PHOTOS PLEASE

[Yeahso]

Couple of personal shots from a recent visit to a derelict manor house near to my home.

[seremtan]

how did you make the first shot? (i.e. camera settings, post-processing, etc) good stuff

[Yeahso]

Here's the exif:

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 50D
Image Date: 2010:04:07 13:53:29
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 10.0mm
CCD Width: 2.89mm
Exposure Time: 0.067 s (1/15)
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO equiv: 500
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual

Processing wise, it was nothing more than some blend modes and layer adjustments. I mainly just work with contrast.

[YourGrandpa]

You are really fascinated by people in uniform. You seem to miss being enlisted. Why'd you get out?

You missed the part where I'm their photographer and whereever they go, I go, and take pictures of them etc. duh

I did miss that, duh.

[YourGrandpa]

You are really fascinated by guns and shootin things. You seem to want to enlist. Why don't you sign up?

I don't respond well to authority.

[seremtan]

Here's the exif:

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 50D
Image Date: 2010:04:07 13:53:29
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 10.0mm
CCD Width: 2.89mm
Exposure Time: 0.067 s (1/15)
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO equiv: 500
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual

Processing wise, it was nothing more than some blend modes and layer adjustments. I mainly just work with contrast.

do you use high pass filters/hard light on your layers? where did the green come from?

[Doombrain]

looks like channel mixer.

[Yeahso]

Here's the exif:

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 50D
Image Date: 2010:04:07 13:53:29
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 10.0mm
CCD Width: 2.89mm
Exposure Time: 0.067 s (1/15)
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO equiv: 500
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual

Processing wise, it was nothing more than some blend modes and layer adjustments. I mainly just work with contrast.

do you use high pass filters/hard light on your layers? where did the green come from?

I don't particularly use any one kind of layer or blend mode, every image needs something different, plus since this is my living, and without wanting to sound like too much of a dick, I don't want to give too much of my style away, since it's not something I copied or learnt from anyone else. But most, if not all of my work comes from blend modes, adjustment layers, and the channel mixer. I don't use any of the photoshop filters, they all produce a bit of an amateur result, as do programs like photomatix et al. Any effect can be achieved directly in PS using adjustments and blending.

[Yeahso]

This is from an abandoned quarry a shot distance to where I live. Stank of gas, so I didn't stay too long.

er, and ignore my last comment, I just realised the very start of this images processing began in photomatix haha

[Captain]

You are really fascinated by guns and shootin things. You seem to want to enlist. Why don't you sign up?

I don't respond well to authority.

Spoken like a true mercenary.

[Giraffe }{unter]

Oh, here's ahuge gallery of my Urban exploration stuff if anyone is interested: http://www.john-godwin.co.uk/urbex

Also, I have a blog with more work on http://www.john-godwin.co.uk/blog

Your images are insane! I've been enjoying your urbex and asylum gallery, awesome stuff.

Side note, what are you using for your blog and gallery the photo flow in your blog is what I have been trying to achieve.

[seremtan]

his is from an abandoned quarry a shot distance to where I live. Stank of gas, so I didn't stay too long.

er, and ignore my last comment, I just realised the very start of this images processing began in photomatix haha

yeahhhhh i thought so at least on this pic, which is awesome

i've played around with photomatix but kinda gone off the HDR look

[Yeahso]

Thanks GH, for the gallery I used soem crappy old gallery generator called "Extreme Thumbnail Generator". You can get it for a 20 day evaluation.

For the blog, I *think* the plugin is called "lightbox". I'm pretty sure that's it.

Yeah, seremtan, photomatix tends to take the fun out of processing and just fphotography in general for me. It's too hit and miss, and I often found myself just shooting randomly to see if it would look good in HDR.

Now everyone does it, and the look has suffered as a result. Still, properly done HDR is killer.

