weekly Sheylara (DSLR Noob) 52 for 2016 - Week 19-22 added

susiejb said:
Hi there ....agree about the bokeh it leaves you wondering what's out there, I like the B&W conversion.
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Thanks, susie! Always helpful to hear different opinions! :)
 
Phew! I'm relieved I managed to get Metal done before the next theme is up. Means I'm up to date now, yay! (Probably not for long, lol.)

Out of the 3 so far, I found this the hardest probably because I think someone said somewhere there's too many choices. I photographed like 10 different things before settling for this one. :P

Wasn't sure what I was going for, with this photo. I tried different lenses, different exposures, different apertures and different angles and just picked the one I thought looked best. If anyone has any critiques, do please share how you would have done a shot like this. As always, I'm very keen to learn. :)

Week 1 - Metal


Metal by Sheylara, on Flickr
 
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I really like this, lots of lovely detail in the wings with good DOF to make them stand out from those behind and with the light source in the middle there are plenty of different levels of brightness and angles of reflection. Really effective, well done.

(It's not quite central, but that would be an easy fix.)
 
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nickbee said:
I really like this, lots of lovely detail in the wings with good DOF to make them stand out from those behind and with the light source in the middle there are plenty of different levels of brightness and angles of reflection. Really effective, well done.

(It's not quite central, but that would be an easy fix.)
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Thank you for your thoughtful comments! :) I didn't frame it central because I thought it might be boring, plus the butterflies on the right stick out more, so gave the right a bit more space. But perhaps I've given it a bit too much space.

Would it work if I just cropped the right side out so the photo doesn't have a standard aspect ratio anymore? (Crop version atached.) :p Regardless, I do quite like the centred look!
 

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Oh hey - that's a great shade. Nicely taken, you could so easily have blown the detail with the harsh lighting but it's all there. I quite like the slight off-centre position ... gives it a sense of dimension and space. I prefer the original to the tightly-cropped revision. Really good.:clap:
 
I think the crop's a little too tight as you've lost too much of the black background that made it stand out so well. I'd have just taken a slither off the right hand side and left it at that. But then this is all a matter of opinion, as you'll gather gather from Carl's completely opposite comment above. Off-centre works too but if I was going for that I'd shave a little off the left instead to make sure it's clear that the shade is deliberately off centre.

Don't worry about aspect ratios, go with what's best for your image. Even if you wanted to print them out, each different standard size has a diferent aspect ratio anyway.
 
Carl Ayling said:
Oh hey - that's a great shade. Nicely taken, you could so easily have blown the detail with the harsh lighting but it's all there. I quite like the slight off-centre position ... gives it a sense of dimension and space. I prefer the original to the tightly-cropped revision. Really good.:clap:
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Thank you for the detailed comments! :)

nickbee said:
I think the crop's a little too tight as you've lost too much of the black background that made it stand out so well. I'd have just taken a slither off the right hand side and left it at that. But then this is all a matter of opinion, as you'll gather gather from Carl's completely opposite comment above. Off-centre works too but if I was going for that I'd shave a little off the left instead to make sure it's clear that the shade is deliberately off centre.

Don't worry about aspect ratios, go with what's best for your image. Even if you wanted to print them out, each different standard size has a diferent aspect ratio anyway.
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Yes, I see what you mean about the crop, either centralise it a bit more, or left-align it more. Well, I think it's hard to figure out because not only do different people have different opinions, sometimes the artist himself/herself has different opinions about the same thing. :LOL: But thanks again for taking the time to comment!
 
Super shot Sheylara, I really like it. I think it would look good framed with a lot more black and thrown back into the photo, but as you say it's simply a matter of taste. Your thread is looking really good ....I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.
 
susiejb said:
Super shot Sheylara, I really like it. I think it would look good framed with a lot more black and thrown back into the photo, but as you say it's simply a matter of taste. Your thread is looking really good ....I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.
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Thank you for your encouraging words! :) could you please explain what you mean by "a lot more black and thrown back into the photo"? Sorry, being a noob here. :dummy1:
 
Interesting subject very well presented :thumbs:
 
Winter said:
Thank you for your encouraging words! :) could you please explain what you mean by "a lot more black and thrown back into the photo"? Sorry, being a noob here. :dummy1:
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Sorry ...it does sound a bit odd ....I was meaning something like this ...but it is all a matter of taste and your original shot is excellent :)

Tp altered by susie jb, on Flickr
 
Captive, nice image, love the broken through the wood. Makes a nice change to see.
Look forward to seeing more
 
susiejb said:
Sorry ...it does sound a bit odd ....I was meaning something like this ...but it is all a matter of taste and your original shot is excellent :)

Tp altered by susie jb, on Flickr
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Oh, yes, I see what you mean. That does work. Thanks for taking the time to do the edit! :)

HeartandSoul said:
Captive, nice image, love the broken through the wood. Makes a nice change to see.
Look forward to seeing more
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Thank you for your nice comment!
 
Captive - Lovely bokeh in that shot, love it! Only crit from me would be to even up the shot with a crop to the left - bringing that central bar to the middle. I think the colour works here, no need for any B&W in my opinion. Great start! :thumbs:
 
Old - I thought this was a great pic till I read everyone elses comments and looked closer (I am a noobie too so took on some of the advice myself)
Captive - I like the idea of this one
metal - lovely subject well taken I like your original but susiejbs framing is good and much better than the close crop
 
Metal - what an unusual lamp and you have captured it really well. When I first looked at it I thought a very close crop (so the lamp touches top and bottom) might work as an alternative. Like what you have done though and you have controlled the light really well.
 
