The ABC's of Photography - Letter B (Completed)

[Antmeister]

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To view the content for Letter B, click on the icon from the menu. Anyone is welcome to offer constructive criticism and/or advice.

Anyone in the future who wishes to join this group, follow these steps:
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Click the "Login" link and register from there.
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[Lorena]

There's a countdown for the next phase right under the slideshow. (ahem... wade ;) )

[lordscarlet]

Hah. I thought we weren't even supposed to crop. ;)

[Antmeister]

Hah. I thought we weren't even supposed to crop. ;)

Actually cropping and resizing was allowed in the last round, I just don't know if many people realized it. That is why I decided to highlight it.

[Castlerock]

I shot a 'C' photo last night but what I got out of the camera kinda sucks. With some sharpen and contrast, I really like the result. But I will probably need to find something else as I don't want to submit the raw shot.

[sterlingice]

I wonder how many butterfly and bird pictures we'll get this week (I 'm guilty of submitting one of the above, too). At least we have a "bee" for something different in the nature vein. Just like F is going to be 80% flower and fireworks ;)

SI

[wade moore]

I wonder how many butterfly and bird pictures we'll get this week (I 'm guilty of submitting one of the above, too). At least we have a "bee" for something different in the nature vein. Just like F is going to be 80% flower and fireworks ;)

SI
I guess if nothing else it gives us a good point of comparison ;)... I'm trying to use creativity in the letters (like aggression on the last one), but for some of these some things are just so obvious you can't pass them up i guess ;).


Every time I start seeing the submissions come in I get excited btw ;)

[sterlingice]

I could have submitted at least 5 butterfly pictures but instead decided to only submit a couple and then divide them up into things like Butterfly and Monarch. That way we don't have all the same stuff for every single one ;)

Also, I spent part of the weekend combing through some old favorites and have mapped out about 40ish pictures to submit. But I've also told myself that while submitting old ones is nice, every letter must have at least one recent picture from since the ABC's started or go without (as I did in A). Thankfully I've already caught a couple of letters already and there is always time for more

SI

[Antmeister]

Wow! 10 pictures already on a holiday weekend. Not bad.

[Lorena]

I'm very, very impressed with the pictures that have been uploaded. Baseball... DUH!!

I'm so very tempted to comment on one in particular but I'll refrain.

[wade moore]

I could have submitted at least 5 butterfly pictures but instead decided to only submit a couple and then divide them up into things like Butterfly and Monarch. That way we don't have all the same stuff for every single one ;)

Also, I spent part of the weekend combing through some old favorites and have mapped out about 40ish pictures to submit. But I've also told myself that while submitting old ones is nice, every letter must have at least one recent picture from since the ABC's started or go without (as I did in A). Thankfully I've already caught a couple of letters already and there is always time for more

SI

Yeah.. Same here with old pictures.. in addition I know I'll be without the DSLR for at least a few weeks if not longer coming up, so I'm trying to get ahead but not TOO far ahead so that I can use feedback here as much as possible.

[Lorena]

Yeah.. Same here with old pictures.. in addition I know I'll be without the DSLR for at least a few weeks if not longer coming up, so I'm trying to get ahead but not TOO far ahead so that I can use feedback here as much as possible.

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I have several pictures for upcoming projects. I take my camera almost everywhere I go and when there's an opportunity for a good picture, I take it, put in in my "FOFC Photography Challenge" folder and put in the correct letter's folder. :)

[wade moore]

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I have several pictures for upcoming projects. I take my camera almost everywhere I go and when there's an opportunity for a good picture, I take it, put in in my "FOFC Photography Challenge" folder and put in the correct letter's folder. :)

Yeah, same... But things may get moved out if I get the chance to take a new picture with the feedback i get on upcoming letters.

[oliegirl]

I've shot a couple of B pics so far, but haven't decided which one(s) I want to submit...I'd really like to only submit one each week so it forces me to choose my favorite and be more selective with what I shoot. I'll probably end up submitting 2 or 3 this week though b/c I have one I love and another that I really like already...

[Bonegavel]

So are we ok to upload more than 1? I'm thinking about using 1 pic from my archives and then 1 shot just for this occasion.

[Antmeister]

So are we ok to upload more than 1? I'm thinking about using 1 pic from my archives and then 1 shot just for this occasion.

Yes, you may still upload up to 3 pics. The reason why I am keeping this rule is so that people will get a chance to try different types of shots.

What I am planning to do at the end is relabel all with a pictures with a group number. What that means is that all the pics taken by a specific individual will have a number assigned to their pics. That way, people can choose to discuss at least one of the photos in that group and doesn't have to feel overwhelmed by trying to do so for all the pictures.

[lordscarlet]

I may have to upload something old this week. :( Been doing wedding prep all weekend.

[oliegirl]

I may have to upload something old this week. :( Been doing wedding prep all weekend.

B is for Bride? Bachelor Party? Big pain in the ass???? ;)

[wade moore]

Bachelor Party?

He was in no shape for being a photographer, TRUST me...

[lordscarlet]

B is for Bride? Bachelor Party? Big pain in the ass???? ;)

This weekend included no brides (not in gowns at least) and no bachelor party. :) Those are in two weekends and last weekend respectively. This weekend was seating charts, table tents and placecards, oh my!

[Bonegavel]

This weekend included no brides (not in gowns at least) and no bachelor party. :) Those are in two weekends and last weekend respectively. This weekend was seating charts, table tents and placecards, oh my!

Table tents but no beer tents? Shame.

[lordscarlet]

I have a great shot I want to take, but no time to put it together. :(

[Lorena]

bump

Last day for uploads.

[CamEdwards]

Yeah, I was hoping to get out and actually take some pictures specifically for this project this week, but no dice. I'm glad that I was actually able to take a "B" related photo though... I was kinda worried I'd have to skip this week.

[lordscarlet]

I have a specific one in mind.. I'd like to do it outdoors, but I can try to do it inside tonight and see how it comes out.

[lordscarlet]

I would like to say that I think my shot would have been much better with more time and better equipment. sigh.

[Antmeister]

There will be one more picture added to the group possibly later today. I made the mistake of deleting this individual's file when I came across an error (not of the individual's doing). So if you see a picture appear with the desktop viewer, do not be concerned.

[wade moore]

Another great turnout!

I hope to be able to again slowly go through these through the day.. I may not post them one at a time like before though because it seemed a bit confusing...

[Lorena]

I'm gonna be super busy at work so chances are my comments will be done towards the end of the day.

Great, great turnout, we got more pictures than last time, I'm pretty stoked! The bottle one made me lol :D

[Lorena]

The list of pictures are as follows:

B01 BabyBrady
B02 Bullethole
B02 Books
B02 Basketball Court
B03 Butterfly_2
B03 butterfly
B03 Bee
B04 Bottlebrush
B04 Butterfly Pair
B04 Baseball
B05 Boat
B06 Baseball Glove
B06 Baseballs
B07 Buddies
B07 BirdFeeder
B07 Bethlehemsteel
B08 blueandbrown
B08 Big Screen tv for David
B09 BikerGirl
B10 Bottle
B10 Balls
B11 Bobbleheads
B12 Burnt Tree

I'll put the pictures in this order to facilitate discussion in a couple of hours.

[Bonegavel]

Hehe, I keep seeing Butthole for bullethole. Not sure I want to know what that says about me.

[Antmeister]

By the way, just in case people do not notice, there is new information in the first post. There is now a desktop version of the slideshow. Read details above.

[lordscarlet]

By the way, just in case people do not notice, there is new information in the first post. There is now a desktop version of the slideshow. Read details above.

I had not noticed. I did, however, notice the countdown, and I am quite fond of it.

[lordscarlet]

B01 BabyBrady: Kid pictures. It's going to be tough for me to say much about them as they continue to show up over time. This shot is particularly uninteresting for me. It is "cute", but the lighting is uninteresting, the shot completely centered and the environment doesn't have much going for it.
B02 Bullethole: Is it really? A bullethole? :) I have a similar blemish in one of the front windows of my house, and as exciting as it is to think it was a bullet, I'm sure it was probably from a rock. Having said that, I'm trying hard to like this shot. The composition is great, but I feel there may be something lacking in the technical aspects. What are those things? I don't know. There's even a really nice sky in the reflection -- maybe I would like to see it a little mroe clearly?
B02 Books: Again with the good composition. It is unfortunate that you have the gigantic price stickers on the books; I think they detract from the photo. Aside from that, the repetition is good. It may be a little too centered for me, but maybe that's just because my eye is drawn to the nose picker. :)
B02 Basketball Court: Another shot that has good composition, but I'm not in love with the actual shot. I feel a connection with Mr (or Mrs) B02. I feel like my composition skills are far better than my technical skills. This shot seems very dark for my taste, particularly on what seems to be a relatively sunny day.
B03 Butterfly_2: I love me some macro photography. Let's see if I can come up with a critique that differs in any way amongst these. So I accidentally critiqued Butterfly Pair here at first. This, for me, is by far the best of the five macro shots. The buttefly is in focus, the flowers it is on are in focus, and everything else fades away.
B03 butterfly: I like this one. I think the focus may be a little off (it looks like some of the flowers are more in focus than the butterfly), but it works for me.
B03 Bee: There's something distracting about the out of focus greenery that is most in the forground. At first it almost looked like I was seeing the reflection off of a window (see: bullethole). I don't know if your depth of field was a little too large and they got some focus or what, but they are distracting me.
B04 Bottlebrush: Again, macro photography is hard for me to judge. I like it, I just can't judge it. The main thing I would say here, as opposed to Butterfly_2, is that the brick and window are too in focus. If I'm viewing, what shall I call it? Botanical photography. I want to see the beauty of the flower with no other distractions.
B04 Butterfly Pair: I think I like this the best of the two. I'm glad the siding (I assume that's what it is) is so out of focus, although I'd rather see the shot taken so that such an unnatural element was not in frame at all.
B04 Baseball: I feel like I'm being rather harsh on B04. Hopefully you'll see that I am just as harsh on myself. Particularly when you already uploaded two shots, I would not have even uploaded this shot. First, the backstop kills any good qualities of this shot. You should have either adjusted the focus to make it fade away a little, or better yet just walked around the stadium a little to get some better shots. In addition, if the backdrop were not there, this shot does nothing for me. There is no action, there is no subject to focus on, and there really just seems to be no thought about composition whatsoever.
B05 Boat: Fun shot. I don't have much more to say than that. :) It works. Maybe don't senter it so much the next time you find a boat hanging on a line in the forest. :)
B06 Baseball Glove: Mr. B06 we all know who you are, and I love you. This shot is excellent.
B06 Baseballs: If you haven't even gotten into the manual settings on your camera, I can't wait to see what comes out when you do.
B07 Buddies: Now, while kid pictures don't do it for me, I'm a sucker for pet pictures. :) I suppose that is expected from a pet owner with no kids. I have a shot I love of my two cats, but I don't want to use old shot, and that seems like quite a cop-out for "C" week (although, I wouldn't put it past me, particularly since my wedding is next week). I love the composition of this shot. To me it feels like we are viewing the scene from the cat's mind. He/she sees himself looking down at his friend, but, as we know, the cat is more important, and therefore in focus. Maybe I'm reading a little too much into it, though. ;)
B07 BirdFeeder: OK. Who is the animal lover? :) Another great shot. In this case I actually like the centering. Something about the angle of the fence in the background makes it work for me. The only thing that I think could have made this better is if you had caught one of the hummingbirds on the feeder. This really says "American Dream" to me. White picket fence. Lush green grass. Bird Feeder. I think I even smell some pie.
B07 Bethlehemsteel: I'm trying to think who B07 is. This is, by far, my favorite shot of this week. A looming industrial wasteland will get me every time. The only improvement I could see to this, as often happens, would be up to nature. I would love some more dramatic clouds in the back drop. The angle used here (where the plant trails out into the distance) and placement (the "front" of the shot is just off center, but the trailing edge makes it appear farther off center. In addition it only takes up two thirds of the shot) are perfect for me. Because I like to over dramatize things, I would have probably gotten right underneath and taken a shot that went off the edges of the frame, but I think this simpler shot speaks volumes of the fate of the steel industry.
B08 blueandbrown: What a.. umm.. creative title. :) Nice shot, beuatiful day. It's not my favorite, but I think it's a solid photo.
B08 Big Screen tv for David: This shot is a little too busy for me, and I think it, along with your other shot, are... creative uses of the letter "B". :) I'm too distracted by everything going on in this shot to really care about it. I think the sky is great, the vista is beautiful, and the cars are a mess. :)
B09 BikerGirl: Kids! What are we gonna do with these kids?? I would have cropped out the bicycle tire and whatever the brown thing is creeping into the photo. Not only would this remove some unwanted elements from the shot, but it would move the girl a little off-center. Other than that, get it an hour or so earlier or later (based on the sun in the background) and I think the picture would have popped a lot more. The reflection of the flash on the New Balance is kinda cool, too. :) But I do like this shot, just crop it a little and it would be far better.
B10 Bottle: I like the "spotlight" on the bottle, but I think you need to clean your wall up a little. :) I think I would have gotten a little lower to take the shot and make it a little more dramatic.
B10 Balls: "Guard! Guard! Don't I get a phone call?!" Someone has locked up my balls.. This must be a picture taken by a married man. :) This shot is on the verge of being one I really like, but for some reason falls short. I think this is also one that would have been helped by a more dramatic angle (but I prefer the overly dramatic, so don't listen to me).
B11 Bobbleheads: This also comes close, but falls flat. The one "in focus", well, isn't. A little more clarity on the dominating bobblehead and a better environment would go a long way for this shot.
B12 Burnt Tree: This is the second one this week where I think being centered actually works for it. I can't really explain why, but I think it does. If only there was a magic wand to make vehicular traffic disappear when we want to take shots like this, though.


