weekly Sharp's 52 of 2015 - Wk 16 'Experiment' added

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Hi Folks, thought I would give this a go this year, I would like an excuse to use my camera more and try some new things. I class myself as a beginner, and as such open to criticism.

Managed to burn two holes in my light tent shooting this, hope it was worth it? :p


Wk0-Patterns by paulsharp738, on Flickr
 
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Hi Paul, great start. Lovely warmth to the image and a well thought out composition
My constructive crit would be to lower the camera ever so slightly so that we could see the very top of the flame just appearing below the rim. I also share Dark Knight's view, that a dead centre pattern would have further enhanced the image. All that having been said, I think that you have got off to a great start and look forward to seeing more creative images during the year
 
Thanks all, to be honest I'd not even thought about the alignment of the pattern. Something to remember next time.
 
Nice opening image was going to say the same as whats already been said so I wont :)
Good Luck for your 2015 52 challenge.
 
Welcome aboard Paul, Really good to have you here and I hope you're going to enjoy.

This really is my sort of photo - definitely worth the sacrifice of a few bits of light tent ;)
Colour, exposure, concept are all absolutely spot on and while I agree completely with the couple of compositional tweaks re: rotating the pattern slightly and getting the tip of the flame just below the rim, this is far from being a beginner's shot and that really isn't beginner's crit either. Those are the sort of things that give a bit of finesse to a photo and take it up a notch from very good to excellent.

Well done and looking forward to seeing your week 1 photo.
 
Hiya Paul... great name by the way ;)

Lovely photo - I really like this and with Sarah on it being "my kind" of shot. I rather like the composition as is: unfussy and more of an angle might have felt a bit contrived? I like it as is.

You can take the beginner mantle from me this year... I was told off by pretty much everyone for saying I was a beginner by July :) So I guess you have a few months before that'll happen! Great job all round and looking forwardf to more of your shots for this 52... (y)
 
welcome Paul

wooo ... love that

fantastic dimension.
 
The red tones are wonderful. I might rotate it slightly more to get better symmetry than anything else. Wonder what getting closer would look like to really show the detail in the pattern :thinking:

Cheers.
 
Welcome to 2015 52s Paul. A lovely shot to start the year with - I really like the warm tones and the dof.

With over 90 starters for the year, I don’t think any of us have a chance of commenting on every entry every week, but I hope to keep popping in to each thread at least once in a while. Good luck for the rest of the year.
 
Hi Paul & a belated welcome from me :wave:

Patter....totally agree with Sarah's comments....really good shot for someone who states they're a beginner (y)

Bliss.....yum yum....good focus , like the angle & good color (y) As far as the highlights go they aren't too overpowering ...you might get away with cloning them out , alternatively , when we get a reshoot week try using a reflector or similar to shield the strawb from the direct light :)
 
Two great images to start you of, particularly like your image for Patterns. Off to a flyer, I look forward to seeing more from you.
 
Hi, you have handled the exposure quite well on pattern a difficult thing to do
bliss nice strawberry highlights have been mentioned but they are not to much of a distraction, nice and sharp shows some nice detail
 
Bliss ... nice idea for the theme, well done. But I would be tempted to do as Lynne suggests ... loosing those highlights somehow in pp.
 
Firstly, apologies to Simon for appearing to steal his idea. Hand on heart I had this idea a few days ago but wanted to try a few other things before this one. Unfortunately my other plans didnt go so well...

WK2-Fragile by paulsharp738, on Flickr
 
Hi Paul


another great idea for fragile ,again, zoomed in close on flickr shows lot's of sharp strands, lovely lighting , I like the black bg & the slanted angle (y) Only slight niggle is the couple of oo f bits...maybe a different f stop would have helped...f8-11 maybe ?
 
Thanks Lynne, I went for a somewhat shallower dof, maybe I over did it slightly? Admittedly I didnt try a smaller aperture...
 
Hi, as you say a similar idea to the other pic but I feel this one is better its a nice diagonal and some nice detail in there to
might have cloned the other stray bit top of pic out
 
alsjazzera said:
Hi, as you say a similar idea to the other pic but I feel this one is better its a nice diagonal and some nice detail in there to
might have cloned the other stray bit top of pic out
Click to expand...


Yeah, I think you're right with the stray bit, it would have looked better.
 
I like the second and third picture, I have a similar picture of a barge and converted it to B&W would be good to see how it comes out
 
Hi Paul, I prefer the first of the three shots.The setting sun with the rays of sunlight just sold the image to me. I thought you have processed the shot very well and well balance with the right amount of contrast. The pylons could be easily clone out to though to take out the slight distractions.
 
