new website by me :)
Discussion
Just thought I'd announce that I have a new website www.stefancarlton.net and have taken to posting photos 
Some samples
let me know what you think please
Some samples
let me know what you think please
Not meaning to be awful, but they are all terrible.
The best of the bunch is the water, but even this is lifeless.
As for the dog one, I find the only way to get decent close-ups is to be at same level at subject, not just walk up to it & take photo from 4 foot above.
As mentioned by others, start messing around with shutter speeds, and try lying on floor to photograph dog (watch out for it licking the lens which mine always try to do).
The best of the bunch is the water, but even this is lifeless.
As for the dog one, I find the only way to get decent close-ups is to be at same level at subject, not just walk up to it & take photo from 4 foot above.
As mentioned by others, start messing around with shutter speeds, and try lying on floor to photograph dog (watch out for it licking the lens which mine always try to do).
taking pictures is quite a personal thing. simpo two said:
No 4 is my favourite - I see you've used quite a slow shutter speed but if you can go even slower, the water takes on quite a surreal effect. Worst one IMHO is the dog; wrong angle and poor light. All the rest quite nice, even the bizarre one that looks like you fell into a hedge!
When I have used an even slower Shutter Speed I tend to find the light seems to be too great and the picture is then too bright - how do you combat this?
docevi1 said:
No 4 is my favourite - I see you've used quite a slow shutter speed but if you can go even slower, the water takes on quite a surreal effect. Worst one IMHO is the dog; wrong angle and poor light. All the rest quite nice, even the bizarre one that looks like you fell into a hedge!
When I have used an even slower Shutter Speed I tend to find the light seems to be too great and the picture is then too bright - how do you combat this?
Use a smaller aperture (e.g., f11 instead of f8). Does your camera have a shutter speed priority mode? If so, it will work out the correct aperture for a set shutter speed.
Or if this doesn't work, you can use a neutral density filter to cut down the light by a set number of stops depending on the strength of the filter.
TT Tim said:
hobo said:
Not meaning to be awful, but they are all terrible.
Ouch! That's a bit harsh.
I might think twice about posting pics on here again if I thought that was the kind of reply I'd get.
Tim
Why ?
He asked for thoughts, to which I replied.
I do honestly think that the photos he has decided to post are poor. Having said that, if you look on his website you can see that (in my opinion) there are far better ones on it.
Don't see the point in telling people what you think they want to hear, when it isn't the truth.
Unfortunatley, As a newcomer to photography myself, my only disappointment is that I cannot offer more technical help, as I also am learning about shutter speeds, aperture, etc, etc (trial & error).
>> Edited by hobo on Tuesday 20th April 15:33
hobo said:
TT Tim said:
hobo said:
Not meaning to be awful, but they are all terrible.
Ouch! That's a bit harsh.
I might think twice about posting pics on here again if I thought that was the kind of reply I'd get.
Tim
Why ?
He asked for thoughts, to which I replied.
I do honestly think that the photos he has decided to post are poor. Having said that, if you look on his website you can see that (in my opinion) there are far better ones on it.
Don't see the point in telling people what you think they want to hear, when it isn't the truth.
Unfortunatley, As a newcomer to photography myself, my only disappointment is that I cannot offer more technical help, as I also am learning about shutter speeds, aperture, etc, etc (trial & error).
>> Edited by hobo on Tuesday 20th April 15:33
Ahh, so now we've gone from terrible to poor.
It's not so much what you say as the way in which you say it, this is an open forum with all types of people with varying degrees of sensitivity.
It's meant to be fun, your choice of words were prevocative, all IMHO of course.
Tim
>> Edited by TT Tim on Tuesday 20th April 15:52
To me, apart from the 2 close-ups of flowers/whatever, the others are basically what you would get if you gave a disposable camera to someone a who had never used a camera before.
No thought has gone into them. Just stood in front of the object and pressed button.
By comparison:
GOOD PHOTO
HIS PHOTO
And again ......
GOOD PET PHOTO
POOR PET PHOTO
>> Edited by hobo on Tuesday 20th April 16:18
No thought has gone into them. Just stood in front of the object and pressed button.
By comparison:
GOOD PHOTO
HIS PHOTO
And again ......
GOOD PET PHOTO
POOR PET PHOTO
>> Edited by hobo on Tuesday 20th April 16:18
hobo said:
No thought has gone into them. Just stood in front of the object and pressed button.
I disagree. I don't think these do look like snaps taken without any thought, and I think you're being a tad harsh on Stefan.
If you don't have any constructive critism to offer, why be so agressive?