Wow. I read this and I'm thinking, "who is this a-hole?" :)

[oliegirl]

I've gone through and reviewed the photos that jumped out at me and that I had something to say about...I'm not technically savvy with photography, so it's mostly just my opinion and what I like.


B02 Bullethole – I like this shot, the closeup of the bullethole, and the detail is interesting. It’s not something you see everyday so it’s an intriguing subject to start with. I’m not sure if it would have been possible to get some more detail at the bottom, but that could have been really neat looking.

B02 Books – This picture makes me smile. I actually thought of doing something similar with the bread aisle at the grocery store…but it was packed when I was there and I couldn’t get the shot I wanted.

B03 Butterfly_2 and B03 butterfly – I really like these shots, the detail is striking…you can see each petal on the flower and the colors really pop. I think these photos blown up and framed very simply would be really stunning.

B03 Bee – I didn’t notice the Bee in this shot at first, I thought it was the center of the flower…at second glance I saw it and I like the shot, but think that a different angle might have made the Bee more obvious.

B04 Bottlebrush – I love this picture, it’s a picture I would take…but when I really look at it I kind of feel that something is missing…I’m not sure what though. I may come back and revise my comments on this one later today J

B04 Butterfly Pair – I like this picture, but it doesn’t pull me in as much as the other Butterfly pictures do. I think it’s because it’s not as close up, and because the flowers/colors aren’t as vibrant.

B04 Baseball – This is another shot I would take, great angle, great seats obviously J I think maybe zooming in close on one player might have been cool, but that can be hard to do at sporting events since the players aren’t really keen on posing while they are on the field…

B06 Baseball Glove – I think this is my favorite shot…I don’t know if you laid it out or if the glove and ball just landed that way, but this picture makes me want to tell a story about it…whose glove it is, what happened in the game, etc…I really like it.

B07 Bethlehemsteel – This picture makes me feel lonely, when I look at it I can almost imagine the smokestacks puffing white smoke and hear the noises the factory would have made. I can see this picture being used in a book about the area, how industry has changed, something like that.

B08 blueandbrown – The colors in this picture are amazing…this is another one that would look great blown up and framed. I like the angle too, my eyes first went up to the top of the tower, but then I saw all the detail at the streetlevel.

[Lorena]

For now:

B01 BabyBrady Very, very cute pic. I like how his hat is folded up and we see only one of his eyes. I would have either taken a few steps back, or moved the camera a bit higher so the top of his head doesn't get cut off.

B02 Bullethole I like the details of the crack and the clouds in the background, but there's a tiny little part on the bottom that's a little dark and a little distracting.

B02 Books I like the repetition but the books on the bookshelf (?) on the right a little distracting.

B02 Basketball Court I would have liked to have seen a basketball coming down the hoop to make it a little more interesting. Good clouds and good angle though

B03 Butterfly_2 I really like the detail of the butterfly and flowers. Great depth of field. Nicely done. I've never taken a shot like this so I'm curious how the photographer prepared for this shot.

B03 butterfly This is my favorite of the butterfly pictures. The depth of field is amazing, the front and the back is blurred nicely with the focus being on the flower and butterfly. If you look closely, you can see the butterfly's wings flapping. Awesome shot.

B03 Bee I really like this shot. You can see the bee's wings spread, nice timing. The only thing I would do different is crop it so it's not completely centered. There's some good focus on the stems of the flowers, so I'd crop the right side and keep the stems and a little bit of the left.

B04 Bottlebrush The only thing that bothers me about this shot is the brick building in the background. But other than that I like the color contrast with the red bottlebrush and the green leaves

B04 Butterfly Pair Awesome, awesome shot. Great timing and excellent depth of field.

B04 Baseball is this Petco Park? I saw the Sycuan sign and figured it was in San Diego. The only thing I can say about this pic is that it made me wanna go back :( Love the baseball atmosphere out there.

[PadresFan104]

This weeks comments:

B01 BabyBrady - Love the one eye thing you captured, very cute.

B02 Bullethole - Love the subject, too bad the glass is kinda dirty or weathered though. Kinda ruins it for me.

B02 Books - Yes, yes they are. Has anyone else heard of the nose picker series??

B02 Basketball Court - Needs to be brighter. The dimness of the shot doesn't match the words on the backboard. Maybe capturing a sunrise or having the sunlight play a more prominent role would help.

B03 Butterfly_2 - Brilliant shot. I'd be showing this off to anyone who would look if I took it.

B03 butterfly - Not bad. Makes me glad I didn't try to capture a butterfly this week, as it was my first thought... Looks hard!

B03 Bee - This is a good example (I think) for when it's ok to have the subject right in the middle of the photo. I really like the foreground/background elements in this one.

B04 Bottlebrush - Ok, now I've seen a bottlebrush flower.

B04 Butterfly Pair - Another brilliant shot that I am jealous of!

B04 Baseball - Raise your hand if you think this is mine! I do love Petco though.

B05 Boat - Ok, this is cool. We need more humor in our photography, and this is a great start! I'd love to hear the story behind this one. I bet it involves either a bad storm or alcohol!

B06 Baseball Glove - I like the lighting.

B06 Baseballs - Get's me in the mood for a game!

B07 Buddies - I think this might be more effective if both subjects were in focus, but I do love the composition. I've been avoiding shots with my pets in them, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time...

B07 BirdFeeder - I effing love this shot. Great colors. Great feeling of "space".

B07 Bethlehemsteel - Rock On!!! B07 dude/dudette, I want to hang with you. You have a great eye. I grew up about an hour from Bethlehem, but that has nothing to do why I love this shot. You picked a great angle, giving the effect of something in use from a post-apocolyptic future, rather than the past...

B08 blueandbrown - Meh. Tourist shot.

B08 Big Screen tv for David - Dunno, too much clutter in the shot for my tastes.

B09 BikerGirl - Cute. Cropped might be better.

B10 Bottle - Last second submission? Or is there something clever I'm missing?

B10 Balls - Yes, yes they are. Your lawn looks as healthy as mine!

B11 Bobbleheads - Better focus and composition (arrangement of the bobbles) and you would have me.

B12 Burnt Tree - It bugs me that it's right in the middle of the shot, but you can't go wrong with a Yosemite shot. That's Yosemite, right?

[Lorena]

B04 Baseball - Raise your hand if you think this is mine! I do love Petco though.

*raises hand

[PadresFan104]

*raises hand

The reveal might be interesting this week...

[Lorena]

B05 Boat - A boat hanging on a wire eh? A little centered for my taste, but it's something that caught me a little off-guard, but pretty cool shot.

B06 Baseball Glove - The warm lighting leads me to believe that it was taken at sunset which is ideal lighting condition for photography. That and sunrise make the best pictures when the sun is not so bright. Everything is in perfect focus right down to the dirt. Everything is a little too perfect, right down to the placement of the glove.

B06 Baseballs - What kind of lighting was used? Ant and I were discussing this picture at length and each of us has a different opinion. We both really like it but it's a little too yellow for me. I like how some of the balls are slightly out of focus... makes for a pretty good magazine pic and the baseballs are nicely framed. I also like the size of the balls, what focal length was used?

B07 Buddies - Awww... what a cute, cute picture! The look on the dog's face made me chuckle; it's almost as if he's getting ready for the cat to do something. The cat... heh, dunno if it's awake or asleep. Doesn't matter, it leaves me wondering.

B07 BirdFeeder - Wow. I love the depth of field. What was the lighting situation for this one? Were there reflectors involved? It seems so simple, a birdfeeder just hanging... but yet it's so awesome.

B07 Bethlehemsteel - Well B07, whoever you are, this is 3/3 pictures that I really enjoyed. I love the gritti look. The building is right in the middle of the picture but I think it works... it makes it look really abandoned. I like the space on top too... I imagine smoke coming out of the pipes. Simply awesome (have I used this word enough?)

B08 blueandbrown - You guys are getting very creative with naming these pictures :) This looks like a beautiful building, I would have loved to have seen the whole thing as opposed to just a portion of it.

B08 Big Screen tv for David - The first thing I saw was the statue; I didn't notice the big screen tv until I saw all the cars.

B09 BikerGirl - Good focus and I like the colorful bike. The tire on the right hand side is a little distracting, but I like how the photographer went down to the girl's level to take the shot.

B10 Bottle - This picture made me laugh... it was so last minute, huh? lordscarlet mentioned spotlight and yes, now that I look at it, it kinda does. Very creative but the light... dear lord the light is blinding! (no offense, I think whoever took this picture has a great sense of humor)

B10 Balls - The flash is a little harsh, you can see the light reflecting off the fence. I find that using a diffuser greatly minimizes the harshness of the light. A tissue over the flash will work just fine.

