The Photo Snob Thread

Drew. said:
Mmm, shocking.

Flickr sucks. It's good for amateur porn and uploading photos for free, but actual photo networking passed that, to me, is quite dismal.
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On a whole I'd say the latter is true. However, if you spend a bit of a time seeking out the good stuff you can make some good contacts. I have some contacts that do amazing stuff and it's a good source of ideas and inspiration. A good way is to go through your contacts favourites and find other peoples streams and repeat that process. Good photographers like good photos.
 
A little off topic:

I'm selling my Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 to buy a wider fisheye. It's an amazing lens and I really don't want to see it go, but I either need a wider fisheye to get true wide-angle-ness on the 1.3 crop, or a full-frame body to make maximum use of the 15mm focal length. I don't have the money for a 1DsMkIII unfortunately (nor does it shoot 10 frames per second as per my current body...;)), and I don't want to have to buy a new underwater housing, so it's the lens that's going to have to change.

It's just over 12 months old, hasn't a single mark, bump, scratch or defect, is optically perfect, very contrasty and very sharp at all apertures (yep, even f/2.8), and i'm asking $800.
 
One from today, destroy it :)
 

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I'm not really an authority on sports photography (or any other type for that matter!) so I'll only make one general comment that I think it's a pretty good thing to consider when composing any shot. That is, when the subject has (and how best to word this) directionality - whether it be their movement or the way they are looking (human, animal) or even the way an inanimate object is facing (a car or building) it needs to be towards the unused space in the composition. In this case, we know he's riding right to left and so you tend to look at it that way and hence that big patch behind him is dead. As it is we follow him to the left and hit the edge of the frame abruptly. We want to see where the subject is looking/going etc.

Obviously tough when capturing fast moving things but at the end of the day will make it a good shot or a bad shot.
 
tu plang said:
I'm not really an authority on sports photography (or any other type for that matter!) so I'll only make one general comment that I think it's a pretty good thing to consider when composing any shot. That is, when the subject has (and how best to word this) directionality - whether it be their movement or the way they are looking (human, animal) or even the way an inanimate object is facing (a car or building) it needs to be towards the unused space in the composition. In this case, we know he's riding right to left and so you tend to look at it that way and hence that big patch behind him is dead. As it is we follow him to the left and hit the edge of the frame abruptly. We want to see where the subject is looking/going etc.

Obviously tough when capturing fast moving things but at the end of the day will make it a good shot or a bad shot.
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Completely agree. There are of course exceptions to the rule (check out a lot of Oliver's shots...he seems to love breaking that rule and does it quite well), but there are many times when the rule should be followed - for example the shot above. The dead space behind the rider isn't that exciting, and neither is the fact you can't see his face. Keep working on it dude.
 
I have no idea about sports photography either, but I did take the camera out riding the other day to try. C&C?
Was pretty happy with this one, except for the tree in the centre of frame blocking the front of the bike which was a bummer. I thought I would pre-focus on the middle of the trail and stop the lens down a bit to increase the DOF to be at least as wide as the trail to get the rider completely in focus. I think that approach worked and allowed me to concentrate on panning.
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f4, 1/125, ISO100

Also took this shot, but wasn't happy with it as I think there's too much variation between shadows and highlights, just seems too busy, too much detail in the background, rocks in foreground a bit blown out?
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Gluey_trails said:
Can I get some thoughts on these, please?
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To me, that first one is just a dude riding on a rock. It has no feeling of action or anything to it. Doesn't really show or portray anything, which is kind of what downhill photos need. And it's sometimes hella hard. And the second one I don't really think looks very good at all either... and I'm especially confused when I compare them to the handful of photos I just looked at on the website in your signature, that are actually awesome? and remembering some of what you've posted in the past??

And guys I'm glad I'm not the only one that's noticed some shots in Flickr get ridiculous amounts of comments and favorites when their sometimes just a nothing of a photo, I thought I must just of been ignorant to what I was looking at :eek: I've been pretty tempted to do some networking on Flickr to find some actual good people to browse through, but it's almost kind of hard to know where to start :confused:

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Devo about the helmet!
 
