My 1st time posting photos. Please comment.

[splash]

I just got back from Costa Rica. I was trying to do different effects like blurring the back ground and focusing on the butter fly on this 1st one. I took 4 rolls of color and one black and white one. I didn't have a light meter, so I guessed alot and I think I just got lucky on some of my pics. I got the film developed and put on a cd, so does that mean they could have to much light because the person putting them on disk chose to add more light? I haven't had a chance to check out the negatives in a dark room yet. I'm only posting 4 right now. Tell me if the lizard picture just has to much light in it or is there something else I did wrong to make it look grainy. I haven't edited any of these on my computer, so they are what they are at the moment. I appreciate comments.

[payn817]

What film speed, and where did you get it develpoed would help to answer some of your questions. I think as far as interest and composition the third one (with the wagon) is the strongest of the group. Welcome to the forum.

[GB1]

Hi Splash - welcome to the forum.

The shots are OK. Technically they are middle of the field meaning that they're not blurry but could probably be a little sharper, but it might not be your picture taking. It could be the scan - do u know how they were put on CD? If your friend has a film scanner that's good, but he might only have flatbed scanned them if that's what he had...

The film could also have been left in the heat and the film could have deteriated (that seems like the case to me - I've done that, and it lowers the contrast and looked similar to these). Not sure where the grain in the top shot came from - that's fairly grainy.

Composition wise, I think the top one is the best. Too bad that the white blade is in front of the butterfly, but otherwise I really like the color and wide openess of the photo. The liz is OK but you could have used a telephoto (and tripod) on that one. The black and whites... the composition doesnt seem to spotlight any particular part of the scene. I agree with Payn that the 3rd is interesting, but it is also without a subject. I just can't find what I'm supposed to be looking at here. If you could have gotten closer and shot the wheels by themselves, that prob would have been interesting.

Try upping the contrast on the shots, esp the two B&W shots, and sharpening them.

Hope to see some more of your posts - GB

[splash]

I took the rolls of film to Wolf Camera to get developed. The speed is 400 on all the film. Costa Rica had a pretty humid environment, so that could have effected the film. It was humid enough that my books were flimsy and damp as well as my clothes. The lizard shot was like a pure luck one because I had been trying for days to get the bigger ones and then I saw that one and jumped at it. I didn't have my tripod in hand at that moment because the lizard wasn't my objective, but just happened to be there. The butterfly one, does it look like I tried to do low depth of field and a higher speed to get the bakcground blurred or does it just look like an unfocused picture? I like the contrast in the 3rd pic, put I like how much closer I was to the wagon in the other one. Do you think I should just try giving that one more contrast since it's more focused in on the subject? Thank you for the advise. I don't give much because I'm such an amature that I feel I lack the knowledge to really critique someone else.

[Dylan8i]

a good way to learn to critique, is to either be the first to critique a picture, and then see how it compares to the people after you. or if people have already critiqued it don't look at them, just the image and then make yourself think what you would do and then read what other people think.


and jsut because it's different doesn't mean its wrong. just different perspectives.

[payn817]

IMO, the two photos which seem to exhibit noise is doing so from auto adjustments made by the printer controls at Wolf. You can request no adjustments, or even (sometimes, if someone there knows anything) custom adjustments. I would try more labs, and find one that works with you to acheive the results you want, then stick with them. Wolf is kind of on the expensive side, and Wal-mart uses the same equipment.