Trying to grow as a photographer

I just really started getting into photography in the last year, and I am trying to get a little feedback. I have

tried the photo critique forum on here, and for whatever reason I never seem to get a response. I am wondering if

there are any other sites that do critiques that may not be as busy as this one? I realize that my photos aren't

as intriguing as the pro's on here but it's going to be hard to get to that point without some objectionable

opinions. Don't get me wrong when it comes to technical expertise this site is second to none, I just think the

critiques get overwhelmed. Thanks for your time.

 

Mike<div></div>

Mike-you have been a member for 2 years; you have all of 3 pictures submitted and you haven't rated any at all. It's no

wonder you are getting so little feedback-nobody knows you're here. You need to participate. cb

Are you referring to rating my own pictures or others. I haven't rated others because I really didn't feel qualified. As for the amount of pictures I have submitted that is more of a time issue for me. I work 14 hours a day Friday-Sunday plus an extra job 2 days during the week, and go to school Monday - Thursday. On top of that I have 3 kids ages 8, 2, and 4 mo. I will try harder to contribute more.

Hi Mike-you need to (1) submit more of your own pictures and (2) start commenting and/or rating others' pictures; no one

will know that you're here unless you do. As far as feeling qualified, just comment on the ones you like and say why you

like them (i.e. good lighting, good composition, etc); it's not all that difficult. As far is time is concerned, I'd normally tell

you that you have to find the time if you want to grow here but with everything you do, I don't know how you find the time

to take any pictures at all! Wow-you are a busy boy! (not being sarcastic here). Just do the best you can. Best regards,

cb :-)

P.S. an afterthought-you might just want to browse the pictures here and pay special attention to the ones you like and

then think about what it is that appeals to you (subject matter-colour-lighting-etc) and let those ideas sink into your brain

as they will over time and as time goes by, they may very well begin to show up in your own pictures as you will tend to

focus (pun?) on photographing those things more. This will take less of the little spare time you have .

Good luck.

Mike,

 

If you send your photographs to me directly, I will give you a critique (an honest and thorough one). I try to rate what I

believe to be quite a few photos, but there are so many I pick the ones that I feel need a critique. Therefore, I usually choose

ones that come close to being good - not the great ones nor the awful ones (my opinion, of course).

 

This may not be true, but I feel the photographers who submit the "professional" looking photographs are just looking for

praise and only complain about any criticism. If I give an honest critique to the really bad photographs people would think I

was just being mean and over critical. I wish there was a way to tell who really wanted to be helped and to learn from an

honest critique!

 

Mark

Violinist Jascha Heifitz being hailed by a man on a New York street. The man asks Heifitz, "How do you get to Carnegie

Hall?" And Heifitz replies, always "without breaking stride," "Practice!"

 

Mike, the 2 best things I can suggest is: (1) Shoot, shoot and shoot. If you want to get better you need to shoot almost

every single day. The more you shoot the better you will get.

 

(2) Show your work, show your work, and show your work. I don't mean just here or online, but to fellow photographers in

your area, see if you hang your photos in a coffee shop enter local competitions.

Ralph, I thought the story was more like :

 

"How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"

 

"Practice, practice, and practice."

 

Mike, I'm not really a portrait man but had a look at your photo.

 

Rather than repeating myself and Ralph, I suggest that you look at the quality of the light in your shot and

compare it with top rated portraits.

 

And that's just the starting point.

 

In the image below, I used some natural light bouncing of the walls of my house onto the subjects faces. You will

also notice that the background has some bright colors known as spectacular highlights.

 

Some people prefer to blur the background a tad more by using a bigger aperture. I decided to use f4 to ensure

that I got plenty of focus on both of my subjects, sacrificing better bokeh for better foreground sharpness.<div></div>

Mike, change your thinking and you will grow. Photo.net is just like any other community in your neighborhood. This is not

a panel of jury waiting to throw critiques at beginner photographers. This is a community of people with like interest

"photography" enjoying each other's talent and skills. Communication skill is probably more important than photographic

skills in a community like this.

 

You have to participate to get feedback. You have to actually create photographs before you can grow as a photographer.

We have been too brain washed by the society to sit down in a class room and absorb the information being shoved down

our throat. A lot of learning is really going out and experimenting on your own.