A Favourite Photo (of your own) ?

Absolutely no chance of a single favourite. It's impossible to assess, so I can't be arsed to begin, but the narrowest spread at a wild guess could be 200 images, having a mind to what's possibly communicable to others (which may not be what you meant) whilst remaining personal. I'm not sure how you can judge it.

Would we be heroes to ourselves, the world, or both?
 
This photo is not any great shakes but it reminds me of my late mother. It was taken in the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen in 2008 during a cruise of the Baltic - our last holiday together - using my first DSLR (Nikon D40). Sadly, the camera has lasted far longer than mum did :(
DSC_1481.jpg
 
It is interesting question, there are lots of photos I’ve taken that I am proud of, that I and other people enjoy looking at.

But I would say I haven’t taken my actual favourite photo, yet. I keep trying.
 
I've been watching this thread for quite a while and thinking about posting, but I haven't yet as a) I couldn't think which one to choose and b) I haven't been shooting "seriously" for very long and the imposter syndrome was strong. Today though I stumbled across this photo and I immediately thought of posting it here. There's a whole jumble of thoughts going along with it: Calvin and Hobbes is my favourite comic strip, and this collection book was a present from my girlfriend, who was killed in an accident in 2010. It's also one of the first photos where I had the idea first, then set it up and got it to come out how I imagined - and I think one of the first shots I took with my favourite lens, the Fuji XF 35mm F/1.4.


Calvin & Hobbes by Kerry M, on Flickr
 
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@cuthbert,

We were all new at this at one time. I started in 1951, and I'm still learning.

Keep learning and taking photos. If you don't take photos you will never have a favorite photo. The more we use our cameras and the more we learn, the better are our chances to have "favorite photos". I would love to see some of your best, as would most photographers here. We learn from others, and remember that there are no hard rules in this. Some of the most abstract photos can be really interesting and unusual. Use the basic "Rules" that you hear as guide lines, and break them with new ideas when it seems right. Some of these crazy and off-the-wall type shots can prove very interesting. Digital Photographs are FREE, until you print them. Film photography on a tight budget cost too much for the film and then waiting for processing, so hard to learn from mistakes. We don't have this problem now. Go have fun and try things for new and unusual shots, and always work to improve for the next shot. Print the good ones and post them for us to see.


@skullfunkerry,
That's a great start for "Still Life" shooting, and I love Calvin and Hobbes cartoons too. I like it !!

Just a suggestion, something for you to try -

A higher F-Stop setting would get more of the cartoon in focus and make the shot a bit more interesting. Expect to need more light for the same photo brightness, but don't overdue either. The end result should be about the same brightness and I think it will look a bit better if you can get a little more in-focus over a larger area, but at the same brightness. A little more of the cartoon in-focus would add more interest, but don't try to get rid of all of the out of focus areas, as it adds a bit of mystery and interest to the shot. Just my opinion, and something to try. It's a suggestion that might be a slight improvement, and you may like it better, or not. I would just prefer a little more of the cartoon to be in sharp focus. We learn from our friends and our own experience. I'm trying to help, and I hope I'm a friend here.

With the back leaning cartoon page, I would use my 22 mm shift-tilt lens for this to help increase the depth of the in-focus area in the center of the page, but most don't have access to one of these. Do you?

Charley
 
CharleyL said:
@cuthbert,

We were all new at this at one time. I started in 1951, and I'm still learning.

Keep learning and taking photos. If you don't take photos you will never have a favorite photo. The more we use our cameras and the more we learn, the better are our chances to have "favorite photos". I would love to see some of your best, as would most photographers here. We learn from others, and remember that there are no hard rules in this. Some of the most abstract photos can be really interesting and unusual. Use the basic "Rules" that you hear as guide lines, and break them with new ideas when it seems right. Some of these crazy and off-the-wall type shots can prove very interesting. Digital Photographs are FREE, until you print them. Film photography on a tight budget cost too much for the film and then waiting for processing, so hard to learn from mistakes. We don't have this problem now. Go have fun and try things for new and unusual shots, and always work to improve for the next shot. Print the good ones and post them for us to see.


@skullfunkerry,
That's a great start for "Still Life" shooting, and I love Calvin and Hobbes cartoons too. I like it !!

