesting idea, what purpose would you use the footage for? Just some behind the scenes fluff piece or for analysis of some kind?
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apocrypha
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Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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Cool! I'd be really interested to know how good the tracking is for astrophotography, please post here if you do get round to doing some :)
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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Furiously
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Posts: 7199
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Iain, I'd like to make a suggestion, take a go pro with you on your next photo-shoot and film your interactions with the model.
Interesting idea, what purpose would you use the footage for? Just some behind the scenes fluff piece or for analysis of some kind? Just to see someone else's work flow and interaction. I'd certainly love to watch it, but it would probably be more valuable to yourself to see what works and what you could do better with. I tend to take snapshots nowadays, but when I used to shoot for papers I was always trying to get the shot that told a story. I'd love to see the "I want you to look slightly to the side of the camera put your chin down an inch, move your hand up through your hair and ponder the plight of the polar bears who don't have enough ice."
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IainC
Developers
Posts: 6538
Wargaming.net
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IainC
Developers
Posts: 6538
Wargaming.net
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Khaldun
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apocrypha
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Posts: 6711
Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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Fucking great.
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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IainC
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Posts: 6538
Wargaming.net
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Khaldun
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The shot outside in the snow with the door is very nice.
What do you tell your models? I find this part of working with people super intimidating. I think it's why I'm more drawn to street photography even though that's intimidating too. I don't really know what to say about expressions, posing, etc.
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Khaldun
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What's the 100-400 like at the upper end in terms of focus, sharpness, etc? Nice looking lens, at any rate.
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apocrypha
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Planes? Shit, I'm terrified to get in my car now!
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How you talk with models depends hugely on the nature of the shoot. If the model is being paid for a client shoot and they're there to model a product then it has to be very business like and clear - what the client wants from the shoot, how they need to pose, etc, etc. Once shooting actually starts it's got to be very iterative, they need a lot of feedback to know if they're doing what's needed. I find it very helpful in that kind of shoot if the model can see the monitor and see how the shots are looking as they come out of the camera. If the model is effectvely the client, in for example a portfolio shoot or editorial work then it's more about what they want from it. The feedback while shooting is slightly different to the commercial type of shoot because it's usually more about whether both you and the model like what's being shot. Regularly being able to see the shots helps here too. In all shoots I find lots of communication is crucial. For anything focussed more on the model than a product then you don't get a long time of high-energy output from anyone but the best, most experienced models. I plan on a couple of 20-30 minute bursts of good stuff and a similar amount before, inbetween and after of meh stuff. In those 30 mins when it s all popping the emergy has to come from you as the photographer too - lots of encouragement, direction, feedback, even if the model is really good and doesn't need it. At the end of the day though I try hard to always keep in mind that they're people, despite the inherent process of objectification that goes along with anything except portraiture, and treat and relate to them as people. So much depends on the model and the job. Inexperienced models are more likely to be nervous and awkward and easy-going chat can help overcome that. The pros with experience generally just need much clearer specific direction and an understanding of their needs, i.e. let me know when you want a break, a drink, more/less heat in the room, etc. Misic often helps and letting a model know in advance that they acn plug their iPod etc. into the stereo and play their own music can be good too, but as the photographer on set you're the one in charge usually so you have to be prepared to manage too. I.e. that Pantera album may not be suitable with this particular client on set too Good communication with models, clients, ADs etc, is something you're always learning, always trying to improve, and so much of it comes with experience.
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"Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1915.
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IainC
Developers
Posts: 6538
Wargaming.net
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The shot outside in the snow with the door is very nice.
What do you tell your models? I find this part of working with people super intimidating. I think it's why I'm more drawn to street photography even though that's intimidating too. I don't really know what to say about expressions, posing, etc.
This was a TFP shoot and it was also very spontaneous for me. The girl with the darker hair was visiting for one day from out of town and the photographer they had originally lined up had bailed on them so they got hold of me with about 3 hours notice so that her trip wouldn't be wasted. They already had an idea of what they wanted to do so I just tried to make it work with the lighting, locations and props that I had handy. I'd worked with Chloë before (the taller girl with paler hair) but not with the other girl and I'd not done a shoot with two models at once before either. I mostly tried to build shots around scenarios - escaping to the gothic church, a fake photoshoot using one of my old Soviet cameras as a prop, a scandalous tea party etc. They reacted pretty well to that and it made it easier to direct the action because they both had a strong visual image of what we were trying to achieve. Mostly my direction came down to suggesting a scenario and then managing limb placement for best framing once the girls were in place.
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Goumindong
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Not a great picture by any means. The scene was better in natura...the sun shone exactly to light up the trinity and keep the rest of the statue in the dark. That was the effect I was trying to catch.
Maybe some cropping might help?
Cut for space
Here is what a lazy crop and contrast might look like
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Khaldun
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Problem of many vertical shots is that they end up with unused negative space to both sides of the main subject--it's why a lot of folks advise not centering the vertical subject, to avoid that precise mirroring of empty/negative space to both sides.
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Count Nerfedalot
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so, apologies in advance for the dumb question, but why is the medium format B&W so grainy?
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Yes, I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
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Goumindong
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Problem of many vertical shots is that they end up with unused negative space to both sides of the main subject--it's why a lot of folks advise not centering the vertical subject, to avoid that precise mirroring of empty/negative space to both sides.
I agree. But wanted to retain the composition in the original. I can re-crop for a better composition.
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IainC
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Posts: 6538
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so, apologies in advance for the dumb question, but why is the medium format B&W so grainy?
The grain is inevitable with film and particularly B&W film due to the way that it captures light - colour film uses dye clusters, B&W uses silver halide crystals and dye clusters are better at softening transitions between clusters than crystals are. Different film stocks also have different grain properties and, in general, higher ISO films have bigger grain (just like higher ISO digital images have more noise). You can get archival B&W film with almost no grain but it's as slow as hell (ISO 20) and super expensive. I generally shoot 400 speed Fomapan which is quite grainy compared to say Ilford Delta 400 or Kodak T-Max 400. It's cheaper and easier to find where I live though so most of my test shots and random B&W work is done on that stock. While it's still possible to find film in random camera stores, there's not usually much of a choice of stock - especially for medium format film. I'm lucky that my local store orders in Portra and Ektar colour film especially for me but I just use whatever B&W they happen to have in the fridge.
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Khaldun
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I love the look of old film grain. I think the trick is to match it to the subject--to use it to create a more romantic feel, or to make a picture feel more hazy, half-glimpsed, dream-like.
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IainC
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Posts: 6538
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I have a black and white gallery on my photoblog. It's almost all film because I don't generally convert colour digital images to B&W unless colour balance is impossible (like under some stage lighting for example).
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