B11 Bobbleheads - Oh man, this picture has some serious potential. I like the solid background and the bluriness of the bobbleheads in the back, but the one in the front is a little out of focus.

B12 Burnt Tree - This picture looks completely different at home than at work. I use a Mac at work and it brought out all kinds of details, but here, it's a little dark. Anyway, I like the variety in colors and the sky is really, really blue... was a filter used?

[Lorena]

Wow. I read this and I'm thinking, "who is this a-hole?" :)

It's constructive critisism, you're so hard on yourself :)

[sterlingice]

Wow. I read this and I'm thinking, "who is this a-hole?" :)
It's constructive critisism, you're so hard on yourself :)

I'm grateful for both. The warm fuzzies are the most fun to get and keep the confidence up and help us keep coming back for more. The constructive criticism helps us learn and get better. I'm glad we have a good supply of both in the thread.

SI

[lordscarlet]

It's constructive critisism, you're so hard on yourself :)

If I really thought there was something wrong with it, I wouldn't have posted it. :)

[lordscarlet]

Make a light tent for small object photography: http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2007/09/make-light-tent-for-small-object.html

[lordscarlet]

So.. I want to do photographer guesses, but it's hard to do without revealing who I am. I'd like to guess on each of the photos, but that's hard without one being obvious. Maybe I can put it in a spoiler tag and you guys can check it after the reveal?

[Lorena]

So.. I want to do photographer guesses, but it's hard to do without revealing who I am. I'd like to guess on each of the photos, but that's hard without one being obvious. Maybe I can put it in a spoiler tag and you guys can check it after the reveal?

I was gonna wait 'til later tonight, but the spoiler tag is a good idea.

[wade moore]

I'm hoping to get comments in before the reveal, but I might not. If not, I'll still give comments even afterwards.

[Vince]

These are all pretty good (I have absolutely no photo skills, so I'll refrain from commenting on them in a critical sense), but man that Baseball Glove picture looks pro.

[Lorena]

I'm gonna guess on a few:


B01 (BabyBrady): CamEdwards - For some reason, I thought he had a baby recently.
B06 (Baseball Glove, Baseballs): Bonegavel - reminds me of the A1 pic... same sorta style
B07 (buddies, birdfeeder, bethlehemsteel): wademoore - just a hunch, really
B10 (bottle, balls): lordscarlet - he mentioned being in a hurry and these look a little rushed.
B12 (burnt tree)- PadresFan104 - just a guess really

Edited to add some comments.

[lordscarlet]

Time for some photographer guessing! I'm sure I will get most of these wrong, as I only have 1-3 photos from people to do my uneducated guessing.



B01: oliegirl, said she only entered one picture, and last week she did pics of kids. No better reasoning than that.
B03: wade, as he mentioned butterfly pictures with si.
B04: sterlingice, since he mentioned butterfly pictures, and the bottlebrush picture is clearly not taken at wade's house. :)
B05: I'm going to go with castlrock for the sheer continuation of the boat theme. :) I'm pretty convinved it's not him, though.
B06: Gee... Let me think. Perhaps Bonegavel? (Where did I put that sarcasm tag?)
B07: This, I think, is where I start to try and make an inspired guess. I think it may beDodgerchick, although the green yard doesn't look like the desert we all picture in Texas. ;) I also don't know her well enough to know if she's been anywhere near bethlehem steel before, or if she has a cat and a dog. Whoever it is, you're doing a great job.
B08: Dangarion, just because they are vaguely touristy shots like the flag from last week, but really just to get a name here.
B09: Again with the lame reasons, but I'll say Craptacular, because it's a kid on a mode of transportation.
B10: CamEdwards, simply because his posts made it sound like he was a late submission.
B12: Let's say Tigercat, because he like desolation and hiking pictures.

[Tigercat]

My favs this round were Bethlehemsteel and the Bikergirl. The Bethlehemsteel picture looks almost otherworldly. Really intense. I could give a few reasons why I like the bikergirl picture, but in the end maybe I'm just a sucker for cute little kid pictures.

And at the risk of giving away which picture is mine, I am going to have to stop posting low resolution pictures, they look so flat and lifeless next to the close to 2mb monsters being put up here.

[PadresFan104]

I want to guess but I can't figure out how to do the spoiler tag. Can someone help me out?

[Antmeister]

Sure type:

INSERT TEXT HERE


And spell SPOILER correctly. I needed to misspell it to show you what I am talking about.

[PadresFan104]

Thanks!

[lordscarlet]

Sure type:

INSERT TEXT HERE


And spell SPOILER correctly. I needed to misspell it to show you what I am talking about.

If I'm using the spoiler tag I always preview the post to make sure I did it properly.

[PadresFan104]

So let me just say that I can't wait for the reveal phase this week. ;) Here are three guesses that I feel good about.


- B02 is Dodgerchick. She's a sucker for the "interesting angle"
- B07 is Bonegavel. He's from Allentown (near Bethlehem) after all, and they are all quality shots, just like the A1 bottle from last week.
- B11 is Lordscarlet. I think the Bobbleheads would have looked great outdoors as mentioned in his post.

[Antmeister]

If I'm using the spoiler tag I always preview the post to make sure I did it properly.

I know. I misspelled it on purpose since it wanted to show the rendered spoiler tag even when I wrapped it with the code tags.

[wade moore]

Got up through 8 and have to run. I'll do comments on the others, it just may be after the reveal.

B01

BabyBrady: I've got to admit, I'm one of the people (without kids) who is not going to "get" the kid pictures unless there is something particularly artistic about them. This photo, imo, has some technical problems. The main thing being the lighting - which may just ben an environment issue. If there was sun, shadows, etc. I would like this picture a lot more - otherwise it just seems like a regular old photo album picture to me that I can't really critique much.

B02

Bullethole: I like what the photographer was going for here. However, I think I agree with what someone else said - I'd like it a lot more if the window wasn't so dirty. Now, this is a bit of a Catch-22 because if it was perfectly clean I'd probably wonder why you have a bulletwhole with a squeaky clean window. But I feel like there is a pretty nice backdrop hiding there that I just can't see through the stuff on the window. Beyond that, I'd probably like to see something that isn't usually what I'd say - I think I'd like to see a wider depth of field. This is one where I think the window itself obscures the background enough that it should be in focus.

Books: I love the composition. I love it technically. The stickers absolutely RUIN it for me. I know the photographer had no control over this, but I'd love the same/similar setup but with books with no stickers. Books are strangely an interesting thing to me visually, but it's just broken u p by the stickers. I think it would be neat to see the same shot but with old (preferably hardback) books rather than squeaky clean ones in a bookstore.

Basketball Court: This shot REALLY bothers me. The reason it bothers me - this should be a picture that I LOVE. But something went terrible wrong. I love the composition. I love the subject. I love the focus. I love the clouds. But the lighting is all off. You have what is clearly a beautiful outdoor picture taking day - with the puffy clouds, but some nice blue sky as well. My gut feeling here is the sun must have been behind clouds? Because it seems like you should have sharp shadows and bright colors. If that's the case, you should have waited for it to come out of the clouds. If it wasn't behind the clouds, something went horrible wrong with your light metering. Maybe it was metered off of the white and you should have metered off of like the pole as I suggested in the boat picture last week? Bottom line, this photo is like one TINY step from being my favorite picture yet in this thing, but instead it becomes just kind of "eh, it's pretty good."

B03

Butterfly_2: I love the colors and that flower fascinates me. I think I might like to see what it looks like cropped where there's not any lack of focus on the top, but it cuts off at the flower. The butterfly (as will be a common thread against all of B03's) is dead center, I'd like to see what it looks like off-center. Otherwise, this is a composition I like - get the beautiful colors of nature in focus with an out of focus background that still has some color.

butterfly: As others have mentioned, the focus seems a bit weird on this one. Unlike the other butterfly pic, the immediate background behind the butterfly is some uninteresting grey color. Like the other butterfly pic, it is dead center.

Bee: Again with the centering! Like someone else said, I think it actually works here. I think the only thing I'd say here is the bee isn't quite sharply focused. I bet the good old "sharpen" feature in picasa would do wonders to this guy.

B04

Bottlebrush: Like someone else mentioned, I think having the house in the background detracts. I like how everything but the flower is out of focus, etc - but I think I'd like to see it maybe from head-on into the bush so the greenery is in the background or something like that. Technically very solid, I jsut think the brick background hurts it a bit.

Butterfly Pair: I like this one a lot. Again, fits my style of the beauty of nature in pretty tight focus. I like that you have two butterflies in different poses so you see the tops of a wing and the bottom. I think my biggest thought would be similar to b03's butterfly - the siding or whatever behind them is uninteresting, would be nice to see vegetation/color blurred behind them.

Baseball: Time for me to be harsh. This is one of a couple of pictures in this week's that I think fall completely flat. Keep in mind that my true love with photography is sports photography (although I don't get to do it that often). IMO this picture has: A) Poor Focus, B)boring/regular angle, C) A completely uninteresting pose/moment, D) uninteresting lighting. I just don't see any way in which this photo hits the mark. When you're doing sports photography, at the minimum I think there has to be an interesting action. As far as I can tell the pitcher is getting the signal from the catcher and the batter is somewhat setting up. It's just not interesting at all to me. It's not cropped in at all, which I think is also necessary - this may be a limitation of the camera, i don't know. Anyway - I won't continue to rail. I jsut think this was a failed shot that was particularly unsettling because it was combined with two pretty solid shots and really seemed like a "throwaway" addition.

B05

Boat: When giving feedback for these shots, I'm trying to get into my head what "kind" of photo I think it is - i.e. artistic, sports photography, nature photo, portrait, etc, etc. To me I view this as a capturing the moment, documentary photograph. As such, I think it excels. You get to see the whole image to truely understand the predicament this boat is in. There's no trying to get artsy and get a bunch of sky, or cut out part of the boat, or whatever. This shot could have probably been approached as an artsy shot - getting underneath of it, shrinking the depth of field, not getting the whole boat in the picture, etc, etc. The photographer chose not to do that - and I think it was the right choice. I really don't have any constructive feedback to be honest, I think this is a solid job.

B06

Baseball Glove: My first two reactions - 1) Outstanding shot 2) Boy does it look staged. So, I have mixed feelings. Staged shots are fine, but when one of my first reactions is "boy does that look staged" it takes some of the luster away. I think maybe if I saw like a skid in the sand where the glove was tossed, or some dirt on the glove, or idano.. I'm not sure how to fix that. That being said, it is a beautiful shot. The evening (like DC, this looks like evening light to me - which is the best light imo) light is just perfect - nice long shadows, sharp color, etc. Bravo outside of that one little think that irks me.

Baseballs: This shot makes me pretty confidant I know who B06 is. If I'm right, I think I have a man crush on him. One thing I have not found myself able to do is to stage interesting shots out of seemingly mundane things. It's something I'd like to get good at (and something I'm sure I'll experiment with during this process) and this is what I'd like to be able to do. This is clearly my favorite shot this week. I love you.