If anyone told me that any of my photos looked "terrible" without any reasons why, I wouldn't be particularly happy. After all, most of us post examples of our pictures to learn how to improve, and not to have our ego knocked back!
btw - glad you like my Tower Bridge shot!
As I tried to say earlier, I'm a complete beginner myself & therefore can't really offer technical help, as I am going through rolls of film like I own FUJI, working things out for myself (must go digital soon).
BUT (sticking to my guns), the photo's are poor, and don't see the point of saying otherwise. If everyone said they were good then he'd keep doing as he was.
Not meaning to be argumentative, just truthful.
did think the photo was very good
BUT (sticking to my guns), the photo's are poor, and don't see the point of saying otherwise. If everyone said they were good then he'd keep doing as he was.
Not meaning to be argumentative, just truthful.
did think the photo was very good
I guess all I'm trying to say is that even if you think they're crap, there are nice ways of saying it, and not so nice ways!
I find that working out why I don't like particular photos is very useful, as it gives me ideas for what not to do, so maybe trying to be a bit more specific about what you don't like might help both you and Stefan?
I find that working out why I don't like particular photos is very useful, as it gives me ideas for what not to do, so maybe trying to be a bit more specific about what you don't like might help both you and Stefan?
Well here's my 2p
The top photo is actually not that easy to take as its very easy to get a reading off the sun and the rest of the pic is underexposed (see last pic). Although it is not always a bad photo again (see last pic)
The water pic IMHO is good although for some reason they always look better if you point the camera upstream (not sure why)
The dog... well err its a dog
Close ups of individual plants will be difficult without the right equipment.Nothing much IMHO that you can do about that except nuy it
P.S i know b all technically about taking pics except that when i want this i do that
The pics do say to me the photographer IS thinking about the subject
The top photo is actually not that easy to take as its very easy to get a reading off the sun and the rest of the pic is underexposed (see last pic). Although it is not always a bad photo again (see last pic)
The water pic IMHO is good although for some reason they always look better if you point the camera upstream
(not sure why) The dog... well err its a dog
Close ups of individual plants will be difficult without the right equipment.Nothing much IMHO that you can do about that except nuy it
P.S i know b all technically about taking pics except that when i want this i do that
The pics do say to me the photographer IS thinking about the subject
ehasler said:
No 4 is my favourite - I see you've used quite a slow shutter speed but if you can go even slower, the water takes on quite a surreal effect.
Use a smaller aperture (e.g., f11 instead of f8). Does your camera have a shutter speed priority mode? If so, it will work out the correct aperture for a set shutter speed.
Or if this doesn't work, you can use a neutral density filter to cut down the light by a set number of stops depending on the strength of the filter.
My camera is a Canon A70, I bought it as it had more manual settings that the previous Fuji A202 and was the best within the budget I had. Unfortunately it only goes up to F8 at max, but I thought the aperture adjusted the focus of the the image (by allowing more/less light in), or am I missing something.
I might look into getting some filters
Thanks for the advice The first step to better photos is to get 'photographers knee'! E.g get lower! When photographing people standing get down on one knee to take them - its all to do with the way light travels through the lens - if you take pictures from eye level, their upper bottom will appear fatter than their lower body. So get lower. With the dog one, lie down in front of him and either use a reflector, or some fill in flash - this will light up the face and give an even light - which will be much better.
Id also get some filters and a Cokin filter system - get a Poloriser for landscape shots and a 81 series Warmup filter for starters. Also, maybe a Grad Grey for darkening the sky a touch to balance out the brightness compared to the land itself (if that makes any sence?)
Shutter speed - very useful - slow shutter speed = blur (good for water etc), fast shutter speed = action frozen. Using a slower shutter speed SHOULDNT overexpose your shots unless you forget to adjust the aperture to suit. Aperture and Exposure both work together - e.g if your meter says '1 second exposure @ F11' thats the same as 2 seconds at F22 or even half a second at F8.
Try this - take your camera out in lowlight conditions with some ISO100/200 film (e.g at night). find something lit by a streetlamp. Set your SLR's ISO rating to ISO800 - take a meter reading for your chosen subject. If the reading is 1 second at F22 (on ISO800) thats 8 seconds at F22 with ISO100 film - so set your camera to bulb and time your exposure - 8 seconds (youll need a tripod and cable shutter release). Also bracket with 16 seconds and 32 seconds. You might get some cool shots - this one i particularly like (its a mates car) www.davidhambly.co.uk/mini.jpg
Another tip - if your taking a photograph with degrees of brightness - e.g a bright white swan against not-so-bright green grass, take a meter reading from the grass or another 'mid tone' (the skin on your hand can work well) rather than taking a reading from the swan itself - the brightness of the swan will fool the camera into using a shorter exposure and therefore all your shots will come out too dark - i forgot this a few weeks ago and shot a whole film at a Swannery. The only shots that came out were the ones where i bracketed (took varying exposures, just in case!) and took readings from midtones around the swan.
