Thoughts?

[Blindv]

I've recently started tinkering with a "Run of the Mill" Cannon XT, and wanted to get some thoughts on some of these images.

Thanks in advance for the use of your eyes.


Put To Pasture

Redness Revealed

Time Machine

[Sweetlight]

Blindv,

I’d be interested to know your experience level, be it schooling or work, just for an idea of where you are coming from.
I like the feel of your images a lot. You and I have a similar idea about the play of depth of field or use of selective e focus and that really draws me to your images, especially the train. At first glance you really question if the train is life size or a movie prop. The images have a creamy tonality that I often see produced by the Holga or Diana cameras, or maybe even a pinhole camera. I love that feel which is why I shoot my Holga pretty often. If I were working your images, in addition to the use of soft focus in selected areas, I’d like to see a vignette type darkening around the corners and edges. I tend to darken those areas of my images, a throwback from enlarger days when we would burn down those areas, drawing the viewer’s eye into the center. I also tend to add noise to my digital images replicating the film grain feel that I miss so much some times. Your images are beautiful, so smooth, slick and clean feeling but I would also like to see them roughed up a bit with some noise and black borders, maybe even simulated film edges or processing streaks. The image of the van is intriguing because it almost looks cross processed and completely leaves the style of your first two behind. Keep it up, it looks good.
On the VW try playing with the hue under the saturation dialogue box. You get some trippy colors if you tweak it enough.
Hope you don’t mind that I played with them a bit just to see where it could go.

Chris

[Sweetlight]

Just another thought.

[Blindv]

Thanks for kind words Sweet'

My experience level is likely best described as super novice. I've not really done any photography work before, nor have I taken any classes...though I have seriously considered it.

Looking back at the image of the train I do see you point, there is little to no point of reference for which one could gage the size of the train. I suppose I could have cropped the image with more of the train in frame to give the feel of a larger object. In this image I actually did use just a touch of a vignette, but I agree a more aggressive application may have been more advantageous to the overall effect. A lot of the images I take end up with a “muted” / pretty significant desaturation of the colors – there are a few images that I have played with, the van for example, where I played with the curves and saturations and it seemed to turn out well, but for the most part I tend to shy away from the use of vibrant colors, though I will say the hues you produced were pretty interesting!

Here's an image that I'm going to go back and finish up...or scrap, not sure which at this point Purity

Thanks again for your thoughts, they are very much appreciated.

[Sweetlight]

Blindv,

Just so you know the comment about not being able to tell if the shot was of a miniature or a life size was not a negative thing, that is one of the interesting aspects that I liked. That fact also added to the holgaesquee feeling.

Sounds like you may not be familiar with the holga, so maybe you should look it up. You can buy them for about 20 bucks, they shoot 120 film, are basically a toy camera made of the finest quality plastic. The lens itself is plastic as well so no one lens produces the same effect. Some are blurred and distorted in different places and they cause some great vignetting. I own 5 and the last one I bought had a damn platic lens so sharp you could not tell it was such a lens. Because of the inexpensive prices you can doctor them up as you wish. I tend to lay some heavy sand paper work around the edges of the lens which gives some nice effects. These days the Holga crowd has grown in bunches so you can buy them in all kinds of funky colors instead of the old black ones you had to get. They now have hot shoes and even adapters for putting on a 120 polaroid back which is awesome if you like making polaroid transfers. Each one also comes with it's own special little light leak somewhere on the back so most times when you see someone shooting with one it's got about 10 pounds of black photo tape on it. But still one more the last one I bought had NO light leak. Just google "holga" and you will get all kinds of boutiques that sell them with all kinds of features. Also, Yahoo has a section devoted to Holga users mixed somewhere in the photo area that you find on their mainpage under the visual arts page listings. It's a great way to get your creative juices flowing, especially if you go on and get the polaroid back and make some transfers. Shoot me an email anytime you wish if you have questions about anything. cwaltersart@yahoo.com

Link to Hoga pages on Yahoo http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=holga

One link to about 4million that offer tips, tricks and holgas for sale that have been altered in so many ways you cant count. It's fun dude!

http://www.holgamods.com/mods/mods.html

chris

[0lBaldy]

Blindv, I think your photos have a lot of potential.. have you considered a HDRI for your "Purity" or any of the others?

[Blindv]

Baldy,

I'm not familiar with HDR, rather I'm familiar with the term - not the process. I'll go some research.

Thanks!

[Janet Petty]

HDRI is infrared right?

Has anyone tried the petroleum jelly on the Holga lens? Makes some funky pictures.

Great thread. Have fun with the Rebel. I still LOVE that camera. It fits my hands, is small and light enough not to be a problem hand holding and on and on.

Keep up the good work.

Janet

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by Janet Petty

HDRI is infrared right?
Janet

high dynamic range imaging (HDRI)
Discussed here: http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/hdr-hdri-tone-mapping/

His tree looks infrared ..but.. it is in full white bloom..
I'm guessing that's why he named it "Purity,"

[Blindv]

I actually created the most of the white bloom in post, which was a bit tedious and imperfect, which is obvious when examined. If there is a way to create the same effect during the capture of the image that would be very beneficial!

[skydog]

Blindv, I've seen the train "toy effect" in the past with the use of a lensbaby. Is that what you used. I once had a link for a tutorial on this effect but now can't find it when I want it. You may have a canon XT, but you are definitly more than a novice. I like all of your shots except the tree....too much fringe white around the outside of the tree left after the masking (MO), but then again...trees like hair are hard to mask.

[Blindv]

Thanks for the reply Sky,

I agree, the tree is pretty weak and the more I think about it the more i'm considering scrapping it - or maybe shoot for a different effect.

Unfortunantly i'm currently using the kit lens that came with the camera (18-55mm) - so I'm relagated to creating most of my depth of field and selective focus in post with Photoshop. I used a layer with a gaussian blur and then used a mask with varing levels of opaicity. I also used multiple additional layers and modes to create the shading and contrast that I wanted. I'm not sure if there is actually a way to shoot this type of effect straight from the camera -- I'm obviously still learning

Thanks again!

[skydog]

I believe there is...but like you, I've got to spend more time with my camera and the basics of shooting. I spend too much time improving my photoshop and not enough time improving my shooting and learning good lighting techniques.

[TommyO]

Blindv,
Your image style is also very popular in marketing, to bring attention to the product while leaving the image visually appealing.

You seem to have worked hard on your workflow and everyone seems to like the results. I would not change much. If your images are intended for non-commercial purposes, then I agree with adding some grain or other effects here and there. If for commercial, then of course it depends on the client. But, most prefer a clean crisp look.

Good luck and keep posting !

[Blindv]

Thanks for the kind words. These images are all for nothing more then practice I suppose, but I do personally prefer the "clean" and mute look, not really sure why

At anyrate, here a few more recent shots that I’ve snagged. Thanks for your thoughts and eyes!

Illuminant

Sleeping Beauty

Death From Above

Mi Amor

-V