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first pic.. please comment :S
Topic Started: Jul 19 2009, 03:19 PM (565 Views)
meow
Alpha Newbie
Posted Image

Hi everyone.. I'm kinda new here.

I like this picture because of the 4 subjects in it. The 2 old men and their 'kids'. The title is called 'grandpa'.

I don't know what is missing in this picture. Didn't do any PP yet but the feeling is just... as if any point and shoot camera can take.

Please C&C!
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DOC
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Arrow Pictures

Hi meow,

Here is my 1 cent opinion.

If you feel that something is missing then that means you have the "eyes" to evaluate the value of your picture, which is a good sign.

The picture is very busy, a lot of distracting elements (people and background).
The viewer's attention is drawn towards the colorful puppet then towarsds the old man with a baby.

I guess you can't have much control of your composition here as it is a real life street situation.

Possible Options are:
1. Get closer to 1 subject of interest - learn to isolate to create a bigger impact
2. Find other angles to shoot from - like from the back of the puppeteer if your main subject is the grandpa with baby

Hope this helps :D
I'm also still learning. Anyway, keep on shooting.

Cheers,
Doc
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Birder
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Alpha Master Jedi Mita Memori-san ’¹‚Ì’j clkoh

Hi Meow

Like Doc said, perhaps the 'background' is distracting us viewer from the main subjects (2 old men and little kids).

1) You can learn to take a step (or 2) to right or a step to left can change your background.
Example, a step to right will have "moved" the stationary couple from your frame.

2) Hang around, to find the right moment to press the shutter.
When there is 'busy' background, it can be a good idea to hang around and take a couple of shots more, to get a shot that does not look so busy.

3) Space between your 2 main subjects group..
Maybe wait a few moment it could be the puppetier will move closer to the other grandpa?
Or like Doc said take from the puppetier's perspective (background), eliminating the space between?
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yktan9
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it's a nice shot :)

my 0.5 cent :p

Other than the right moment, you may also consider using a shallow depth of field on the subjects (may need to adjust angle slightly to place the subjects at the same distance from you).

With the picture taken the way it is, perhaps you can endeavour to post process and banish everything else to monotony..?

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meow
Alpha Newbie
Hi thanks all for the replies.

Yeah I wish that I had taken more photos of that, but as it turns out, I was on holiday and just captured whatever I liked, and only upon return from the trip I saw this and decided to work on it.

As least I guess the cropping seems to be suitable? :)

Yeah the background is the biggest flaw of this pic. But because I was quite far away (and didn't dare to go nearer because scared spoil the candidness) , don't really have the ability to play with DOF.

Regarding the PP, is B&W the rest of the picture a very common technique? IMO I had thought that it was too harsh and too 'blatant' on the subject. But I'll try it one day :)
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XkaOnslaught
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a simple way of making the picture look somewhat more interesting is to angulate the photo. Dont run things parallel to the photo frame.
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Shadow
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Yup, the background is distracting as all the above bros had mentioned.
Do post more of your holiday photos.
Oh btw, this photo taken along Rundle Mall in Adelaide?
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yktan9
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i suck at PP..

2 mins just to illustrate my point..
Posted Image
hope u don't mind me doing it on your photo.
that's sliding the saturation bar little bit only. Can play with tiny bit of blur and tiny bit of contrast also.

pp or not, i like your pic. Only the background distractions messed it up a little.
Edited by yktan9, Jul 21 2009, 10:49 PM.
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ChaoxAngel
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:@ :D :3 :) :] :x :o :z :> ;)
Indeed, the bros have said it - knocking out the colour of the background elements works, even though it's done rather commonly. :)



Conversely, you can choose to shoot with a lower shutter speed + large aperture + low sensitivity:

All these works to help separate your Subjects from Background Movements - by using a shallow depth of field (out of focus blur) - and then combine it with a slower shutter speed - hopefully, the folks in the background move a little too fast for your current shutter speed (causing motion blur)... and hopefully your subject stays still enough.

Hope these two combines to separate your subject from the background - and I think if you have just shot one photo, do hang around, and grab more shots, you never know if your background decides to become more cooporative. :)
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meow
Alpha Newbie
onslaught : what do you mean by running things parallel to the frame?

shadow : yup thats along rundle mall. the brown seats in the photo says it all :)

yktan : thanks so much for taking the effort to pp my pic, didn't mind at all! by the way was that done using masking and layers? i'm still trying to learn the ropes of PS

chaox : yeah i wished i had taken more of that scene and at different angles. turns out that i was still a noob with taking photos and stuff. had i known the potential problems that could happen, i would have done things differently. that day i was on aperture priority mode and just threw the F stop to the widest aperture. i was quite far away from the scene and didn't bother to go nearer. instead i just went full zoom from where i was so the DOF doesn't happen.

speaking of aperture priority, i am usually on aperture priority mode and just throw it to the widest. so the camera will auto calculate the shutter speed and ISO for me. i find that is the easiest way because i don't have the mind to do calculations yet. what do you bros use?
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