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When I'm bored I trawl through other people's favourites. It's a good place to start because once you've found a few people who take good photos, their favourites are usually as good or better. It's a pretty sure fire way of seeing the best stuff around. Add people as contacts then you'll see when they post new stuff too. Favouriting and commenting will generally get you the same in return, which is more to say if you expect feedback then you need to give some too, not to suggest going and posting bulk repetitive comments seeking them in return... that's the other blight on flickr, sh*tty generic comments on crap photos.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjamin-h/favorites/
 
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Alec McJo said:
Devo about the helmet!
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I'm not saying I could do better, but from what I'm seeing, this photo could be improved. As far as composition goes, this is pretty good however the lighting could be better. With a darker backgorund, slightly darker foreground and flash aimed more upwards to wards the rider, this pic would be awesome. Withought knowing what setting you are using, what I would do if I took a photo like that, I would reduce the flash power just sligtly or move it further away so it still freezes the rider, but isn't blindingly bright. I would also stop down my aperture a bit. Keep your shutter speed up to, again, freeze the rider, but with a smaller aperture, you can darken the background, get better colours and isolate the rider better.

Again, I don't have a flash to take photos like that, but if that's the result I got, that's what I would be trying. Maybe Tristan or someone else with more experience could help you out better. They may also say that my suggestions are wrong.
 
Alec McJo said:
Devo about the helmet!
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Feel like there is way to much ground on the bottom, its really distracting!

Can't help but notice many bike shots, which is really all i've shot in the past few months, so now seems like a nice time to drop in a couple :)

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CraigS said:
Sam91 said:
Cheers Sam, Yeah it's in PS. Using layer masks etc for the first time ever. I've got so much to learn :eek:

Love the smoke shots, 2&3 are sweet. Can I ask what settings you used? I actually tried the same shots last night myself and after looking at Tristan's shot on his website, I've binned mine. I suck haha
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There is so much you can do with layers and can many of the fundamentals can be applied to so many areas of photoography :D

Cheers mate, yeh sure thing, I was running my flash at half power but zoomed right out at 28mm and was shooting at 50mm, 1/200th, f7.1, iso100 :)

Karnige182 said:
Feel like there is way to much ground on the bottom, its really distracting!
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I'm sorry alec but I have to agree, I feel there is too much space at the bottom and needs more seperation from the background as the lighting seems a little too flat..
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Thanks Tu Plang and Tristan for the critique, hopefully going to get some more dh shooting in this week so I'll be sure to keep your advice in mind. :)
 
also For Sale: Canon 1dmk2 2 batteries charger leads software boxed, 70-200mm f4 lens hood carry bag and box protection filter and polarizing filter , 50mm 1.8, 15mm 2.8 boxed, 300mm 2.8 (SHARPEST LENS I HAVE EVER USED NON IS) carry case, 1.4xmkII converter, Aquatech dv-4 full controls on housing and backplate, pistol grip, 70-200 port and fisheye port and lowpro that i keep the housing in. inbox me if interested in anything
 
Hi all,

I've got a fractured elbow, so I'll keep this brief...

I'm about to purchase a Nikon D7000 body from citiwide/dwi/eglobal or similar.

Now, I'm looking at lenses. Would the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 be a good starting point for a relative beginner? I want to shoot sharp portraits and some nice bokeh shots. Would this lens still allow me to compose decent landscapes and architectural shots aswell?

Should I also aim to pick up a uv/polarising filter aswell, just for general usage?

Thanks,

Harry.
 
Nice work Sam. Just curious though, did you auto focus or manual focus. Number two looks like the focus is on the water, not the rocks which would make this a killer shot. Love the colours and the contrast. Just some food for thought, I always manual focus using the live view at 10X for landscapes to get the focal point perfect. Then again it might just be my eyes:eek:
 
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