B07

Buddies: Even though unlike kids, I'm a total animal lover - you have to really go the artsy route for a picture to catch my eye with pets in this thing. This picture, gets artsy and does it amazingly well. I'm really wanting to try and give at least one piece of technical advice in each picture, but I'm finding it hard on many of them - this one included. Great expression on the dog, great mystery surrounding the cat, just awesome.

BirdFeeder: While I like this and it fits my "style", I'm just not as in love with it as others are. I think I would have liked to have seen it at an interesting angle, maybe zoomed in more, and not in the center of the frame. This just is actually relatively boring to me with nothing drawing me in except for it being a technical superior photo. I equate this one with the ant one from last week - I'm impressed by the color, focus, sharpness, etc - but the shot itself doesn't interest me.

Bethlehemsteel: Runner-up for my picture of the week. I like the wide depth of field here and this photo really elicits emotion - which is something important in certain photos. If you can pull an emotion (which you've seen mentioned by numerous posters and I don't think that has been the case with any other photos) then you know you're on the right track.

B08

blueandbrown: This one gets a giant "meh" from me. Nothing agains the technical shot, but it makes me think what others thought about my sea lion photo last week - "typical tourist photo". For me, if you're trying to get truely great architecture captured in photography you need to not have the tourists in the shot. Whether you crop off the lower part of the building, wait for 20 minutes for an opening (i've done it, it sucks), or whatever - you really need to get them out of there.

Big Screen tv for David: This one, on the other hand, I like the tourists there. This is a clever shot, with a clever name, that I could totally see being incorporated in a print ad or something. I would like to see what a small depth of field would have done to this photo. I'm telling myself now to take a lot of my shots with a small and a large depth of field to see what i like when I get home.

[wade moore]

Like LS I'm reading back and my criticism of B04's Baseball is pretty harsh - I hope that person doesn't take it too harshly, I'm just trying to be honest and constructive in my feedback - if it comes off too bad, someone should let me know - otherwise I'll assume the honesty is appreciated.

[PadresFan104]

For my part, the honesty is appreciated. I also like the latitude to be an honest critic myself. If you are asked to scale back, then I'll feel compelled to do the same. That being said, I'd feel terrible if I ended up hurting someones feelings.

[wade moore]

B09

BikerGirl: As I said I don't tend to be drawn to the kid pictures, but I really like this one. I (shocker) would like to see it with a smaller depth of field (smaller F-Stop). I would crop out whatever is creeping in on the left, but I like the tire on the right because I think it gives a good size perspective.

B10

Bottle: This is the other picture that fell completely flat for me this week. I guess I'll give some points for coming up with something that seems like it was a last ditch effort to get something in for the letter B. but beyond that the background to me detracts from the photo and the bottle (which to me is pretty uninteresting as it is) is totally washed out by the sun. This one just fell flat for me all around.

Balls: This is a photo that had a lot of potential for me, but didn't quite meet it. I've been trying to figure out what it is I don't like about it - and I think it's the fact that the fence is 100% in focus, while the balls go increasingly out of focus. I would have liked to have seen the photographer move the balls away from the fence just a slight bit and then taken this shot (the angle is fine), but with the balls in focus and the fence out of focus. Maybe I'm missing some message here, but I think that would work better for me personally. I love the color that comes out of the soccer balls.

B11

Bobbleheads: Another shot with potential that doesn't quite reach it. As someone said, the "in-focus" Jefferson isn't quite in focus which makes this pic fall incredibly flat. Outside of that I love the idea and composition, although I don't really understand why Washington isn't in the front.

B12
Burnt Tree: this is 90% to being a landscape that I love. I'm a sucker for weird looking trees, and in particular dead, burnt, etc trees (i have a picture from Lake Tahoe that I just love). The only thing that makes this miss for me is the stupid tourist vehicles. Again, any time you have those in your picture is going to fall short of being a great artistic shot. I'm not saying you could do much about it, but it does detract from the picture. Outside of that I love the framing, etc. I would maybe consider doing it from a slightly different angle so that the tree is not directly on the front "point line" of the mountain.

[lordscarlet]

Like LS I'm reading back and my criticism of B04's Baseball is pretty harsh - I hope that person doesn't take it too harshly, I'm just trying to be honest and constructive in my feedback - if it comes off too bad, someone should let me know - otherwise I'll assume the honesty is appreciated.

You have time to re-read your critiques but not finish the rest? Lame. :p

[wade moore]

For my part, the honesty is appreciated. I also like the latitude to be an honest critic myself. If you are asked to scale back, then I'll feel compelled to do the same. That being said, I'd feel terrible if I ended up hurting someones feelings.

w0rd. that's why I'm going with brutal honesty and if no one complains, I'll continue to roll with it - because that's what I'd want for my photographs.

[lordscarlet]

Doh. I posted that about 30 secs too quick.

[wade moore]

You have time to re-read your critiques but not finish the rest? Lame. :p

pwned.

[Lorena]

I removed the spoiler tags since it's 12:13am Eastern time.


B07: This, I think, is where I start to try and make an inspired guess. I think it may beDodgerchick, although the green yard doesn't look like the desert we all picture in Texas. ;) I also don't know her well enough to know if she's been anywhere near bethlehem steel before, or if she has a cat and a dog. Whoever it is, you're doing a great job.Sorry lordscarlet it's not me. If those pictures were mine, I wouldn't praise them like I did... definitely would have found something wrong with them.

So let me just say that I can't wait for the reveal phase this week. ;) Here are three guesses that I feel good about.

- B02 is Dodgerchick. She's a sucker for the "interesting angle"


Damn when I read this my first thought was, "He figured me out.. dang, he figured me out!" Yup, I am a sucker for different angles and I might have to change it up a bit.

I'm super tired and will write some more later... I was hoping someone else would reveal around this time. Very much looking forward to tomorrow.

[Tigercat]

B05 Boat - Ok, this is cool. We need more humor in our photography, and this is a great start! I'd love to hear the story behind this one. I bet it involves either a bad storm or alcohol!


Yup, post Katrina shot. We found it ironic that the wave took 95+% of the house/housing materials of my grandparents house out to sea, yet the neighbors freakin boat gets left behind! Go figure.

Boat: When giving feedback for these shots, I'm trying to get into my head what "kind" of photo I think it is - i.e. artistic, sports photography, nature photo, portrait, etc, etc. To me I view this as a capturing the moment, documentary photograph.

Yea, it was taken for insurance purposes in case the neighbors needed it. (And because I couldn't see a hanging boat and not take a picture.) Not the most sexy reason to take a photograph... But, hey, when looking through my photos starting with "b," a boat hanging from a power line stuck out.

[PadresFan104]

Damn when I read this my first thought was, "He figured me out.. dang, he figured me out!" Yup, I am a sucker for different angles and I might have to change it up a bit.


Woo hoo!! :) It was some of the other threads around here with your pics that helped me figure it out....

Too tired to post any more tonight, but looking forward to the reveal tomorrow. A couple of you are going to be surprised...

[lordscarlet]

B10 (bottle, balls): lordscarlet - he mentioned being in a hurry and these look a little rushed.

Nope. :)


- B11 is Lordscarlet. I think the Bobbleheads would have looked great outdoors as mentioned in his post.

Yep! I thought all of the hints I dropped would cause everyone to know which one was mine, but I can see how DC would think what she did. But the hints I can remember are: shot that could have been outdoors, rushed shot, needed better equipment, and late submission (it was the next to last photo on the list).


B11 Bobbleheads: This also comes close, but falls flat. The one "in focus", well, isn't. A little more clarity on the dominating bobblehead and a better environment would go a long way for this shot.




B11 Bobbleheads - Better focus and composition (arrangement of the bobbles) and you would have me.



B11 Bobbleheads - Oh man, this picture has some serious potential. I like the solid background and the bluriness of the bobbleheads in the back, but the one in the front is a little out of focus.



B11

Bobbleheads: Another shot with potential that doesn't quite reach it. As someone said, the "in-focus" Jefferson isn't quite in focus which makes this pic fall incredibly flat. Outside of that I love the idea and composition, although I don't really understand why Washington isn't in the front.


So here are my issues with the photo, what I was working with, and then some responses. As I've mentioned, I'm working with a point-and-shoot. While trying to get this shot right I figured out that my camera has a manual focus. Who knew? However, the manual focus is pretty much guess work. In addition, the zoom on my camera seems to have died completely. Either I changed some setting or it just doesn't work anymore. Anyway. I set the bobbles up on the ground with a blanket (army greenish wool blanket) as a back drop. I then got down and used some books as a try pod. I turned the flash off (the flash on had an incredible glare) and placed a table lamp behind me (I tried it without the lamp first and it was way too dark). I set a slow shudder speed and small depth of field, and then began taking shots. I have probably 30 of them. Manual focus on my camera is pretty much guess work. I had to use the LCD screen to determine if the focus looked accurate, but when I actually took the photo the focus in the image never matched what had been in the preview screen. So as it approached midnight I just went with the most focused shot I had and called it a night.

So I pretty much addressed the focus issues. I would have loved to do this outside, perhaps in the park in front of my house. However, at 11:30pm it just wouldn't have been the same. :) For those of you (I assume most of you) that don't know, these bobbleheads represent the "racing presidents" that come out during the fourth(?) inning of every Washington Nationals game. This addresses Wade's composition concern. They are meant to be in the middle of a race in m shot. As a Nationals fan that attends many games, the key thing for me is that Teddy was not winning. Who was in first was not important, as long as it was not T. Roosevelt. However, I see how appealing to a broader audience may have put them in more of a Rushmore stance or in order of Presidency. I'm curious how PadresFan would have composed it differently, however.

[Castlerock]

I didn't post one this week. No time to take anything decent. I tried a bird photo but with my limited time this week, didn't like anything I got.

[wade moore]

B03 - BUTTERFLY_2, BUTTERFLY, BEE

While trying to move from B&W photographs to color I found myself very much drawn to things with a ton of color that I was not drawn to with B&W. Flowers and butterflies/bees have a sudden interest to me because I just love how the color pops in photographs. So, a couple of weekends ago I went out and ended up taking a TON of shots mostly at this little flower garden that the sororities at W&M maintain. I wanted to show some of the different attempts I made to get feedback because I'm sure I'll be taking more in the future.

# B03 Butterfly_2: I love me some macro photography. Let's see if I can come up with a critique that differs in any way amongst these. So I accidentally critiqued Butterfly Pair here at first. This, for me, is by far the best of the five macro shots. The buttefly is in focus, the flowers it is on are in focus, and everything else fades away.
# B03 butterfly: I like this one. I think the focus may be a little off (it looks like some of the flowers are more in focus than the butterfly), but it works for me.
# B03 Bee: There's something distracting about the out of focus greenery that is most in the forground. At first it almost looked like I was seeing the reflection off of a window (see: bullethole). I don't know if your depth of field was a little too large and they got some focus or what, but they are distracting me.

Butterfly 2 (the Easter Yellow Swallowtail) appears to be the run away favorite of my 3. This was my favorite of the 3 as well, and I think LS explains much of why - I think I got the depth of field perfect - especially with the blurred color in the background.

For Butterfly (the Monarch Butterfly) I wanted to address the main thing LS says here - that the focus seems off. I *think* the reason he feels that way is not as evident here as it is in the large, RAW shot. The butterfly's body is in perfect focus, but he was fluttering his wings at the time so his wings are blurry. Anyway, I still may have too many flowers in focus, but this is why he looks out of focus.

