Getting bored - help!
Discussion
Not with photography, just the end result - my photos.
I've just been going through the photographs that I took at the Castle Coombe Rallyday on Saturday. Unfortunately I think they're boring. I took 428 photographs during the day and having gone through them, I've pulled out 190 as being acceptable - I wouldn't be ashamed to put my name to them. But not one of them jumps out at me and makes me want to post it to show off.
Does anyone else find themselves feeling like this sometimes? Has anyone got any suggestions as to how to get some excitement into my photographs?
The ironic thing is that there was a photography company there who were selling prints. I remember thinking to myself that they were just playing safe and taking photographs of every car in the simplest way they could to make sure they maximised the number of saleable shots. Every photograph was exactly the same, just with a different car. Now having looked through mine I could accuse myself of exactly the same. :(
I've just been going through the photographs that I took at the Castle Coombe Rallyday on Saturday. Unfortunately I think they're boring. I took 428 photographs during the day and having gone through them, I've pulled out 190 as being acceptable - I wouldn't be ashamed to put my name to them. But not one of them jumps out at me and makes me want to post it to show off.
Does anyone else find themselves feeling like this sometimes? Has anyone got any suggestions as to how to get some excitement into my photographs?
The ironic thing is that there was a photography company there who were selling prints. I remember thinking to myself that they were just playing safe and taking photographs of every car in the simplest way they could to make sure they maximised the number of saleable shots. Every photograph was exactly the same, just with a different car. Now having looked through mine I could accuse myself of exactly the same. :(
I do keep the rest tho. I have about 5000 on an external HDD. I wouldn't beat yourself up... it's tricky getting different views on a track as there are limited places to get shots.
I've done 30 or 40 shoots at track days (going back to 2000) and if you look at mine, a lot of which I'll disown now as my gear was crap (honest) OK and I was pretty crap too - you'll find dozens from the same corner. (I was after all trying to drive on the same day - and people just asked for 'in focus' pics - not art).
Over the years I got into more quirky shots - mostly of people or people with their cars. These seem to go down better than 'another car on the same corner'
pics on www.SadGit.net
Steve
I've done 30 or 40 shoots at track days (going back to 2000) and if you look at mine, a lot of which I'll disown now as my gear was crap (honest) OK and I was pretty crap too - you'll find dozens from the same corner. (I was after all trying to drive on the same day - and people just asked for 'in focus' pics - not art).
Over the years I got into more quirky shots - mostly of people or people with their cars. These seem to go down better than 'another car on the same corner'
pics on www.SadGit.net
Steve
Dave,
If I got 10% that I liked I'd be a happy man. Unfortunately, there are about 50% that are in focus, all right composure (with a bit of judicious cropping where necessary) and look okay, but there are none that I really like. Ho hum.
Steve,
Thanks - it's nice to know that the masters of the art suffer similar sometimes.
Alas, I'm even worse at taking photographs of people than I am of cars - I seem to have a knack for making the prettiest people look awful.
I think I shall just have to try to attend quieter events so that I can walk around more and not have to try shooting over, under or through hundreds of other spectators.
I've uploaded those photos that I considered reasonable for use elsewhere - they can also serve to illustrate the problem. Castle Coombe Rallyday
Edited to add: I shied away from posting a link to this earlier as I don't want this to seem like an attention seeking post wanting everyone to say "Oh, they're not that bad" or any of that rubbish. I still don't want that - but thought that any critique or suggestions from you chaps will be harder without seeing what I'm on about.
>> Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 15th August 20:31
If I got 10% that I liked I'd be a happy man. Unfortunately, there are about 50% that are in focus, all right composure (with a bit of judicious cropping where necessary) and look okay, but there are none that I really like. Ho hum.
Steve,
Thanks - it's nice to know that the masters of the art suffer similar sometimes.
Alas, I'm even worse at taking photographs of people than I am of cars - I seem to have a knack for making the prettiest people look awful. I think I shall just have to try to attend quieter events so that I can walk around more and not have to try shooting over, under or through hundreds of other spectators.