[seremtan]

btw Yeahso can i just mention you misspelt 'Categories' on your blog right-hand index

i liked this:

Anyway, what I ultimately took away from the photoshoot, aside from the title of this blog post, is that light is king. Anyone with opposable thumbs can learn about composition, it’s the most overrated element of photography, and in my opinion, the most easily mastered. Artificial light is something one never masters though. It’s something you develop, something you refine. There’s only so much you can do with composition. At the end of the day, there’s only a small place for the subject to go, and it has to go somewhere inside the shot. But the way you can light something, and the way you can bend and manipulate the shadows and the highlights is limitless.

i think you're right about composition. i'm a total numpty, but even i rarely crop my own images to improve the comp. it's usually ok. but lighting on the other hand...

[Yeahso]

Fucking hell, you're right; I didn't even see.

How odd, I think the misspelling is the fault of the person who coded the theme I used for the blog; I can't even find the option to change it.

Bollocks.

[Yeahso]

Oh, no wait. I found it, and I just realised it was my own misspelling. haha what a prick.

Thanks for pointing that out matey.

[tnf]

Yeah, seremtan, photomatix tends to take the fun out of processing and just fphotography in general for me. It's too hit and miss, and I often found myself just shooting randomly to see if it would look good in HDR.

Now everyone does it, and the look has suffered as a result. Still, properly done HDR is killer.

For me, photomatix is just a starting point - I might make 3 or 4 HDR files out of the same source images, each with a different particular aspect I might want in the final image. Everything gets layered and then masked in with CS4, and I follow that up with several adjustment layers (high pass with soft light or vivid light often), curves, dodging here burning there, etc...

What is killing HDR is the people who just take their bracketed exposures, run them through photomatix with the strongest settings to get the most ugly result, and then post the picture as if its something to be proud of. It's like people who got carried away with some annoying HTML tags when they first learned to use them and then threw a blink tag onto every single line of their website. I'm not doing nearly as much HDR anymore with the other stuff I've got going on.

[Yeahso]

That wasn't directed at you, tnf, just incase it seemed that way, though I do think that some of your HDR pictures could benefit from being toned down a little. There's a fine line between a heavily manipulated image and a harsh image. The picture of the cathedral, for instance, does little for me, and I can't think of a way it can be improved because there is just way too much going on in the shot. I understand that it was a test image, so obviously not something you consider your final work, but I think that ultimately, it's the kind of shot that I'm talking about.

I'd personally love to see less detail in a shot like that, maybe in monochrome, with plenty of shadows and hard light. Just me though.

Oh, perfect time to pimp my latest blog update regarding feedback and criticism!

http://john-godwin.co.uk/blog/taking-criticism/

[seremtan]

^ nice blog post. the reason you don't get much criticism on here is because you're obviously a 10x (or more) better photographer than most peeps who've posted ITT. i imagine this is the case in a lot of places outside of serious hardcore photography forums (do they exist? i'd have thought they'd be too worried about their IP to post anything nice)

[tnf]

That flickr award stuff on the blog is funny - those are the exact thoughts I've had when seeing my images get all these badges and awards and whatnot. Now I only post my images in a few small groups with people I know and whose feedback I might actually be interested in.

The term "great capture" is so fucking common on flickr and it is sad to see how desperate everyone is for praise in their commenting on everyone's horrid, godawful shots of flowers, their dog, whatever.

Regarding HDR, I do a lot less of it now - I like it, but I have noticed that as I've progressed as a photographer I am much more interested in creating interesting composition in a shot - framing things well, simple and clean lines in a shot, whatever it might be, as opposed to looking for things that I think would look good in HDR.

Now that I am doing a lot more portrait shooting, HDR has become a very small part of my work. I am still getting some shots of the area done in HDR for a project that someone had been interested in me doing for them awhile back but for the most part HDR is just something done as a distraction from time to time.

Yeahso - Do you carry a camera around with you everywhere you go? Just curious if all of your shots are the result of a predetermined shoot or if some of them are just things you notice while out and about and grab your camera to shoot.

[Yeahso]

Everything is predetermined for me; I don't have the kind of passion for photography that makes a man carry a heavy camera around with him everywhere.

Actually, aside from that, I'm a boring bastard and never really go anywhere interesting enough to benefit from carrying a camera.

I never take a shot unless I've planned it. I like it that way, because I know that nothing I shoot is chance or luck.