Just a suggestion, something for you to try -

A higher F-Stop setting would get more of the cartoon in focus and make the shot a bit more interesting. Expect to need more light for the same photo brightness, but don't overdue either. The end result should be about the same brightness and I think it will look a bit better if you can get a little more in-focus over a larger area, but at the same brightness. A little more of the cartoon in-focus would add more interest, but don't try to get rid of all of the out of focus areas, as it adds a bit of mystery and interest to the shot. Just my opinion, and something to try. It's a suggestion that might be a slight improvement, and you may like it better, or not. I would just prefer a little more of the cartoon to be in sharp focus. We learn from our friends and our own experience. I'm trying to help, and I hope I'm a friend here.

With the back leaning cartoon page, I would use my 22 mm shift-tilt lens for this to help increase the depth of the in-focus area in the center of the page, but most don't have access to one of these. Do you?

Charley
Click to expand...

Thanks Charley. I did try a version at a higher aperture, but I preferred this version. I don't have a tilt-shift lens; is that one where it has bands of out-of-focus areas?
 
"Thanks Charley. I did try a version at a higher aperture, but I preferred this version. I don't have a tilt-shift lens; is that one where it has bands of out-of-focus areas?"

No. There is a special mechanical assembly between the camera and lens, permanently part of the lens. The lens itself can be moved along a short curved track to tilt it's position up or down a few degrees or right / left a few degrees, plus a rotation and lock capability for angle alignment that is not on the same X,Y axis of the camera position relative to the film or digital sensor. If the object in the shot is sloped away from the shooting plane of the camera sensor, you can shift the lens angle to match it's angle and then re-position the camera to get the image displayed in the camera correctly again. Doing this allows the focal plane of the camera to be closer in alignment to the angle of the subject as the image reaches the film or digital sensor in the camera. The focal plane of the camera then becomes tilted and you get the subject more in focus over it's length, and usually at a lower F-Stop setting (I'm having trouble with words to describe this). Maybe these two attached links will help. The first explains the benefits rather well. The second is an Amazon listing for the lens that I have. I'm certain that other lens and camera manufacturers also offer these, but this is what I have. It takes some thought about how it manages this, but it does work, and rather well. Of course, the 22 mm version is for "Still Life" type close-ups. There are other lenses sized and suited more for the way that the writer uses his tilt/shift lens outdoors on much larger subjects. This type of lens is not something that most photographers even know of, let alone have. Quite expensive, but with all adjustments centered, it makes a very good straight 22 mm lens too. I've wanted one of these lenses for years, but could never justify the expense until about a year ago.

Charley

https://www.robdeloephotography.com/Pages/Is-tilt-still-relevant

 
I don't know that I could pick a favourite image but I definitely can pick an image that was one of the most impactful for me. This is the first really successful image that I think I made that was a multiple exposure (one ICM, panning up combined with one static image). It changed how I practiced my photography going forward:

BBoyd - CAPA Fine Art Competition - The Midnight Reader.JPG
 
With a good camera that lets you have some, or all manual control, there are lots of in-camera tricks that you can do to get very different and sometimes very unusual and interesting shots. "Stacking" photos in a photo processing program expands this capability even further. You can "Create" photos now from multiple shots, far from the result that you can get with only the camera, usually because the photo is of a place, subject, or time that never existed. Even back 25 years ago when I owned a photo retouching business for other pro photographers, combining and altering shots with Photoshop 6.0, - 6.1 and 7.0 and 7.1, it took considerable manual effort sometimes to get the result that you can get now with just one or two clicks in the newer photo editing software, but there wasn't much that I couldn't do. It just took longer and more steps to get the same or similar result. I tend to do less and less editing now, preferring instead to get it as right in-camera as I possibly can, and if I do edit a photo, it's a photo that was taken by me. Then it's mostly just doing clean-up or filling margins to make the shots better centered, etc. I can remember doing some crazy things with different shots back then.

One shot that comes to mind was shooting a model of a Revel plastic car fully painted and customized, then enlarging it and adding a cutout of the owner from another shot, to stand next to his now full size car, and then replacing the background with a shot of a motel and parking lot, positioning him and the car to look like the car was in a parking spot in front of the motel with him standing next to it. If I remember correctly, I did this for him in less than an hour, including taking separate shots of both him and his model car to use in the final photo. With AI now, it's requiring so much less time to create shots like this. Don't believe anything that you see in a photo any more. If it looks "too good", it was likely created.