I hope all this makes sense - im no expert, just an amateur. With regard to your pictures - you do have some nice ones on your site, but they seem to be surrounded by not so good ones, suggesting that the good ones were successful at least partly by chance. Keep going though mate, its all a learning curve, and a fun one at that!
Dave
>> Edited by Mad Dave on Tuesday 20th April 16:46
Id also get some filters and a Cokin filter system - get a Poloriser for landscape shots and a 81 series Warmup filter for starters. Also, maybe a Grad Grey for darkening the sky a touch to balance out the brightness compared to the land itself (if that makes any sence?)
Shutter speed - very useful - slow shutter speed = blur (good for water etc), fast shutter speed = action frozen. Using a slower shutter speed SHOULDNT overexpose your shots unless you forget to adjust the aperture to suit. Aperture and Exposure both work together - e.g if your meter says '1 second exposure @ F11' thats the same as 2 seconds at F22 or even half a second at F8.
Try this - take your camera out in lowlight conditions with some ISO100/200 film (e.g at night). find something lit by a streetlamp. Set your SLR's ISO rating to ISO800 - take a meter reading for your chosen subject. If the reading is 1 second at F22 (on ISO800) thats 8 seconds at F22 with ISO100 film - so set your camera to bulb and time your exposure - 8 seconds (youll need a tripod and cable shutter release). Also bracket with 16 seconds and 32 seconds. You might get some cool shots - this one i particularly like (its a mates car) www.davidhambly.co.uk/mini.jpg
Another tip - if your taking a photograph with degrees of brightness - e.g a bright white swan against not-so-bright green grass, take a meter reading from the grass or another 'mid tone' (the skin on your hand can work well) rather than taking a reading from the swan itself - the brightness of the swan will fool the camera into using a shorter exposure and therefore all your shots will come out too dark - i forgot this a few weeks ago and shot a whole film at a Swannery. The only shots that came out were the ones where i bracketed (took varying exposures, just in case!) and took readings from midtones around the swan.
I hope all this makes sense - im no expert, just an amateur. With regard to your pictures - you do have some nice ones on your site, but they seem to be surrounded by not so good ones, suggesting that the good ones were successful at least partly by chance. Keep going though mate, its all a learning curve, and a fun one at that!
Dave
>> Edited by Mad Dave on Tuesday 20th April 16:46
dave, thanks for the ideas
May I ask which ones you actually think are better? They are probably the ones I think are "decent" as well, but don't like them myself.
Incidently, what do you think to the actual site? I coded it up by hand from scratch
I'm running a Digi-cam, so can only fiddle with certain settings, I can get:
Shutter speeds 1/2000 to 15seconds
Aperture 8.0 to 2.8 (dependent on shutter speed)
ISO Speed 50 to 400 (digitaly set)
and thats pretty much it. What could I do with this setup? Is there any other settings I should be looking at?
>> Edited by docevi1 on Tuesday 20th April 16:56
May I ask which ones you actually think are better? They are probably the ones I think are "decent" as well, but don't like them myself.
Incidently, what do you think to the actual site? I coded it up by hand from scratch
Mad Dave said:
Try this - take your camera out in lowlight conditions with some ISO100/200 film (e.g at night). find something lit by a streetlamp. Set your SLR's ISO rating to ISO800 - take a meter reading for your chosen subject. If the reading is 1 second at F22 (on ISO800) thats 8 seconds at F22 with ISO100 film - so set your camera to bulb and time your exposure - 8 seconds (youll need a tripod and cable shutter release). Also bracket with 16 seconds and 32 seconds. You might get some cool shots - this one i particularly like (its a mates car) <a href="http://www.davidhambly.co.uk/mini.jpg">www.davidhambly.co.uk/mini.jpg</a>
I'm running a Digi-cam, so can only fiddle with certain settings, I can get:
Shutter speeds 1/2000 to 15seconds
Aperture 8.0 to 2.8 (dependent on shutter speed)
ISO Speed 50 to 400 (digitaly set)
and thats pretty much it. What could I do with this setup? Is there any other settings I should be looking at?
>> Edited by docevi1 on Tuesday 20th April 16:56
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