For Bee - Interesting comment on the greenery in front. I personally think it adds to the appeal, so I'm not sure what to say on that one.

B03 Butterfly_2 and B03 butterfly – I really like these shots, the detail is striking…you can see each petal on the flower and the colors really pop. I think these photos blown up and framed very simply would be really stunning.

B03 Bee – I didn’t notice the Bee in this shot at first, I thought it was the center of the flower…at second glance I saw it and I like the shot, but think that a different angle might have made the Bee more obvious.

The butterflies - I used to be relatively disinterested in this type of photography. Now suddenly that I'm taking it, I love it. I appreciate the compliment about it being a good wall-hanging!

Bee - wait until you see the other photo I thought about posting ;). I think you make a good point on the angle - I think I positioned the flower rather than the bee, which may have hurt the shot. I also think the bee is slightly out of focus.

B03 Butterfly_2 I really like the detail of the butterfly and flowers. Great depth of field. Nicely done. I've never taken a shot like this so I'm curious how the photographer prepared for this shot.

B03 butterfly This is my favorite of the butterfly pictures. The depth of field is amazing, the front and the back is blurred nicely with the focus being on the flower and butterfly. If you look closely, you can see the butterfly's wings flapping. Awesome shot.

B03 Bee I really like this shot. You can see the bee's wings spread, nice timing. The only thing I would do different is crop it so it's not completely centered. There's some good focus on the stems of the flowers, so I'd crop the right side and keep the stems and a little bit of the left.


Butterfly 2 - The way I setup for these shots: set the camera to manual focus , aperture priority with the f-stop at the smallest number you can get to, and with my 80-200 zoom attached. Then I went to a spot that was a flower garden/mini-park area that I knew (because I had been there the day before) had a lot of butterflies and bees in it. Once I saw a butterfly jumping from flower to flower in a general area I parked myself crouched just like.. oh... 2 feetish away from the flowers. first I zoom in and get the general zoom I'd want to block in the flowers with a general focus. Then I use a combo of pulling the camera away and using the zoom to eye the butterfly settling in on a specific flower. Once he's there, I move in to frame it how I want and set the manual focus. Then I basically snap several shots (usually 3 or 4, I should probably do more) as he moves around the flower, etc. You'd be surprised how long a butterfly or bee will stay on a flower if you are there, not moving much BEFORE he lands on the flower. Forget moving into place physically if you see a pose you want to get. You need to be ready before he's in place. There are some shots I have (none posted here because they are mainly of moths) where I went in a little side garden at Colonial Williamsburg and literally laid on the ground for 20 minutes waiting for good angled shots of flowers and insects (again, mostly moths).

butterfly - I think you're the only one that liked this best. You caught what I was doing with the wings which helped, I think this fell flat for most people. I think I like this quite a bit because for me the Monarch is a prettier butterfly than the Eastern Swallowtail - especially because of its black and white spotted body which shows up better in a larger image.

Bee - Agreed on the centering. As I go back and look at my pictures I realize that I'm BRUTAL with the centering. I am trying to make more of a concentrated effort not to center as we move along in this exercise.

B03 Butterfly_2 - Brilliant shot. I'd be showing this off to anyone who would look if I took it.

B03 butterfly - Not bad. Makes me glad I didn't try to capture a butterfly this week, as it was my first thought... Looks hard!

B03 Bee - This is a good example (I think) for when it's ok to have the subject right in the middle of the photo. I really like the foreground/background elements in this one.

Butterfly 2 - Thanks. I'm pretty happy with this shot and people's comments seem to echo that.

Butterfly - I don't know if I'd say butterfly shots are hard. I think if you know some of the basics about depth of field and manual focus it's not too bad - but I think that's stuff that you are still learning, so i can see why. See my explanation above - I think it's mroe about choosing the right spot (one that has multiple butterflies), setting up, and being patient.

Bee - Again, thanks! I think I would like to at least see what it would look like not centered. I actually started to crop it to submit that way - but I have this weird thing from back in photography class where I want to force myself to frame a shot right in the first place rather than having to go back and crop it to "fix" it. Kind of similar to how I don't like doing a lot of digital darkroom stuff.

Butterfly_2: I love the colors and that flower fascinates me. I think I might like to see what it looks like cropped where there's not any lack of focus on the top, but it cuts off at the flower. The butterfly (as will be a common thread against all of B03's) is dead center, I'd like to see what it looks like off-center. Otherwise, this is a composition I like - get the beautiful colors of nature in focus with an out of focus background that still has some color.

butterfly: As others have mentioned, the focus seems a bit weird on this one. Unlike the other butterfly pic, the immediate background behind the butterfly is some uninteresting grey color. Like the other butterfly pic, it is dead center.

Bee: Again with the centering! Like someone else said, I think it actually works here. I think the only thing I'd say here is the bee isn't quite sharply focused. I bet the good old "sharpen" feature in picasa would do wonders to this guy.

That's me criticizing myself. As I said earlier, this centering thing is a problem. My fiance things I need to make the focal points of these shots larger - like the butterfly_2 she didn't like all of the dead space. I disagree with her and it's interesting that no one mentioned anything about that and butterfly_2 was actually their favorite (she liked bee the most and then butterfly). There was another Bee that I consider posting that she hated. I actually love it, but probably more for the flowers than the Bee:

http://www.fof-woof.com/wademoore/images/CRW_6321.jpg


Anyway, as I said above I'm somewhat surprised at how drawn I am to these shots. It's all about the color and adjusting to wanting color in my shots now. I'm sure I'll do quite a bit more of this, although not necessarily for this challenge.

[lordscarlet]

I think you should definitely try some shots that are a lot tighter and see how you like them. I like both styles, but they look completely different.

[wade moore]

I think you should definitely try some shots that are a lot tighter and see how you like them. I like both styles, but they look completely different.

Gives me a chance to mention something else - I realized after the fact that I didn't use the "macro" setting on any of these. I'll have to try that out and see how I like it.

[Lorena]

B02 Bullethole: Is it really? A bullethole? I have a similar blemish in one of the front windows of my house, and as exciting as it is to think it was a bullet, I'm sure it was probably from a rock. Having said that, I'm trying hard to like this shot. The composition is great, but I feel there may be something lacking in the technical aspects. What are those things? I don't know. There's even a really nice sky in the reflection -- maybe I would like to see it a little mroe clearly?Yeah, it might not have been, but a bullethole is the first thing that popped in my head. We were having dinner at a restaurant and thought it'd make an interesting picture. I took a few of these and this was the best one.


B02 Bullethole – I like this shot, the closeup of the bullethole, and the detail is interesting. It’s not something you see everyday so it’s an intriguing subject to start with. I’m not sure if it would have been possible to get some more detail at the bottom, but that could have been really neat looking.

Yeah that's why I took it, it's not everyday you see a bullethole on the window of a restaurant :) The dark part on the bottom are trees on the other side of the freeway.


B02 Bullethole I like the details of the crack and the clouds in the background, but there's a tiny little part on the bottom that's a little dark and a little distracting.


I had a few pictures where the bullethole was by itself but unfortunately they were pretty blurry; this was the best of 'em.



B02 Bullethole - Love the subject, too bad the glass is kinda dirty or weathered though. Kinda ruins it for me.

Ugh I know! I didn't realize how dirty it was until I uploaded to my computer.


B02

Bullethole: I like what the photographer was going for here. However, I think I agree with what someone else said - I'd like it a lot more if the window wasn't so dirty. Now, this is a bit of a Catch-22 because if it was perfectly clean I'd probably wonder why you have a bulletwhole with a squeaky clean window. But I feel like there is a pretty nice backdrop hiding there that I just can't see through the stuff on the window. Beyond that, I'd probably like to see something that isn't usually what I'd say - I think I'd like to see a wider depth of field. This is one where I think the window itself obscures the background enough that it should be in focus.

I always get confused with this but, what is a “wide depth of field”? Is that when it's a small or large aperture? I took this picture with an f/6.7 setting, should I have used like f/32 or something along those lines?

[wade moore]

I always get confused with this but, what is a “wide depth of field”? Is that when it's a small or large aperture? I took this picture with an f/6.7 setting, should I have used like f/32 or something along those lines?

F-stop and Depth of Field used to confuse the hell out of me, so I understand.

The smaller the F-Stop number, the smaller the range of the Depth of Field. Think of it this way - small number, small focus.

It used to be great on my old Minolta, totally manual, film SLR. I had a zoom lens on it that actually illustrated the depth of field on the lends. So if you were at F/8 and you zoomed to 75 it would show you that say 10-30 ft. is in focus.

Anyway... so, if you want to focus on one object with the rest out of focus (like my butterfly pics), you want a low f-stop. If you want everything crisp and clear in the whole frame (like Tiger's Boat) you'd want a high f-stop (f/22 is the highest some cameras go, F/32 if you have that works).

The thing you have to be aware of is that the higher the f-stop number, the more light you need. So sometimes you have enough light to be in focus at f/6.7 but not enough light without changing the ISO at f/22. This is why the higher number F-stop is more effective for landscapes, but not so much for getting a lizard in the brush.

[Lorena]

B02 Books: Again with the good composition. It is unfortunate that you have the gigantic price stickers on the books; I think they detract from the photo. Aside from that, the repetition is good. It may be a little too centered for me, but maybe that's just because my eye is drawn to the nose picker.
Yeah, Ant thought the sticker was distracting too. I took a picture of a bookshelf and liked this one better because of the repetition.


B02 Books – This picture makes me smile. I actually thought of doing something similar with the bread aisle at the grocery store…but it was packed when I was there and I couldn’t get the shot I wanted.
I love repetition in pictures, that would have been pretty cool. Any picture with repetition automatically gets my seal of approval :)


B02 Books
I like the repetition but the books on the bookshelf (?) on the right a little distracting.
It's funny reading this after the sticker comments because this, to me, breaks the neatly stacked repetition of the books.

*shrug*

B02 Books - Yes, yes they are. Has anyone else heard of the nose picker series??

No


B02
Books: I love the composition. I love it technically. The stickers absolutely RUIN it for me. I know the photographer had no control over this, but I'd love the same/similar setup but with books with no stickers. Books are strangely an interesting thing to me visually, but it's just broken u p by the stickers. I think it would be neat to see the same shot but with old (preferably hardback) books rather than squeaky clean ones in a bookstore.

Heh, another sticker comment. Here's another book picture I considered:

http://almarks.com/lorena/books2.jpg

I was going back and forth but repetition won out.

A thing that's driving me nuts is that my pictures seem so blah compared to the beautiful colors some of you are getting. These pictures are taken in RAW format and I've contemplated some minor adjustments but refrained. Nothing really extravagant, just adjusting some of the contrast, that's about it.

[Lorena]

F-stop and Depth of Field used to confuse the hell out of me, so I understand.

The smaller the F-Stop number, the smaller the range of the Depth of Field. Think of it this way - small number, small focus.

It used to be great on my old Minolta, totally manual, film SLR. I had a zoom lens on it that actually illustrated the depth of field on the lends. So if you were at F/8 and you zoomed to 75 it would show you that say 10-30 ft. is in focus.