I've uploaded those photos that I considered reasonable for use elsewhere - they can also serve to illustrate the problem. Castle Coombe Rallyday
Edited to add: I shied away from posting a link to this earlier as I don't want this to seem like an attention seeking post wanting everyone to say "Oh, they're not that bad" or any of that rubbish. I still don't want that - but thought that any critique or suggestions from you chaps will be harder without seeing what I'm on about.
>> Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 15th August 20:31
LexSport said:
Alas, I'm even worse at taking photographs of people than I am of cars - I seem to have a knack for making the prettiest people look awful.
Mrs LongQ accuses me of the same trait re people. She is probably right. She poses everyone to death for snapshots. I try to take natural, unobserved photographer shots if possible. Very few are interesting, even cropped! Ho hum.
Gargoyles thread anyone?
>> Edited by LongQ on Monday 15th August 20:53
Just had a look, and I think you just need to spend more time in the pit lane - mix and match angles/heights, DOF a bit...?
It really depends who is going to look at the site and why. I did a lot of track days so people would see me there and just e mail me asking if I got photos of them... this allowed me to just pi55 about and show things that others were ignoring (I think I went a bit too far on this day, but you know what I mean):
www.stevecarter.com/rock3/rockingham.htm
All IM Very HO of course.
edited to add - what a fine R500 that was
>> Edited by GetCarter on Monday 15th August 21:07
It really depends who is going to look at the site and why. I did a lot of track days so people would see me there and just e mail me asking if I got photos of them... this allowed me to just pi55 about and show things that others were ignoring (I think I went a bit too far on this day, but you know what I mean):
www.stevecarter.com/rock3/rockingham.htm
All IM Very HO of course.
edited to add - what a fine R500 that was
>> Edited by GetCarter on Monday 15th August 21:07
when i used to take trackday pics i found that most people wanted the conventional cornering shot - most of the time if i took a photo I thought was "nice" or different, people didn't like it.
with regards to % of good photos, I think you are being optimistic. At a wedding (loads of good photo oportunities) I normally take about 700 photos. Out of this, there is usually about 20 that I like quite a lot, and if I get 3 super photos I am pretty happy - 1 or 2 is about normal. so that's a 0.5% success rate. If you are looking for 50% you will alwyas be disappointed.
with regards to % of good photos, I think you are being optimistic. At a wedding (loads of good photo oportunities) I normally take about 700 photos. Out of this, there is usually about 20 that I like quite a lot, and if I get 3 super photos I am pretty happy - 1 or 2 is about normal. so that's a 0.5% success rate. If you are looking for 50% you will alwyas be disappointed.
Thanks everyone. Some interesting comments that I need to have a think about.
I'm only taking the photographs for my own amusement, so I'm not worried about other people not liking them really, I just want to get a few that I can look at and feel proud to have taken. I'm certainly not looking for 50% like that - I was just saying that 50% were passable, but 0% stood out in the way I'd like a few to do.
Thanks again for all the hints. I'll keep plodding away at it and try some different ideas.
I'm only taking the photographs for my own amusement, so I'm not worried about other people not liking them really, I just want to get a few that I can look at and feel proud to have taken. I'm certainly not looking for 50% like that - I was just saying that 50% were passable, but 0% stood out in the way I'd like a few to do.
Thanks again for all the hints. I'll keep plodding away at it and try some different ideas.
Well, I know it's not what you wanted to hear but nevertheless, they aren't that bad.
As far as track day shots go, they are on a par with the vast majority you see. As such, the only way it will be more interesting for you is if as GetCarter says, you start to mix things up a bit.
Did you take any pics of marshalls or spectators? Did you have access to the pit lane or paddock? even a wander around a car park might get you something interesting to snap at.
Look at Matt Watkinson's photos of LeMans, he really mixes it up, if that's too much for you check out Trackdemon's goodwood pics, most of them are great, thanks to both good shots and some nice processing.
I personally find processing to be the key. Images out of my D70 are often under exposed and a bit dull. Cranking up the contrast a bit and messing around with curves always has a massive improvement for me, often trasnforming an image completely to the point I no longer want to bin it.
I would echo what others have said about success rate. This weekend I shot over 900 images, deleted 600 in the camera, ended up with 100 that were ok. Bit of post processing work in PS and I'm happy with a lot of them. But that's an incredibly high hit rate for me, I'm normally about 5% ok, less than 1% I love.