WMD said:
Captive - Lovely bokeh in that shot, love it! Only crit from me would be to even up the shot with a crop to the left - bringing that central bar to the middle. I think the colour works here, no need for any B&W in my opinion. Great start! (y)
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Thanks for your feedback! I do agree the bars should be more centred and symmetrical!

minx said:
Old - I thought this was a great pic till I read everyone elses comments and looked closer (I am a noobie too so took on some of the advice myself)
Captive - I like the idea of this one
metal - lovely subject well taken I like your original but susiejbs framing is good and much better than the close crop
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Thanks for your comments on all my shots. :) I know what you mean about thinking something is good until you read some pros suggesting improvements. :LOL:

SteveSc said:
Metal - what an unusual lamp and you have captured it really well. When I first looked at it I thought a very close crop (so the lamp touches top and bottom) might work as an alternative. Like what you have done though and you have controlled the light really well.
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Thank you for the compliments. :) I had to climb up onto my desk, with one foot on it and another on a chest of drawers to shoot it, lol. Other than that, it was mostly shooting it with lots of different camera settings to see which looked best, so no skill involved there. :p
 
Hi, sorry bit late in getting here, interesting light shade you have done well with the harsh light too
 
alsjazzera said:
Hi, sorry bit late in getting here, interesting light shade you have done well with the harsh light too
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Lateness is never a problem for comments! ;) And thank you for the compliment!
 
Can't get the photo any sharper. Low light, no tripod. Sad. But wanting to submit something before next theme is up, so here it is. :p

I really wanted to do tilt shift for this theme but wasn't able to get to any suitable scenes all week, so decided to raid my mother-in-law's old dollhouse. She'd given away all the good stuff to her granddaughters and most of what's left behind were broken. These were the only intact pieces so I just put them together for a picture. :p Not the most inspired entry.

Week 3 - Miniature


Fallen by Sheylara, on Flickr
 
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It does work though @Winter. THe focus is obviously on the bear and to my eyes is sharp. DoF has worked well in blurring the background, but leaving it recognisable enough too. Colours are nice and bright too. If you wanted to emphasis the toy side then perhaps raising the saturation a bit would give it a more toy like appearance.
 
Hi, certainly fits the theme, though it does took like the bear is about to sacrifice the Lego girl not a bad thing in my opinion, I quite like the DoF with the blurred furniture in the BG
 
Works for me, something slighly surreal about the mix of animal and human figurines, it's like she's having some sort of odd dream.

Either that or it's the world's first minature representation of a woman performing a sex act on a bear, which frankly deserves recognition.
 
LC2 said:
It does work though @Winter. THe focus is obviously on the bear and to my eyes is sharp. DoF has worked well in blurring the background, but leaving it recognisable enough too. Colours are nice and bright too. If you wanted to emphasis the toy side then perhaps raising the saturation a bit would give it a more toy like appearance.
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I had to sharpen it in photoshop and if you look at a larger version, you can see a lot of noise. (For that reason I only uploaded a 1000px version to Flickr. :p) Thanks for your comments and noted on saturation! I increased the vibrance but didn't dare touch the saturation for fear of overdoing things. Will keep that in mind for next time, though!

alsjazzera said:
Hi, certainly fits the theme, though it does took like the bear is about to sacrifice the Lego girl not a bad thing in my opinion, I quite like the DoF with the blurred furniture in the BG
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Thanks, Allan! You're right, it does look like a sacrificial altar! I might have made the bear hold a knife if it didn't look like it was scared or shocked. :p Oh, the Lego girl is actually a Playmobil boy (or maybe girl, you can't tell with these old toy things)! Heh.
 
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nickbee said:
Works for me, something slighly surreal about the mix of animal and human figurines, it's like she's having some sort of odd dream.

Either that or it's the world's first minature representation of a woman performing a sex act on a bear, which frankly deserves recognition.
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Ahh, I'm loving all these different interpretations of my picture. :) Thanks for sharing yours!
 
Very fitting :thumbs:
well taken too.

LOL @nickbee I thought it was a human sacrifice TBH
But we'll go with your idea :D
 
Great shot and suits the theme. It might be a miniature but it looks like Goldilocks is in BIG trouble :)
 
Cobra said:
Very fitting (y)
well taken too.

LOL @nickbee I thought it was a human sacrifice TBH
But we'll go with your idea :D
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Aww, thanks! AND I didn't see what @nickbee meant about the sex act until you mentioned it again then I had another look to figure it out and... OHH. :rolleyes:

SteveSc said:
Nicely shot, liking the DOF which blurs the background nicely but leaves enough detail to see what it is.
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Thank you for saying that. :) I did want to make the background items recognisable just because I had them and wanted to use them in the shot, lol.

Virtualcolm said:
Great shot and suits the theme. It might be a miniature but it looks like Goldilocks is in BIG trouble :)
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Haha, thanks for another interpretation. (y)
 
Winter said:
Aww, thanks! AND I didn't see what @nickbee meant about the sex act until you mentioned it again then I had another look to figure it out and... OHH. :rolleyes:
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If you know of any other tones that need lowering, just let me know. (y)
 
:clap:Hi Sheylara. What a lovely fun image. It has a soft look about it which suits the nature of the subject beautifully I think. Nice props ... to be treasured.
 
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