Anyway... so, if you want to focus on one object with the rest out of focus (like my butterfly pics), you want a low f-stop. If you want everything crisp and clear in the whole frame (like Tiger's Boat) you'd want a high f-stop (f/22 is the highest some cameras go, F/32 if you have that works).

The thing you have to be aware of is that the higher the f-stop number, the more light you need. So sometimes you have enough light to be in focus at f/6.7 but not enough light without changing the ISO at f/22. This is why the higher number F-stop is more effective for landscapes, but not so much for getting a lizard in the brush.

Yeah, that's how I remember it too: Large number, more in focus, small number, less focus. So a "wide depth of field" means more focus? That's where I get confused.

[Lorena]

B02 Basketball Court I would have liked to have seen a basketball coming down the hoop to make it a little more interesting. Good clouds and good angle though


Yeah but you didn't have a basketball did'ja? :p



B02 Basketball Court - Needs to be brighter. The dimness of the shot doesn't match the words on the backboard. Maybe capturing a sunrise or having the sunlight play a more prominent role would help.



B02
Basketball Court: This shot REALLY bothers me. The reason it bothers me - this should be a picture that I LOVE. But something went terrible wrong. I love the composition. I love the subject. I love the focus. I love the clouds. But the lighting is all off. You have what is clearly a beautiful outdoor picture taking day - with the puffy clouds, but some nice blue sky as well. My gut feeling here is the sun must have been behind clouds? Because it seems like you should have sharp shadows and bright colors. If that's the case, you should have waited for it to come out of the clouds. If it wasn't behind the clouds, something went horrible wrong with your light metering. Maybe it was metered off of the white and you should have metered off of like the pole as I suggested in the boat picture last week? Bottom line, this photo is like one TINY step from being my favorite picture yet in this thing, but instead it becomes just kind of "eh, it's pretty good."



B02 Basketball Court: Another shot that has good composition, but I'm not in love with the actual shot. I feel a connection with Mr (or Mrs) B02. I feel like my composition skills are far better than my technical skills. This shot seems very dark for my taste, particularly on what seems to be a relatively sunny day.
This picture was taken right outside our local YMCA at around 7pm. It's been raining so much out here that I can't remember if it rained that day or not. Ant always suggests I meter my stuff and I never listen, I guess I'm gonna hafta.

[CamEdwards]

Apologies for the lack of critique this week. I pretty much found myself liking them all, especially all of the baseball related pictures.

"Bikergirl" was my picture, and if kid pics aren't your thing you're probably going to get sick of me by the end of this exercise. :)

I don't have a ton of free time, so most of my pictures are going to be of the kids, which is actually okay with me. Since that's what most of my pictures are ordinarily, any tips on how to improve those casual, non-posed shots will be helpful.

I thought about cropping the tire out of the picture, but I want to do as little editing as possible with the pictures I post. And that's not a bike helmet on Catherine, but a plastic army helmet. She wore it to Home Depot later in the day as well. :)

[OldGiants]

I'm B8 and blue and brown and David's big screen TV are my shots.

I took them last summer, but both fit my ideas of photography. I should say that all my shots are taken with the idea that I'll fiddle with them in Photoshop, so only cropping is a bit of a let down for me.

First, blue and brown is shot in Siena. I always had the intent of getting the blue sky and building brown as the dominant features of the shot. These colors are typical of the region around Siena and I wanted to remember them. I have other shots of the whole building, but they crowded out the tower and sky, so they aren't as colorful.

I'm surprised no one figured out the significance of the big screen TV and the statue of David, but it takes a certain minimum amount of knowledge of Italy, I suppose, and it has been one year since the World Cup Final won by the Italians.

There's a disconnect in the shot in the sense that the past in the form of THE STATUE (albeit an 19th bronze copy) dominates Piazza Michelangelo, yet all the people are gathering in the present to watch the World Cup on a big screen TV. It's about five hours before game time. Also, directly off to my left is IMO the most beautiful vista in all Italy and no one is looking at it:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Florenz_weitwinkel.jpg

The Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Vecchio and Brunelleschi's Dome, all ignored as people gather on their Vespas and Smarts to watch TV.

[PadresFan104]

F-stop and Depth of Field used to confuse the hell out of me, so I understand.

The smaller the F-Stop number, the smaller the range of the Depth of Field. Think of it this way - small number, small focus.

It used to be great on my old Minolta, totally manual, film SLR. I had a zoom lens on it that actually illustrated the depth of field on the lends. So if you were at F/8 and you zoomed to 75 it would show you that say 10-30 ft. is in focus.

Anyway... so, if you want to focus on one object with the rest out of focus (like my butterfly pics), you want a low f-stop. If you want everything crisp and clear in the whole frame (like Tiger's Boat) you'd want a high f-stop (f/22 is the highest some cameras go, F/32 if you have that works).

The thing you have to be aware of is that the higher the f-stop number, the more light you need. So sometimes you have enough light to be in focus at f/6.7 but not enough light without changing the ISO at f/22. This is why the higher number F-stop is more effective for landscapes, but not so much for getting a lizard in the brush.

Awesome f-stop explanation Wade! Thanks, that really helps a lot!!

[sterlingice]

Awesome f-stop explanation Wade! Thanks, that really helps a lot!!

Agreed :)

SI

[PadresFan104]

B06 - Baseball Glove & Baseballs

I believe many of you thought these were from "Mr. A1", Bonegavel. Surprise!! :) I must admit that the comments this week were a serious confidence boost!

B06 Baseball Glove: Mr. B06 we all know who you are, and I love you. This shot is excellent.
B06 Baseballs: If you haven't even gotten into the manual settings on your camera, I can't wait to see what comes out when you do.Thanks for the love! And for the compliments!



B06 Baseball Glove – I think this is my favorite shot…I don’t know if you laid it out or if the glove and ball just landed that way, but this picture makes me want to tell a story about it…whose glove it is, what happened in the game, etc…I really like it.

I can't tell you how awesome it feels to read "favorite shot" comments. Thanks!!!


B06 Baseball Glove - The warm lighting leads me to believe that it was taken at sunset which is ideal lighting condition for photography. That and sunrise make the best pictures when the sun is not so bright. Everything is in perfect focus right down to the dirt. Everything is a little too perfect, right down to the placement of the glove.

B06 Baseballs - What kind of lighting was used? Ant and I were discussing this picture at length and each of us has a different opinion. We both really like it but it's a little too yellow for me. I like how some of the balls are slightly out of focus... makes for a pretty good magazine pic and the baseballs are nicely framed. I also like the size of the balls, what focal length was used?

Yes, it was taken at about 6:30 in the evening this past Saturday. I love the lighting at the end of the day. I'm sure I'd love sunrise lighting too, but I'm not a morning person. "Too perfect" is definitely a running theme here. You know, as many times as I threw the glove down on the ground, it always had that look. I had some shots that didn't look so perfect, but the overall shot didn't look as good either.

"Baseballs" is my personal favorite of the two, but I am a baseball nut. I love the way a baseball looks, smells, feels, etc. I wanted a shot that would evoke sensory emotions like those. I know I wanted the yellow tone, so I waited until after dark, and brought a bucket of new baseballs into my living room. We have a floor lamp with a 75w bulb and a yellow-ish antique shade. It throws off very yellow light that I thought would be perfect for the tone I wanted, and it was. I dumped the balls out of the bucket, flipped it over, and built a pyramid of balls on top of the bucket. That, my friends, was the hardest part of the shot. :) Also, the balls all have printing on them, so I had to finely tune each one just right so the ink wasn't visible. So I turned the flash off on my D80, set it to "Close Up" mode and took shots from varying angles. The balls would fall, I'd set them up again, and take more shots. I think I did this about 2 more times until I called it quits. I'm not sure if this answers the focal length question, but I was using my 18-55mm lense and was zoomed in to 55mm

These are all pretty good (I have absolutely no photo skills, so I'll refrain from commenting on them in a critical sense), but man that Baseball Glove picture looks pro.

Thanks Vince, you made my day with that comment!!!


Baseball Glove: My first two reactions - 1) Outstanding shot 2) Boy does it look staged. So, I have mixed feelings. Staged shots are fine, but when one of my first reactions is "boy does that look staged" it takes some of the luster away. I think maybe if I saw like a skid in the sand where the glove was tossed, or some dirt on the glove, or idano.. I'm not sure how to fix that. That being said, it is a beautiful shot. The evening (like DC, this looks like evening light to me - which is the best light imo) light is just perfect - nice long shadows, sharp color, etc. Bravo outside of that one little think that irks me.

Baseballs: This shot makes me pretty confidant I know who B06 is. If I'm right, I think I have a man crush on him. One thing I have not found myself able to do is to stage interesting shots out of seemingly mundane things. It's something I'd like to get good at (and something I'm sure I'll experiment with during this process) and this is what I'd like to be able to do. This is clearly my favorite shot this week. I love you.


Wade - I'll work on making my staged shots less staged, but I appreciate the other comments!! This shot was taken after baseball practice with the little league team I coach. I got a few odd looks from people in the area as I started snapping pics at home plate. Just like the photo of the baseballs, I think I took about 30 different shots and this one turned out to be the best.

And wow, thanks for the kudos for Baseballs. It sounds like you thought I was Bonegavel though, correct? (I still love you too even if you were wrong) For what it's worth, it was you, DC, and others that kind of inspired me to dream-up, and set-up these shots. And now armed with your aperture information, I have a good idea of what I want to do with the letter C. So all of the folks on this thread need to take some credit if you think these shots are decent, since you all inspired me to try out some new things.

Here are some other various shots from the 2 sessions for added context. First, check the "Whale" shadow on this shot:

http://idisk.mac.com/sixwilsons-Public/Whale%20Shadow.jpg

Here's a shot of my son who put up with me taking pictures for a half-hour after practice was over!

http://idisk.mac.com/sixwilsons-Public/Dan.jpg

Finally, here is what the baseballs looked like when I accidentally used a flash.

http://idisk.mac.com/sixwilsons-Public/White%20Balls.jpg

[wade moore]

Yeah, that's how I remember it too: Large number, more in focus, small number, less focus. So a "wide depth of field" means more focus? That's where I get confused.

Depth of field I've also heard explained as "depth of focus". So, it what it really is measuring is the depth of which you are in focus. So your "depth of Field" is really what I was mentioning with my old camera that you don't really see anymore, it is X feet - Y feet. So a "wider" depth of field means the difference between X and Y is relatively large, where a "small" depth of field means a pretty small difference between X and Y (in my case on the butterfly pictures, probably a matter of a few inches).


"Bikergirl" was my picture, and if kid pics aren't your thing you're probably going to get sick of me by the end of this exercise. :)I'm certainly going to do my best to still give some sort of constructive feedback on the kid pictures, I just want people to understand where I'm coming from so that they can apply it as they see fit - often with a kid picture you're not going for something artsy, but still something sharp and with a good look to it - so you just have to use what you think applies from our comments.

B06 - Baseball Glove & Baseballs

I believe many of you thought these were from "Mr. A1", Bonegavel. Surprise!! :) I must admit that the comments this week were a serious confidence boost!
Thanks for the love! And for the compliments!

Bravo! I did indeed think it was Bonegavel and that's where some of my comments came from... so, still take the compliments because they certainly apply still - great work and I'm glad we're able to inspire you/give you good ideas!