Nice work, Paul, right up my street
No2 (eerrr yes No2 being your main shot here) lovely rays radiating from the bottom of the sun, and cracking pastle gradient in the sky and you have managed to control the exposure well and not blown out the sun (please can you ask the farmer to replace the Battered gate with a nice wooden one;)).
Just wondered if you jumped over the fence if youd catch another shot with the sunset reflected in the lake.

No 1 (field scene) The branches are a bit distracting here and they are OOF, 1/30 is going to pull up and slight movement in a breeze. Nice long shadows across the field. Sort of wandering around looking for a focal point, so settling for the white farm building on the horizon... I think i would have placed that on the third, and pointed the camera a little more to the right and stood in front of those branches.

No 3 Nice shot, lovely colour in "Bob" contrasts nicely against the green bank. love the reflection in the water. Think id have waited for that person on the bridge to move off. Also the brickwork on the bridge isnt very sharp, which is down to your DOF, just wondered why you picked f8 rather than a smaller aperture?

Nice Set Paul

Hope some of my comments help
All the best
Steve
 
69Bonni said:
Nice work, Paul, right up my street
No2 (eerrr yes No2 being your main shot here) lovely rays radiating from the bottom of the sun, and cracking pastle gradient in the sky and you have managed to control the exposure well and not blown out the sun (please can you ask the farmer to replace the Battered gate with a nice wooden one;)).
Just wondered if you jumped over the fence if youd catch another shot with the sunset reflected in the lake.

No 1 (field scene) The branches are a bit distracting here and they are OOF, 1/30 is going to pull up and slight movement in a breeze. Nice long shadows across the field. Sort of wandering around looking for a focal point, so settling for the white farm building on the horizon... I think i would have placed that on the third, and pointed the camera a little more to the right and stood in front of those branches.

No 3 Nice shot, lovely colour in "Bob" contrasts nicely against the green bank. love the reflection in the water. Think id have waited for that person on the bridge to move off. Also the brickwork on the bridge isnt very sharp, which is down to your DOF, just wondered why you picked f8 rather than a smaller aperture?

Nice Set Paul

Hope some of my comments help
All the best
Steve
Click to expand...

Hi Steve, thanks for taking the time to comment in such detail, it really helps.

No2 - I hadn't thought about getting a reflection from the other side of the lake, although it is frozen at the moment, but I will definitely look into that next time i'm there.

No1 - I took quite a few shots of the field, with and without the branches in front and found them a little boring without so i opted to use this one.

No3 - I should have waited for my friend to move I guess. I wasnt expecting to like the picture so much so I didnt put a great deal of effort into the shot. As for the aperture I feel this is something I may be struggling to grasp. I understand the smaller the aperture the more is in focus but when viewing other peoples shots and some tutorials on landscapes I usually see anything from f8 to f16+ I and i guess i dont really understand what influences these choices (sacrificed for shutter speed???) . I also find myself a little afraid to go to small as from what I understand there is a point that quality is lost? On top of this it was my first trip out with new camera and lens :).
 
Hi Paul,

I really like the shot with the sun rays. I do agree with Stan about cloning out the pylons though.

I can't really give you any technical crit because I don't have enough knowledge, but one thing I would say is that the great thing about digital is that you can experiment with different camera settings and see the results pretty quickly. I just try to play around and see what happens
 
Thanks Lorraine, I did have a go in lightroom before i posted the image, I decided the leave them as when i zoomed i could tell the image was altered. Something to work on in the future.
 
I'm trying to get to grips with lightroom as well Paul. I've been looking at you tube tutorials and they're a good help, but I always seem to end up with greens that are so bright they hurt your eyes :(. I'm really struggling with the basic stuff like catalogs - it doesn't seem very intuitive to me, but I'm going to keep plodding away at it
 
Fragile - This has been nicely lit. I do like a shallow DoF but I think given a few bits of string are slight oof then I suggest either narrowing down the focus even further or maybe going slightly wider

Scenic - My favourite is #3. A nice scene with the barge is just the right spot.
 
Sharp said:
Firstly, apologies to Simon for appearing to steal his idea. Hand on heart I had this idea a few days ago but wanted to try a few other things before this one. Unfortunately my other plans didnt go so well...
Click to expand...

No need to apologies there is always going to be similar ideas in themes. I too had the same problem on other ideas not working and as pointed out its a better picture than the other one anyway (y)

Scenic pic #1 is the stand out shot for me but all 3 make a really nice set.
I'm off to find a gate for my scenic pic now.;)
 
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