snakecharmer

Ratings? What ratings? ( :

critiques, please.

These guys were deejaying in the fruitstand in the middle of a

marketplace. They were happy to be photographed in exchange for my

purchase of a few mangos.

Thanks. By the way, this is what happens when you get too much sand and salt around a digital point-and-shoot. (:

I agree, this would be better if it were closer. But I took it with my Canon Powershot, and this is this closest I could get without using my digital (as opposed to optical) zoom---meaning, if I had zoomed closer with this camera, the image quality would have been horrible. But I am sure that Mr. Fluffy and I will be going to the beach together again sometime soon, and I will be sure to take a real camera along next time! Thanks so much for your time in commenting.

When you say black edges, do you mean vignetting?

That's an artifact of lens focal length that occurs with some portrait and zoom lenses, and also with some inexpensive plastic cameras. It can be mimicked in Pshop.

Disregard the comment above. The same guy has commented on my photo. It appears that social skills are not his strong point.

To me, this photo is more of an abstract. It could tell a stronger story with a little more attention to the specifics of composition. I like the motion of the water.

I am thinking, though, that you really meant this to be more of an exercise in a specific technique: the dark background. Some things that you could try:

-Shooting in the dark with frontal or lateral flash (Is that what you did here?)

-Investing in a dark piece of fabric for studio work (You can get a cheap matte fabric at craft stores that, with simple and minimal Photoshop, can look as good as a real backdrop, or you can invest in the real thing.)

-Shoot in daylight in a high-contrast situation. Position your subject in sun with shadow behind. Expose for the subject. (This may or may not give you results as dramatic as what you are looking for.)

-Long exposure while light-painting the subject with a flashlight.

 

When you are working with flash with a subject that is movable, position them farther away from the background so that you do not inadvertently capture elements of the background with the flash.

 

Incidentally, you can do lots of fun stop-action using a flash in a dark setting.

Hope this helps!

 

Very nice shot. I like the sepia tones.

Nice colors, good focus.

Critiques, please.

Critiques, please.

Critiques, please.

Unfortunately, the quality is not good enough to enlarge. But at

least I was able to capture the moment. ( :

Critiques, please.

Critiques, please.

critiques, please.

Critiques, please.

Great use of a wide angle. Wonderful colors as well.

Haha! ( :

( :

I was dying my hair red and thought that it looked a bit gorey. The stuff would make excellent stage blood, although it would definitely stain clothing.

Wonderful colors and detail.

This is a nice family portrait.

The tricky thing about slide film is that it tends to be so high-contrast, so it is hard to work with on bright days. But I think you did as well as was probably possible with the exposure.

Great shot!

Sorry it has been so long since I stopped by!

It depends on the photo's intended use. I think that this would make a great, fun postcard to sell at a zoo gift shop, or homemade postcard to send to one's family when away on business or such (did you know that you can stick a stamp on the back of any regular sized photo and the post office will generally deliver it?). Enlarged, it would also make a good wall poster for a kid's room. I think that if you were going to hang this in a gallery people would probably not take it seriously due to the border and the superimposed giraffe heads. For gallery-style framed art or living room hanging I'd probably remove all the extras and put it in a simple frame with simple matting (black wooden frame with black or white matting, for example). It might even be helpful to darken the photo a touch as well, just to make it a little more ambient. Again, it all depends on the photo's intended use. It could work either way.

The colors are great. This reminds me of sitting down after a long day of hard spring cleaning, and the peaceful feeling that it gives.