three de lis

Gallery: POP PhotosPosted March 12, 201431 views3 comments

They're everywhere here, and especially revered more since Katrina.

Used Aperture on this, which I'm just learning on now. Made some adjustments, slight crop and added vignette.

Too dark?
All feedback welcome.
Thanks,
Al

Nikon D7000 w/ Nikon 35-70mm f/2.8 lens
70mm, f/2.8, 1/500s, ISO 100

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Michael Cothran on March 12, 2014 at 6:16 PM

Two issues that I'd like to point out, from my own observation -
1. The background is not supportive at all. The clutter and couple of bright areas really distract from the fence.
2. Not sure why you chose to shoot this wide open, but the two outer things being out-of-focus close the door on this image for me. Not only does their blurriness distract, but the fact that they are so bright. It appears that your camera and/or processing has clipped the highlights in a few places.
My suggestion would be to go back, rethink your methods, and reshoot. Presuming that you have a tripod, I would use it, while stopping down your aperture significantly. A darker image, with no highlight clipping, would have helped both the background and the fence. Good luck.

Registered on December 5, 2012, 31 Posts, 730 Comments

Comment posted by Preston Birdwell on March 14, 2014 at 10:51 AM

I think the general concept is interesting, but I do agree Michael's comments. With these kinds of subjects, you have to pay close attention to what's going on in the background. In this case, stopping down for decent depth of field (DOF) for the posts would have the added effect of making the background more distracting.

If you can, return to this spot and see how you can improve on this by carefully observing the effect of stopping down and making use of DOF preview. A tripod will be a huge help.

--P

Registered on November 1, 2003, 471 Posts, 5188 Comments

Comment posted by Alan LaFaver on March 24, 2014 at 10:15 AM

Thanks for the critiques. I'm pretty new at this. Been shooting for a few years, but haven't really attempted to get serious until a few months ago.
This was typical of me. Brought my camera to a parade, was walking back to the car and saw this fence. Popped a few off, just to see what it would look like wide open.
My self-eval is that I'm a typical spray-n-pray photographer. Shoot a ton and hope to get a few decent ones. I assume this is how most of us start. Some progress, some stay the same.
I'm now on the slow, long road of teaching myself to be more of a sniper. Pick out a subject with purpose and try to make a really nice image.
Someone on NPN, can't remember who, had a quote under their name on a comment. "Make a few images, well". I get that and will try in the future.

Al

Registered on February 28, 2014, 18 Posts, 147 Comments