I generally research all of my shots heavily. For instance, I am travelling to somewhere in London tomorrow to sneak into a Victorian waterworks to get some shots of the interior, then on Thursday I'm going back to the manor house posted above to improve on some shots I took before that I missed the first time. Then on Thursday evening I'm shooting a promo shot for a DJ (but that's paid), and then on Friday I'm back out again for some more personal work (always make sure you shoot at least twice as much personal work as paid work if you can afford the time). I can't say anymore than that regarding Friday, because I'm still researching an entrypoint so I don't want to disclose it's location. You wouldn't believe how many other Urban Explorers scour the tiniest corners of the internet for clues about the next great place to photograph.

[tnf]

Have you ever gotten into trouble doing the urban exploration stuff? Around here we don't have many locations for that - this isn't a place that has been around long enough to have deserted manors, old castles, asylums, all that crap. And ever old building in downtown is demolished to put in parking lots. Sucks to see all the buildings with character go only to be replaced by a place where someone can charge you to park.

I just wish I had your eye for setting up shots - I'm working hard at simplifying my pictures so that the viewer is really drawn to the focal point. I think the term minimalism is probably interpreted in a variety of ways, but generally speaking its something I'd like to get better at.

[Yeahso]

Ah, but you see, nobody sees the pictures that didn't come out right. I might take 30-40 seperate scenes on a visit somewhere and only come back with 3 or 4 shots that are worth working on.

You look at an average fashion shoot, and the photographer will work his subject for three or four hours straight. Sometimes even eight hours. From that session he will only be looking for a single photo out of thousands of shots.

I'm not so sure I believe in the photographers eye. If it does exist, I think it exists with hindsight. I think the eye comes into play when you are going through your shots at the end of a shoot and picking out which ones will work

It's all hit and miss.

[Yeahso]

Oh, yeah, been caught a couple of times, but never anything more than a telling off and an escort off the premises.

Once whoever catches you finds out you're a photographer and not a vandal, they are generally pretty friendly. Most just lecture you about safety, which is fair enough I guess.

[tnf]

Ah, but you see, nobody sees the pictures that didn't come out right. I might take 30-40 seperate scenes on a visit somewhere and only come back with 3 or 4 shots that are worth working on.

You look at an average fashion shoot, and the photographer will work his subject for three or four hours straight. Sometimes even eight hours. From that session he will only be looking for a single photo out of thousands of shots.

I'm not so sure I believe in the photographers eye. If it does exist, I think it exists with hindsight. I think the eye comes into play when you are going through your shots at the end of a shoot and picking out which ones will work

It's all hit and miss.

I'm glad to see someone else say that many pro's only get a single shot out of many during a shoot. With the few model shoots I've done, I'm the same way. For the most part, I look for a single image from the whole shoot that I like. If not a single one, then I limit it to a very small number. This really forces me to be critical of my own work.

I had a discussion about this with another photographer when I asked him why he post almost every single shot from every model shoot he does. I've got a long, long way to go, but when I see some of the work that 'professionals' put on their websites, it does give me confidence and the realization that so much of this is just how you market yourself. It seems as if the general public who might be looking for family portraits, senior portraits, engagement shots, even wedding stuff to some extent, are way less picky about things than I am if they are happy with the work produced by some of these places. Is it the same way in the UK? (meaning do you have a shitload of 'professionals' whose work is just awful but who are always booked up)
At the same time there are some phenomenal photographers who don't have a fucking clue about how to market themselves. I am hoping to carve out a niche in sports photography (not professional sports, rather with providing people with professional quality shots of their kids football, basketball, soccer, whatever). I've talked with many parents who were very interested in this, and had a few gladly pay my $100 fee for shooting one game and providing them with the crisp, sharp action shots that they can't get with their point and shoot. Simple stuff like shallow DOF is also a big one for the parents - they love it when their kid really stands out from the background. Might be shooting some amateur MMA here soon too. I'm planning on most of my photography income eventually coming from senior portraits and sports photography.


BTW - Other than your 50D and 5DmkII bodies, what gear do you have? I know you've got the 10-22 EF-S...what else? Ever used the 85mm F1.8? Considering this as my next lens - great reviews for a non-L series lens.