[Craptacular]

B12 Burnt Tree: This is the second one this week where I think being centered actually works for it. I can't really explain why, but I think it does. If only there was a magic wand to make vehicular traffic disappear when we want to take shots like this, though.
B12 Burnt Tree - It bugs me that it's right in the middle of the shot, but you can't go wrong with a Yosemite shot. That's Yosemite, right?


B12 Burnt Tree - This picture looks completely different at home than at work. I use a Mac at work and it brought out all kinds of details, but here, it's a little dark. Anyway, I like the variety in colors and the sky is really, really blue... was a filter used?


B12
Burnt Tree: this is 90% to being a landscape that I love. I'm a sucker for weird looking trees, and in particular dead, burnt, etc trees (i have a picture from Lake Tahoe that I just love). The only thing that makes this miss for me is the stupid tourist vehicles. Again, any time you have those in your picture is going to fall short of being a great artistic shot. I'm not saying you could do much about it, but it does detract from the picture. Outside of that I love the framing, etc. I would maybe consider doing it from a slightly different angle so that the tree is not directly on the front "point line" of the mountain.

For the "B", I had to pull out a shot of this tree in front of El Capitan from a couple of years ago from our trip to Yosemite. I actually like the centering of this shot on the nose of El Capitan ... in my mind, at least, the shape of the top of the tree is similar to the shape of the top of El Capitan. I'd also like to get rid of the traffic, but I felt that showing the ground helped define the scale of the other objects. I'm pretty sure I used my polarizing filter for this shot.

[Bonegavel]

Bird Feeder: this was my first day with my 70-300 (October 2005). It was at 1/400s, F4.2, at 105mm. I wasn't really trying for anything special here as I was just happily snapping away with my new lens. When I got inside and saw the shot on the computer I noticed that the fence in the background along with the grass made an interesting composition along with the dead center birdfeeder. I'm not a huge dead center but this seems to work here.

Buddies: that is my golden doodle Haley and my cat Shadow. They don't get along and I wanted the picture titled Buddies? but the slide show software uses the name of the pic and not the description so the question mark was dropped.

Haley had just been bugging the cat relentlessly and I had just finished admonishing her which may have contributed to the look on her face. She wanted to play with Shadow and the cat wanted nothing to do with her at all. I was hoping it would convey tension where the dog is only laying there because the cat wills it so. Oh, and the cat is not asleep.

This was taken with my 50 which gives me a wonderful shallow DOF allowing the cat to be in focus and the dog to be just a bit blurry
but not enough that you can't see her expression. I really like this one and couldn't wait to fit it in here.

Bethlehem Steel: The person that mentioned me living in Allentown and the Bethsteel was probably mine was bang-on. I work in Bethlehem and after work one day this spring a friend and I went down to the old abandoned steel mill and snapped a ton of photos. This was one of my favorites. The sky wasn't very nice that day, hence the grey crappy sky but here is a fixed-up version of the shot (that I obviously couldn't have submitted :D).

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1078/1137917004_b05fcb9af9.jpg

Amazing what a little blue does for this shot.

[PadresFan104]

So let me just say that I can't wait for the reveal phase this week. ;) Here are three guesses that I feel good about.


- B02 is Dodgerchick. She's a sucker for the "interesting angle"
- B07 is Bonegavel. He's from Allentown (near Bethlehem) after all, and they are all quality shots, just like the A1 bottle from last week.
- B11 is Lordscarlet. I think the Bobbleheads would have looked great outdoors as mentioned in his post.



3 for 3! :)

[PadresFan104]

Bone - I've really liked your shots the past 2 weeks. I also thought it was funny that DC and others thought my shots were yours this week. Hopefully we can keep'em guessing in the future! ;)

[Bonegavel]

Bone - I've really liked your shots the past 2 weeks. I also thought it was funny that DC and others thought my shots were yours this week. Hopefully we can keep'em guessing in the future! ;)

Thanks and dittos. I loved the baseballs shot. I always love the warmth. Intersting to see the flash'd version. Amazing how different the same shot can be.

[OldGiants]

Bethlehem Steel: This was one of my favorites. The sky wasn't very nice that day, hence the grey crappy sky but here is a fixed-up version of the shot (that I obviously couldn't have submitted :D).

Amazing what a little blue does for this shot.

Just my opinion, but the blue sky is too cheerful for a derelict factory. A darker, more ominous sky would be an improvement, and set off the colorful rusty bits of the mill in contrast.

[oliegirl]

I'm on my phone so I'm not going to reference quotes, but bottle and balls were mine this week.

I actually like both my shots, but I can see where bottle fell flat for most of the people here. My puppy had dragged that bottle across the floor and placed it right in the patch of sun. Considering the bottle is about as big as the puppy it was very comical. I wanted to get down on the floor and improve the shot but before I could the puppy attacked the bottle and it went flying across the floor. And yes, I know that my wall is dirty; that is what happens when your 10 year old decides to play soccer in the house...the mark is gone off the wall now thanks to the mr clean magic eraser.

Balls was taken at my sons soccer practice, which is why I couldn't arrange the differently. I was standing at the fence, watching practice and taking pictures of Anthony; I looked down and saw the balls. The color struck me and I thought the angle of the shot was really cool.

I think with a better camera both shots would have been much better. I am planning on picking up a book this week, I know my camera can do more than I'm using it for now, so hopefully my shots will improve over the next few weeks.

[sterlingice]

As guessed, these three were mine. Actually, this week and C are both cheap and easy ones since I've already posted some of these pictures elsewhere on the board. ;)

B04 Bottlebrush
I was a little more curious about the thoughts of the branch and leaves and the placement of the flower (too much towards the middle, focus in on it more, etc) rather than the background. As for the flower itself, the A80 gives a little bit more fuzzing around the edge of each of the bristles then I'd like but I think it's one of the harder flowers out there to take pictures of. As stated in many of the comments, upon further reflection, the background does take away a bit from the picture.

B04 Butterfly Pair
This was the one that should have given away that it was my picture as this was already posted on the board. I think PadresFan and Dodgerchick were kind enough not to guess as they already saw these in another thread. The background blah coloring (street in background) takes away a lot of the impact of the picture for me, but I'm trying to include a recent picture each week and this was the best "B" I had. That said, I was absolutely in love with my new camera (S3 IS) after this shot. I was a good 5 feet away and just zoomed in on these two butterflies and caught this shot along with a couple others. It's one of those perfect moments with the one with wings open while the other has wings closed.

B04 Baseball
Sometimes a picture goes over better than you thought. Sometimes you get the reaction you expect. And then there's this :)

A bit of a defense of the shot and then time to let it fade away (tho I'm open to a rebuttal of my comments). I've always been a fan of the baseball "landscape" picture when I'm taking shots but I'm getting the impression that maybe I'm the only one. I don't quite get the idea that there has to be something exciting happening for it to be a good sports photo. Landscapes and still life shots have nothing happening in them- in fact, the very concept is about having interesting shots of the mundane. Indeed, the only action is Peavy looking in at a batter who is taking warmup swings. However, that's part of baseball- it's not football or basketball or especially hockey where there's constant motion; it is a slow, leisurely game at times.

From a technical aspect, I actually think the image is well framed, with two fielders in different poses bookending the picture with a definite focus on the action in the middle. I also like the angle just right of center and clearly from seats behind home plate but the backstop disrupts this somewhat (as an aside, there's no way to get rid of it that I can think of). It is poorly focused because of that, as both noted, and the lighting wasn't particularly favorable at that time of day.

As for it being a throwaway shot, I think I might have a different approach to this than some others. I went through all of my old shots (I'm up to around 10K) and picked out about 40 or 50 that I'd like to show and tried to put them into letters so that I could have the aforementioned 2 older images and a recent one. So it wasn't a case of trying to get up to a quota of 3 or anything, as, for instance, I only had 2 A's. It's just how they fall. Actually, I had about 6 B's but went with these as they were the ones hardest to move. Back to the point at hand, however, is that among those shots, they're pretty much all flawed in one way or another. A perfect picture is a rarity but there are quite a few where there are some good elements working for them and they're just begging for a critique to help clean up the shortcomings. After all, that's the biggest reason why I'm in this thread.

BTW, yes it is Petco and they were good seats. This was on my honeymoon with my wife and we happened to sit next to a really nice person on the plane who worked for the Padres and got us some great seats. But that's another story for another time :)

Oh well, that last picture didn't work so onward to "C"



* B04 Bottlebrush: Again, macro photography is hard for me to judge. I like it, I just can't judge it. The main thing I would say here, as opposed to Butterfly_2, is that the brick and window are too in focus. If I'm viewing, what shall I call it? Botanical photography. I want to see the beauty of the flower with no other distractions.

* B04 Butterfly Pair: I think I like this the best of the two. I'm glad the siding (I assume that's what it is) is so out of focus, although I'd rather see the shot taken so that such an unnatural element was not in frame at all.

* B04 Baseball: I feel like I'm being rather harsh on B04. Hopefully you'll see that I am just as harsh on myself. Particularly when you already uploaded two shots, I would not have even uploaded this shot. First, the backstop kills any good qualities of this shot. You should have either adjusted the focus to make it fade away a little, or better yet just walked around the stadium a little to get some better shots. In addition, if the backdrop were not there, this shot does nothing for me. There is no action, there is no subject to focus on, and there really just seems to be no thought about composition whatsoever.

B04: sterlingice, since he mentioned butterfly pictures, and the bottlebrush picture is clearly not taken at wade's house.



B04 Bottlebrush – I love this picture, it’s a picture I would take…but when I really look at it I kind of feel that something is missing…I’m not sure what though. I may come back and revise my comments on this one later today J

B04 Butterfly Pair – I like this picture, but it doesn’t pull me in as much as the other Butterfly pictures do. I think it’s because it’s not as close up, and because the flowers/colors aren’t as vibrant.

B04 Baseball – This is another shot I would take, great angle, great seats obviously J I think maybe zooming in close on one player might have been cool, but that can be hard to do at sporting events since the players aren’t really keen on posing while they are on the field…

B04 Bottlebrush The only thing that bothers me about this shot is the brick building in the background. But other than that I like the color contrast with the red bottlebrush and the green leaves

B04 Butterfly Pair Awesome, awesome shot. Great timing and excellent depth of field.

B04 Baseball is this Petco Park? I saw the Sycuan sign and figured it was in San Diego. The only thing I can say about this pic is that it made me wanna go back Love the baseball atmosphere out there.

B04 Bottlebrush - Ok, now I've seen a bottlebrush flower.

B04 Butterfly Pair - Another brilliant shot that I am jealous of!

B04 Baseball - Raise your hand if you think this is mine! I do love Petco though.

B04

Bottlebrush: Like someone else mentioned, I think having the house in the background detracts. I like how everything but the flower is out of focus, etc - but I think I'd like to see it maybe from head-on into the bush so the greenery is in the background or something like that. Technically very solid, I jsut think the brick background hurts it a bit.

Butterfly Pair: I like this one a lot. Again, fits my style of the beauty of nature in pretty tight focus. I like that you have two butterflies in different poses so you see the tops of a wing and the bottom. I think my biggest thought would be similar to b03's butterfly - the siding or whatever behind them is uninteresting, would be nice to see vegetation/color blurred behind them.