As far as track day shots go, they are on a par with the vast majority you see. As such, the only way it will be more interesting for you is if as GetCarter says, you start to mix things up a bit.
Did you take any pics of marshalls or spectators? Did you have access to the pit lane or paddock? even a wander around a car park might get you something interesting to snap at.
Look at Matt Watkinson's photos of LeMans, he really mixes it up, if that's too much for you check out Trackdemon's goodwood pics, most of them are great, thanks to both good shots and some nice processing.
I personally find processing to be the key. Images out of my D70 are often under exposed and a bit dull. Cranking up the contrast a bit and messing around with curves always has a massive improvement for me, often trasnforming an image completely to the point I no longer want to bin it.
I would echo what others have said about success rate. This weekend I shot over 900 images, deleted 600 in the camera, ended up with 100 that were ok. Bit of post processing work in PS and I'm happy with a lot of them. But that's an incredibly high hit rate for me, I'm normally about 5% ok, less than 1% I love.
I think a lot of us fall into this. First of all we concentrate on getting focus and exposure right and once we can do that relatively well you start thinking the shots are boring because they lack a certain something, lighting, angle, DOF, action - don't know what it's just something.
What I have done to try and break out of this is try something different. Don't worry about getting a single shot right, but think about the images you really like and try to apply a similar interpretation for yourself. For instance Mrs CVP doesn't try and capture a whole building now but instead selects certian details of the building either shapes, textures, reflections etc that reind her of the overall building.
So if you're thinking trackdays, how about a whole session trying a panning technique? You might not get one shot you're really happy with from the sesion but it gives your creative juices something new to have a go at.
Also remember there are some very talented photographers on PH, overall the images displayed here are of a really high standard. Compared to some of those our images may look a little boring, but once you see your images against those taken by your friends and relatives you realise that actually they're really pretty good.
Oh, and 1% as a hit ratio for a cracking image - I'd be happy with that. Sometimes everything comes together and I'll have a session where I'm just on fire, and then I'll have a really fallow period. For instance last weekend I had a heron facing me, wings partially outstretched with the bird grooming. I saw it and thought it looked almost pterodactyl like. I must have taken 20 - 30 or so images before the bird bogged off. End result - they are all total pants compared to what I thought I was capturing. Well, at least digital is cheap on the processing
Chris
What I have done to try and break out of this is try something different. Don't worry about getting a single shot right, but think about the images you really like and try to apply a similar interpretation for yourself. For instance Mrs CVP doesn't try and capture a whole building now but instead selects certian details of the building either shapes, textures, reflections etc that reind her of the overall building.
So if you're thinking trackdays, how about a whole session trying a panning technique? You might not get one shot you're really happy with from the sesion but it gives your creative juices something new to have a go at.
Also remember there are some very talented photographers on PH, overall the images displayed here are of a really high standard. Compared to some of those our images may look a little boring, but once you see your images against those taken by your friends and relatives you realise that actually they're really pretty good.
Oh, and 1% as a hit ratio for a cracking image - I'd be happy with that. Sometimes everything comes together and I'll have a session where I'm just on fire, and then I'll have a really fallow period. For instance last weekend I had a heron facing me, wings partially outstretched with the bird grooming. I saw it and thought it looked almost pterodactyl like. I must have taken 20 - 30 or so images before the bird bogged off. End result - they are all total pants compared to what I thought I was capturing. Well, at least digital is cheap on the processing
Chris
Compare photography with golf, people spend days even months waiting for the perfect stroke or fishing with anglers waiting for hours without even a bite.For me the fun in photography is catching that one moment when everything comes right and striving for that one moment to come right more often.
Think about the last time you watched football on telly and the tens of photographers at each match snapping all game with their thousands of pounds of kit, how many pictures actually hit the papers?
Don't give up, keep snapping and wait for your moment.
Think about the last time you watched football on telly and the tens of photographers at each match snapping all game with their thousands of pounds of kit, how many pictures actually hit the papers?
Don't give up, keep snapping and wait for your moment.
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