Another significant portion of the work back then was making photos of models look younger and more perfect than they really were for advertising. Moles, wrinkles, size changes, etc. were frequent requests, and if the shot was going to appear in a magazine, etc. I was frequently asked to add the text requested and position it as they requested too. I sold that business as the commercial photographers began doing what I had been doing for them in their own studios or with new hires that had the Photoshop experience and capabilities. I could see the end coming, but I was having some serious health issues that forced me to give up the business. I sold off the name and the contact list, plus some of the newer equipment, and then I spent time getting healthy again. Now, I'm fully retired, but have my own photo/video studio in my home and keep myself busy experimenting with light or taking portrait photos, videos, etc of my friends, family, and family friends. I'm doing less and less outside my studio now, and just enjoy the wonderful process of taking great photos and experimenting with light to get the results that I want. I'm living comfortably without the need to work for a paycheck now. It took me 83 years to get this far though.

Here is a photo that I took of a branch and cherry blossoms. It was taken in my studio on a roughly 3' square table top, with only one light to light both the front and back of the flower peddles, and yet have a black background behind the flowers. Do you know how I did this? Most well experienced photographers know how, but this question is aimed at the younger and less experienced. Tell me how you think that I did it? Maybe even try doing it yourself. It's quite a learning experience that doesn't require much more than a table and light source, a few stands, and some black felt fabric. I took some shots of this setup with a smaller point-and-shoot digital camera that I will post after a few others try this. If you have already done this type of photography, please don't ruin it for the others. Let them think about, and then try doing this. It's a great learning experience that can be scaled up to room size, so once you learn how to do this it will help with many photo shoots in the future. You can't do this with a cell phone. You will need a good camera with all of the adjustment capability. I used one of my Canon 77D cameras, but one this good isn't necessary. I used the kit 24-70 mm lens and one of my tripods. Nothing fancy here, and most digital cameras with manual controls can do this. The one light that I used was a Godox studio flash, but a speedlite would have enough power for doing this.


Charley
 

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Oh goodness me, tricky!

My favourite photo changes regularly, but one I come back to frequently is this one.

Partly because of my love of F1 and being fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to catch the turing point of the 2016 season...Lewis's engine letting go at Sepang, Malaysia. But also because this was a particularly happy time....living and working in KL and just coming to the successful end of a very challenging project.
 
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whyone said:
Oh goodness me, tricky!

My favourite photo changes regularly, but one I come back to regularly is this one.

Partly because of my love of F1 and being fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time to catch the turing point of the 2016 season...Lewis's engine letting go at Sepang, Malaysia. But also because this was a particularly happy time....living and working in KL and just coming to the successful end of a very challenging project.

View attachment 470629
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That's a cracking photo!
 
Sangoma said:
Not too hard for me.
Nothing great as a photo, but I like it, was a good friend until she died (not long after this photo) and one of my first portrait photos, from then portraits became one of my favourites.

This is a scan of a not very good (damaged and creased)

View attachment 443736
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Very poignant. Beautiful and sad at the same time.
 
RyanB said:
My favourite shot was this Banyan tree image I took very early in my digital photography journey. Nearly 10 years ago, it was the last time I had seen all the family in one place for my sister's wedding in Hawaii. When I look at it I remember my now grownup daughter is hiding behind the tree with her friend after an unsuccessful attempt at climbing it. The rest of the 20 odd family members walking behind me on the way down to the beach. It was a great day and Its a shot I really love even if it makes me a bit sad missing how close we all were before scattering to the wind around the world.

It was also the day before I decided to never be a wedding photographer as a job, I had been drafted into the role for the ceremony and reception (on the basis that everyone in the family was very impressed with my macro photography...:facepalm:) I didn't have any experience with people togging until that truly stressful day. It all ended up ok with a lot of shots I am quite proud of but never ever again, god know what I was thinking saying yes in the first place.

Shade of the Banyan Tree by Ryan Bailey, on Flickr
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Stunning shot! Colours and contrast are outstanding.
 
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