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Author Topic: A couple of B&W shots  (Read 1725 times)

tq-g

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A couple of B&W shots
« on: May 22, 2011, 02:00:53 pm »

Hello everyone,

I'm a new member here so I suppose a short presentation might be in order.

I've been borrowing my dads ol' camera(Nikon D90 with a couple of lenses) a few times just recently. Never really tried my hands at photography before, which I find somewhat ironic since i've been doing CG for a few years now. The reason I started shooting was to get better at editing in Photoshop, maybe get a couple of pieces I could put in my portfolio or do something fun with, and above all else - summer is coming. For a long time i've been meaning to capture some of the scenes around here, because the summers can be absolutley amazing.

Of course, i'm also starting to discover that photography, in general, can be quite fun too. I'm even consdering saving some money for a decent camera. Just need to get better at operating those things first.

Anyway, thought i'd post a couple of images i've been working on. Probably not the best i've made, but possibly the hardest. I don't know if these have potential to be any good or if i'm just running into a dead end.


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tq-g

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Re: A couple of B&W shots
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2011, 10:24:45 am »

I'm thinking my efforts are perhaps better moved elswhere. I really don't like those earlier shots right now. One of the things I like about (good) B&W photo is how it displays gradations and how it can show off forms. I'm trying to replicate the effect i've seen in shots I really like. It seems though that i'm not quite able to get where I want and make the image pop. Here's my latest effort, just a pari of old sneakers...
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: A couple of B&W shots
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2011, 04:30:03 pm »

I like the shoes much better than your first two. They have nice light and modeling.

Eric
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-Eric Myrvaagnes (visit my website: http://myrvaagnes.com)

Jeremy Roussak

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Re: A couple of B&W shots
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2011, 06:15:23 pm »

I agree with Eric about the shoe shot. However, I also like the first, sepia photo. I'd like it more if you could tone down the three bright leaf clusters at the top. You could lose the one at the extreme left without any trouble by cr***ing it.

Jeremy

("crop" is considered by some to be a dirty word around here!)
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tq-g

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Re: A couple of B&W shots
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2011, 09:24:23 am »

Thanks for your comments! :)

Now that you mentioned it, I agree about the leaves in the first picture. My idea there was to have a sense of sitting in the shade under the trees and looking out at the sunny landscape. But when the clusters are that small it's just distracting. I think i'm going to revisit that place and try and get a better angle and better light. I'm also curious to know what would happen at a lower ISO and high shutter speed. I suspect I can get more depth and make all those white flowery thingies pop(which could get even nicer at earlier morning light).

Meanwhile... i've spent some time with other shots and alot of time working out a B&W toning I really like. I'm pretty happy with the results so far.
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Chairman Bill

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Re: A couple of B&W shots
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2011, 10:36:28 am »

I much prefer the second one in this set. The first does nothing for me, but the close-up of the flowers isn't too shabby. Clone out those pale splotches & it would work much better though

tq-g

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Re: A couple of B&W shots
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2011, 04:03:35 am »

Do you mean like making the bakground completely black? I tried that as well as a little cropping(having it off center without anything going on at the side made little sense). I can definitely see where you're coming from here. It does look cleaner. However, i'll have to ponder if I really like it any better. I left the splotches in the baground to hopefully add a little depth and give it some "context"(ie hinting that there are other elements to the world surrounding the flower. Anyway, here's the result of cropping and removing the splotches...
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tq-g

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Re: A couple of B&W shots
« Reply #7 on: May 27, 2011, 04:14:20 am »

Regarding the other photo I could not decide if I wanted it in black and white or color. So, I think i'll go with both.


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BobDavid

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Re: A couple of B&W shots
« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2011, 01:42:10 pm »

I agree with your decision. I like the diptych format. My only comment is that it would be cool to flip horizontally either one of the images so that you'd get a symmetry effect.
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tq-g

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Re: A couple of B&W shots
« Reply #9 on: May 28, 2011, 02:46:18 pm »

I thought about that while making tha arrangement but decided against it. Now why did I do that? I'm not sure, but maybe because I treated them as separate entities. As an arrangement though I think it would make more sense to unify them. Thanks for pointing that out! :)


Gold & Silver 2
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