Anyone fancy giving me some pointers on my first Flickr Upload?

darragh o meara

Ok, Ive been taking pics for a few years now but have recently started to get a bit more serious about it.

So starting today I've opened a Flickr account in the hope that someone might give me a few pointers and maybe a bit of feedback on some of my pics.

My first upload is a series of 28 pics I took at the Spraoí Festival in Waterford yesterday.

http://www.flickr.com/dome_pics

A sample:


IMG_7881 by Dome Pics, on Flickr


IMG_7901 by Dome Pics, on Flickr


IMG_7758 by Dome Pics, on Flickr


foot puppets3 by Dome Pics, on Flickr


Busker by Dome Pics, on Flickr

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated

pullandbang

First things first - lose the unnecessary heavy vignetting, round corners and fake zooming - they add nothing to your pics. I'm not going through your whole set on flickr but I will give my opinion on the shots posted here.

1. This is a nice sharp shot and you've caught the character in full flow. However full flow of what? Unfortunately he is staring intently at something out of the frame so crop the wasted space to his right out of the shot to give him a bit more room to look into. A little vignetting to darken the white background behind his head would actually help here.

2. Nowhere near as good as the first one. It's not sharp and the peculiar darkening around the edges is just not right. Crop the writing out of the sign above his head.

3. Don't know what to make of this one. You subject has been relegated to a little tiny portion of the whole picture and I find my eyes looking around the fake blurring/motion effect wondering whats going on. Just doesn't work. It's also very flat with nor real blacks or highlights which are needed in a B&W photo.

4. The subject looks like a really colourful character but I've no idea what it is. There is no context for me to work out what he/she/it is doing or why they are dressed like that. The oof people in front are a real distraction and only add to the confusion.

5. The busker shot has potential (without the round corners) but you're just not quite there yet. Is the pram to the left part of the scene? If so put in all in or leave it out. To me the dog plays a bigger part in this scene than the blue thingy on the pram so move around to your right and get down low to give the dog more prominence.

Overall pay a bit more attention to your cropping. Great to see you starting out with street/people shots which are much more of a challenge than landscapes etc. Keep at it and keep posting.

darragh o meara

pullandbang wrote: »

First things first - lose the unnecessary heavy vignetting, round corners and fake zooming - they add nothing to your pics. I'm not going through your whole set on flickr but I will give my opinion on the shots posted here.

1. This is a nice sharp shot and you've caught the character in full flow. However full flow of what? Unfortunately he is staring intently at something out of the frame so crop the wasted space to his right out of the shot to give him a bit more room to look into. A little vignetting to darken the white background behind his head would actually help here.

2. Nowhere near as good as the first one. It's not sharp and the peculiar darkening around the edges is just not right. Crop the writing out of the sign above his head.

3. Don't know what to make of this one. You subject has been relegated to a little tiny portion of the whole picture and I find my eyes looking around the fake blurring/motion effect wondering whats going on. Just doesn't work. It's also very flat with nor real blacks or highlights which are needed in a B&W photo.

4. The subject looks like a really colourful character but I've no idea what it is. There is no context for me to work out what he/she/it is doing or why they are dressed like that. The oof people in front are a real distraction and only add to the confusion.

5. The busker shot has potential (without the round corners) but you're just not quite there yet. Is the pram to the left part of the scene? If so put in all in or leave it out. To me the dog plays a bigger part in this scene than the blue thingy on the pram so move around to your right and get down low to give the dog more prominence.

Overall pay a bit more attention to your cropping. Great to see you starting out with street/people shots which are much more of a challenge than landscapes etc. Keep at it and keep posting.

Cheers. I realise my editing has a long way to go yet. Many thanks for taking the time to review the pics.

AnCatDubh

don't forget pix.ie (flickr is great but pix.ie has a distinctly irish (and boardsie) flavour to it. Some awesome tweets of the day (pic of the day) to be followed. And if you've ever a problem, we have a sub forum just for pix.ie issues which is tended to by the CEO of pix.ie. :cool:

I like the pics.

Yes the processing is um., a little eccentric in places. But I love the black and whites generally. I'm less sensitive to faux vignetting although tone down a little is probably fair comment.

foot puppet shot is just too busy. My mind has to do hand stands to understand whats going on. I lose interest before I work it out.

street performer (other than the faux rounded corners ), get in there close. Street performers can be great. Throw them a few euros and solicit their permission to take a photo and get in there close and you may get fantastic really tight shots. It even looks like in this shot that you already had implicit permission to get in close. Have the chat when there. Make them relax completely. Great shots will ensue.

good to see you getting going and a great start.

well done.

amdgilmore

I'm relatively new to photography myself, and not in a position to critique, but I agree with the point about vignetting.

Everybody goes crazy with it when they first discover it (myself included), but if used too heavily it can be visually distracting. On top of that, it's sort of become a bit clichéd.

I wouldn't say never use it, but I would say use it sparingly and very subtly. Remember that it's not just a stylistic effect but a functional one too. It's usually used to focus the eye towards the centre of the shot, and the eye responds pretty well to subtle cues. A little vignetting goes a surprisingly long way.

darragh o meara

AnCatDubh wrote: »

don't forget pix.ie (flickr is great but pix.ie has a distinctly irish (and boardsie) flavour to it. Some awesome tweets of the day (pic of the day) to be followed. And if you've ever a problem, we have a sub forum just for pix.ie issues which is tended to by the CEO of pix.ie. :cool:

I like the pics.

Yes the processing is um., a little eccentric in places. But I love the black and whites generally. I'm less sensitive to faux vignetting although tone down a little is probably fair comment.

foot puppet shot is just too busy. My mind has to do hand stands to understand whats going on. I lose interest before I work it out.

street performer (other than the faux rounded corners ), get in there close. Street performers can be great. Throw them a few euros and solicit their permission to take a photo and get in there close and you may get fantastic really tight shots. It even looks like in this shot that you already had implicit permission to get in close. Have the chat when there. Make them relax completely. Great shots will ensue.

good to see you getting going and a great start.

well done.

Thank you very much. I will have a look over to pix.ie, sounds like a better alternative to flickr.

Diesel

Hi Darragh,
Almost without exception, all your pictures, including the flickr images, have your subject centre frame. Step the subject to the side. Read up on 'rule of thirds' as a very strong starting point.
Take image one above, you focused on the subject and fired the shutter.
The image info says you were using one-shot.
On a Canon this means you can half press the shutter release to focus, hold the release - move the lens to re-compose the image (in this case) to the left, to place the subject on the right looking 'into' the frame.
This 'gets it right' in camera.
Alternatively - if it's too much to learn at first - keep shooting and crop in post-processing.

Keep shooting, and welcome to photgraphy !