(no subject)

[kaberett]

crazyscot kindly passed a superfluous film SLR camera on to me. The last time I did any photography I was about 12 and using a 35mm point-and-shoot camera: I'm still a very long way from sure about what everything does (yes, I have RTFM, thanks :-p) and, of course, I don't get instant feedback on what I'm doing...

I'm well aware I've got a lot to learn but concrit is welcome.


[Turtles basking in sunlight at the edge of a pond.]


[An orange tree from below, with a single unripe orange in focus.]


[A series of gable windows and chimneys in a red-tiled rooftop, within the walls of a grey-stone castle.]


[Half a conifer in silhouette against a dim blue sky streaked with pink clouds.]


[Three bulbs of garlic, on sprouting, in the light streaming through a leaded window.]


[An artichoke gone to flower, with a bee crawling around behind it.]


[A series of red-brick gable walls, seaparted by green bushes.]


[A single red tomato in a cluster of green tomatoes is in focus; more tomato vines are visible but blurred in the background.]

Comments

[kake]

I particularly like the garlic one, with its shadows and lines and textures. I think it might have worked better without the glass thing in the top left corner; it's not clear what it is, and it doesn't seem connected to the rest of the photo. The cheese/butter/whatever in the dish to the right is good though.

I also like the one with the roofs/chimney/crenellations, though I would have been tempted to remove that small smudge in the sky — did you leave it in on purpose?

[lnr]

I particularly liked the garlic too!

[kaberett]

Hmm, that's interesting - my mother felt the glass thing was fine but the cheese/butter was a disaster! (I'm quite pleased with how much love that photo is getting, given that I was juggling walking stick and backpack while taking it, and trying to be relatively quick about it all on top of that...)

I didn't edit out the smudge because I (a) didn't notice it and (b) don't really know how - currently my image-editing skillz, such as they are, are pretty much limited to tweaking colour curves (which I did only to the tomatoes, of this set). But I shall investigate. :-)

Thanks for the comments!

[liv]

I third the garlic love!

Tip for doing "macro" style slots with an analogue camera and (I assume) no proper macro lens: use a wide aperture (that is, a low f number) and a short exposure time. I'm thinking of the thistle and the tomatoes here, for example. They'd look better if the interesting bit, the flower or the red fruit, were really really sharp, with the background actually blurry so that it looks intentional, rather than having the whole frame sort of in focus but sort of not.

I'm telling you this mainly because the thing I really miss about having a film camera is that I could directly mess around with the aperture and shutter speed and get interesting effects.

[kaberett]

No proper macro lens yet, no, but I am thinking of getting one (alas my bank balance!).

Artichoke & tomatoes were both done while I was juggling a walking stick, which does not tend to be conducive to this things, but thank you, yes :-)

(I think matters are further complicated by the fact that the roll of film was about 5 years old, but agree that focussing could be worked on.)

[askygoneonfire]

Garlic particularly good, and red sky at night jolly good to - largely because I have so much respect for the adjustments for light.

I have also come into an SLR recently, when I get round to finishing my current role of film we should compare notes. I'm finding the 'no immediate feedback' very difficult to adjust to.

[kaberett]

I think it probably helps me that I've gone from film to much-more-adjustable-film, rather than film to digital to film!

[kaberett]

(Well, I say that - my current phone does have a camera, but honestly it's so bad that the immediate feedback isn't much help!)

[askygoneonfire]

I mean 'roll' of film, not role!

I didn't think it was *so* long since film but it was a bit of a shock to arrive back there after digital-Canon-compact. Have you referred to anything in particular when beginning with the SLR, instruction-wise?

[kaberett]

Mine came with a basic instruction manual when it was passed on to me - I've got the hang of manual focus and setting it to the night programme, and intend to gradually add more controls to my repertoire. Other than that, no, not really...

[kaberett]

(For the curious, the photos are Caltech - Caltech - Framlingham - parents' home - Blickling - Blickling - Audley End - Audley End.)

[crazyscot]

The lighting on the first one doesn't work for me, but it looks like one of those difficult scenes where the contrast available in the human eye vastly outstrips that in film (or digital, for that matter, unless you have access to a shiny camera that can shoot RAW). You can overexpose, and have the bright bits flare out, or underexpose and have the dark bits turn black :-/

I love the rooftop scene, the composition is wonderful. The tight depth of field on the thistle also works very well, though it's a shame about the shadow falling on it. I've read some bloggers suggesting that floral shots can be made very interesting by doing something unusual in them - there are some very common angles for shooting flowers from, for example, so there could be some mileage to be found if you can find a different one - aiming up from ground level, for example.

[azuire]

Lovely lighting! ♥ Admiration for wee turtles expressed by all. More perpetration of photographs please.

[swaldman]

I like the sunset silhouette. It's cliched, sure, but it's well-executed and, well, pretty :-)

I agree that the garlic one is nearly there but has a compositional problem. I don't think it's the glass thing in of itself, but perhaps the difference between the glass object tightly up against the garlic and the edge of the frame on one side, and (comparatively) lots of empty space on the other side.
I'd suggest having a play with a cropping tool and seeing what you think looks nicest. Off the top of my head, maybe making it a square picture with the bottom right corner not far from the right-hand bit of garlic?

The pictures at the country house are suffering from some difficult lighting conditions, I think - I'm guessing it was overcast that day? Not much you can do about that. Maybe try making them black and white, and see what you think?
Also, when shooting negative film, it's often better to err on the side of over- rather than under-exposure. I think they *might* have been a little on the under- side.

for some of the others, my initial reaction is that there isn't always a clear subject - I think you need to get closer, or try to eliminate some of the busyness from the frame.

All the above is intended to be constructive "here's a suggestion, try playing with it next time" feedback :-) Hope it's helpful.