Baseball: Time for me to be harsh. This is one of a couple of pictures in this week's that I think fall completely flat. Keep in mind that my true love with photography is sports photography (although I don't get to do it that often). IMO this picture has: A) Poor Focus, B)boring/regular angle, C) A completely uninteresting pose/moment, D) uninteresting lighting. I just don't see any way in which this photo hits the mark. When you're doing sports photography, at the minimum I think there has to be an interesting action. As far as I can tell the pitcher is getting the signal from the catcher and the batter is somewhat setting up. It's just not interesting at all to me. It's not cropped in at all, which I think is also necessary - this may be a limitation of the camera, i don't know. Anyway - I won't continue to rail. I jsut think this was a failed shot that was particularly unsettling because it was combined with two pretty solid shots and really seemed like a "throwaway" addition.

SI

[Bonegavel]

Just my opinion, but the blue sky is too cheerful for a derelict factory. A darker, more ominous sky would be an improvement, and set off the colorful rusty bits of the mill in contrast.

Interesting idea. I'll give it a whirl at some point this week to see what kind of ick I can get out of the sky and see if it works. Prolly would work well in BW too.

[lordscarlet]

From a technical aspect, I actually think the image is well framed, with two fielders in different poses bookending the picture with a definite focus on the action in the middle. I also like the angle just right of center and clearly from seats behind home plate but the backstop disrupts this somewhat (as an aside, there's no way to get rid of it that I can think of). It is poorly focused because of that, as both noted, and the lighting wasn't particularly favorable at that time of day.


There's a very easy way to get rid of it -- stand up and walk around the stadium a little. :) I think any part of it being a "baseball landscape" is ruined by the netting. Even if there was action going on, this would still be a problem. Just my opinion. :)

[Antmeister]

There's a very easy way to get rid of it -- stand up and walk around the stadium a little. :) I think any part of it being a "baseball landscape" is ruined by the netting. Even if there was action going on, this would still be a problem. Just my opinion. :)


In my opinion, I actually like the netting, however, you do have a point about walking around the stadium. In fact, I think it would have been cool to actually be closer to the netting with the players in focus and the netting out of focus and possibly testing out how it looks the other way as well. It would be a unique perspective in terms of a fan.

Otherwise, I had no problem with the non-action in the shot. It just needed another perspective.

[wade moore]

Otherwise, I had no problem with the non-action in the shot. It just needed another perspective.

One of the great things about this is that one person can love a photo that another hates - it's one of the great things about art period.

[Izulde]

I'm going to have to see if I can get in on this. :D

[wade moore]

I'm going to have to see if I can get in on this. :D
The more the merrier!

[Lorena]

I'm going to have to see if I can get in on this. :D

That would be so awesome!!

[Antmeister]

I'm going to have to see if I can get in on this. :D

If can't join on this one, we have 23 more letters to go, plus I have been talking to the wife about focusing more on post processing after this, using either free or commercial software.

[Antmeister]

One of the great things about this is that one person can love a photo that another hates - it's one of the great things about art period.

Exactly. And that is why I have liked how this has gone so far. People have been pretty up front about what they think works and/or doesn't work with each snapshot.

[lordscarlet]

If can't join on this one, we have 23 more letters to go, plus I have been talking to the wife about focusing more on post processing after this, using either free or commercial software.

I have definitely thought about whether we should do a separate post-processing one. Either when this is done, or staggered, or going from the end of the alphabet backwards or something.

[wade moore]

I have definitely thought about whether we should do a separate post-processing one. Either when this is done, or staggered, or going from the end of the alphabet backwards or something.

The thought I had was possibly going back and taking one image in RAW format from each letter and having everyone do post-processing on the same image.

But I hadn't mentioned that to anyone yet.

[lordscarlet]

The thought I had was possibly going back and taking one image in RAW format from each letter and having everyone do post-processing on the same image.

But I hadn't mentioned that to anyone yet.

(For those that have RAW :) )

And there would definitely need to be exception for people that didn't get in on a particular letter and want to try it out.

[wade moore]

(For those that have RAW :) )

And there would definitely need to be exception for people that didn't get in on a particular letter and want to try it out.


Maybe I didn't explain myself well?

I meant for each letter we pick one image from the whole group and everyone works on that image. I don't think we'll get much benefit from manipulating .jpg's, the real work is in RAW which is why I made the suggestion that we only choose RAW images.

It's a disadvantage to those that don't have RAW because their images would not be picked, but unless I'm missing something digital darkroom is pretty limited for .jpg.

[lordscarlet]

Maybe I didn't explain myself well?

I meant for each letter we pick one image from the whole group and everyone works on that image. I don't think we'll get much benefit from manipulating .jpg's, the real work is in RAW which is why I made the suggestion that we only choose RAW images.

It's a disadvantage to those that don't have RAW because their images would not be picked, but unless I'm missing something digital darkroom is pretty limited for .jpg.

Ohhhhhh.. No you did not. That is an interesting thought in and of itself.

And there is the possibility that someone doesn't want to give us their RAW images.

[wade moore]

Ohhhhhh.. No you did not. That is an interesting thought in and of itself.

And there is the possibility that someone doesn't want to give us their RAW images.

Then we don't use their images...

*shrug*... no reason to make this overly complicated if we want to run with my idea.

[Antmeister]

Maybe I didn't explain myself well?

I meant for each letter we pick one image from the whole group and everyone works on that image. I don't think we'll get much benefit from manipulating .jpg's, the real work is in RAW which is why I made the suggestion that we only choose RAW images.

It's a disadvantage to those that don't have RAW because their images would not be picked, but unless I'm missing something digital darkroom is pretty limited for .jpg.

No....it is not limited for jpg. In fact, RAW support wasn't in photoshop until around Photoshop 7 or CS, I believe. There is an amazing amount of things you can do with jpg images especially if you are working in a LAB colorspace.

With that said, RAW does open up a lot more since it contains a valuable amount of information. In fact, things such as white balance aren't important when shooting since it can be adjusted in RAW (You can actually change the settings since a lot of color information is stored in the RAW). Exposure is even minimized to a certain extent. However, you still need to have a balanced image in the histogram to get good results (no over or underexposure, but it can be flat or lean more to one side of the histogram). On top of that, you can even create HDR images out of a single RAW.

It actually takes a lot more work with a jpg, bmp, tiff, and pngs since you don't have all that color info contained within the file. So depending on your picture and your goal, whether you are going for realism or something a little more artsy, you have to do much more to get there than with a RAW.

[Antmeister]

Then we don't use their images...

*shrug*... no reason to make this overly complicated if we want to run with my idea.


I like the idea on everyone using the same image. I am sure we can all come up with basic RAW images to improve as well as jpgs (for those who have cameras that don't store images in RAW).

[lordscarlet]

I like the idea on everyone using the same image. I am sure we can all come up with basic RAW images to improve as well as jpgs (for those who have cameras that don't store images in RAW).

+1

[oliegirl]

I like the idea on everyone using the same image. I am sure we can all come up with basic RAW images to improve as well as jpgs (for those who have cameras that don't store images in RAW).

I like that idea too - especially seeing after a couple weeks how people see pictures differently and get different things from them. I think it would be really cool to see how everyone "interpreted" a picture and adjusted it...could be very interesting.

Guess I'm going to have to figure out how to use Photoshop once and for all now...ugh. That software intimidates the hell out of me!

[Antmeister]

I like that idea too - especially seeing after a couple weeks how people see pictures differently and get different things from them. I think it would be really cool to see how everyone "interpreted" a picture and adjusted it...could be very interesting.

Guess I'm going to have to figure out how to use Photoshop once and for all now...ugh. That software intimidates the hell out of me!

Don't worry. When we get to that point, we will show you some of the basics and you can let your creativity take on from there. There is some more advanced stuff that most designers don't use on a regular basic, but we can definitely cover that way down the road.

I think right now we should focus on taking good solid photos first. I love post processing a lot more, but I do realize that it take much less work if you have a good shot to work with.

But you are right, I like wade's idea because we won't only get different interpretations, but we can pinpoint things that go awry and everyone will have an understanding how to avoid those pitfalls due to the fact that we are using the same images.

[wade moore]

Don't worry. When we get to that point, we will show you some of the basics and you can let your creativity take on from there. There is some more advanced stuff that most designers don't use on a regular basic, but we can definitely cover that way down the road.

I think right now we should focus on taking good solid photos first. I love post processing a lot more, but I do realize that it take much less work if you have a good shot to work with.

But you are right, I like wade's idea because we won't only get different interpretations, but we can pinpoint things that go awry and everyone will have an understanding how to avoid those pitfalls due to the fact that we are using the same images.


Exactly my thoughts. I'd learn more from seeing what someone did/didn't do with the same image than seeing a totally different image. My knowledge of post-processing digitally is VERY VERY limited. I can do the EASY stuff in picasa, but in Photoshop I don't know post-processing in it - I know regular Photoshop stuff.

Anyways. I was envisioning maybe doing this either when this is over or after it's been going for awhile... I think doing both of these at the same time may be too time consuming for some (i know it probably would be for me).

[OldGiants]

No....it is not limited for jpg. In fact, RAW support wasn't in photoshop until around Photoshop 7 or CS, I believe. There is an amazing amount of things you can do with jpg images especially if you are working in a LAB colorspace.

My camera doesn't take RAW, but my next one will. That said, I'm beginning to learn how Photoshop in LAB mode is extremely powerful for processing .jpgs. I first used LAB to improve contrast by using the L (Lighting). No matter how good a shot I have, this improves the contrast about 90% of the time. Contrast and Levels are like sledge hammers compard to this technique.

In the past few weeks, I've started to tinker with the A and the B part on a few of the 1100+ images I took while on an extended vacation in August. WOW!! Is all I can say.

I like to tell friends who can't afford Photoshop (or don't want to hack older versions) to buy Elements or use GIMP 2.0, but they don't have LAB options and now I think that is the point of Photoshop for me.

At least until Antmeister shows me more. :)

[Antmeister]

My camera doesn't take RAW, but my next one will. That said, I'm beginning to learn how Photoshop in LAB mode is extremely powerful for processing .jpgs. I first used LAB to improve contrast by using the L (Lighting). No matter how good a shot I have, this improves the contrast about 90% of the time. Contrast and Levels are like sledge hammers compard to this technique.

In the past few weeks, I've started to tinker with the A and the B part on a few of the 1100+ images I took while on an extended vacation in August. WOW!! Is all I can say.

I like to tell friends who can't afford Photoshop (or don't want to hack older versions) to buy Elements or use GIMP 2.0, but they don't have LAB options and now I think that is the point of Photoshop for me.

At least until Antmeister shows me more. :)

Believe it or not, you can access the LAB colorspace in GIMP. In is handled way differently than Photoshop and it takes longer to set up, but the results can actually look somewhat better. I am using only Photoshop CS myself and haven't bothered with the upgrades (not yet, at least). I do realize that not everyone is going to jump out and buy something that they only plan to use to enhance photographs, so GIMP and Paint.Net were going to be the programs I was going to take into consideration. Gimp is considerably in the lead, but there are some things in Paint.Net that work well too.