DescentBB

Hi,

Well I thought it would be more interesting to start some sort of blog to show my photography rather then making new topics every time I upload a new photo.

I have been playing around with lighting and composition. Trying to make them look professional so they can sell on stock photo sites. I'm learning a lot doing this and I think it will help in all types of photography. The photos below have all been edited in post... its so hard to get a white background without proper equipment.

Comments and suggestions are welcome as always.

Woah, I WANT one of those wind up dragons!

Nice macro work!

mucho cool

thanks. well they weren't accepted by the stock site.

Hi,

I have finally got the camera and lenses I have been wanting to purchase for awhile now and have been shooting birds for a few days. Heres what I got. Enjoy

I'm not sure which one out of the first 3.

who's the guy in the bird suit?




Great pics! The fidelity on those are amazing. You can see the dust on the feathers!

Thanks Duper. hmm not many replies. I'm guessing and I need to travel to the future or to an alternate reality and take some sweet as pictures of a Pyro! lol

got two more photos. Enjoy

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12

Cyclone.

Well done with the pics!

Very nice indeed.

BTW - What camera are you using to take these pics with?

Man those are really great pictures Cyclone. I am no photographer but I can appreciate what I see. Where did you get the bird shots, man it looks like they are perched on your table!

KB

Aus-RED-5 --> I am using a Digital Rebel XTi 40D with the 100-400L zoom lens. I have 3 other lenses also. The first pics on this thread were taken with my old camera Canon Powershot G5

KoolBear --> Just in my backyard. requires patience though cuzz sometimes the birds only stop by for a few minutes and you never see them again.

Here another photo.

Photo of a Canada Goose. Thought it was an interesting pose. The lighting kinda sucks though.

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12(cropped)
Someone on another forum suggested I crop this. Like it better or the way it was before?

Lipo suction.... before and after!



the crop looks good, but personally, I prefer the wider view to the square crop.

small update

Nice shots. I just bought a XTi myself and loving it. HOw much did you pay for your 100-400L lens? I'm looking to buy a macro and a telephoto myself and want to know if it's worth getting the L series or just going for regular USM lenses?

Very nice picture of the dog, and the bird photography back there is also well done. I've had plenty of experience evaluating bird photos - my dad is a big-time birdwatcher and photographer, so I've looked through a few hundred of his.

Wow, that is pure bleepinistic photography!

bleepinistic... lol

Merlin I paid $1,410.00(no tax) for the 100-400L. I would go with the L series. I love this lens. The quality of the 100-400L and the EF 100mm macro are quite a bit better then my other lenses. I wouldn't go with the 180L though its expensive and isn't much better in quality.


These are review sites. I found them helpful.
http://www.photozone.de/8Reviews/index.html
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/

Do you find the Xti's lcd too glarey? In bright sun I literally get temperary blinded by reflections when I look at the camera...

I'm dimmed the LCD so it doesn't suck battery power much. I never really look at it unless I want to see what the pic looks like before I take another.

Man, 1400 is pricey for me. I paid $1000 for the camera, 18-55 USM lens, bag, extra battery, battery grip and UV haze filter. It was a deal at Best Buy.

The lenses I've looked at are the 75-300USM and a macro which I haven't decided on.

Yea its pricey but its worth it.

I don't know anything about the 75-300 but it has a good zoom range. I would get the EF100mm macro lens. If you buy extension tubes you can put them inbetween your lenses and focus even closer. I can fill a frame with a grain of rice if I wanted to. Kinda neat I thought.

Some MORE nice work Cyclone (see my post re: your web site for further feedback)

These shots are very good - and I'm saying that as a fellow professional.

A few short comments which you can take or leave as you see fit.

While the macro work on the tin toys is good, I can understand why a stock library would say no to them. Stock libraries know that their most important customer segments would be graphic designers, advertising agencies, magazines, web designers and the like. These people are looking for images that become metaphors or ilustrations of larger concepts ...and right now that's not coming through in your toy images. Take those same tin toys however and surround them with props that all scream \"1940s nostalga\" and I reckon that you'll be able to sell them.

Also, all those toys were framed in the same way - you need to break it up and vary it more with a series of shots like this. With the car for example, get down in front of the car and shoot from there - as if it was about to run you over... (or put the tin bird next to a real one on a white background ...and all of a sudden your series has a bit more interest in it.

The live bird shots are excellent. I know what your friend was getting at with the cropping. What I would do if I were you is crop the images so there is space for copy (words) along side them. With image no. 12 for example, put the bird in the bottom right hand corner instead - or in the middle of a left-side / right-side third ..this leaves plenty of room for me as a graphic designer to add a headline and sub head next to the picture - this creates a nice static layout with plenty of colour and contrast for the eye to wander over. In effect it stops being just a picture of a bird and starts being a masthead of a magazine article on birds, or gardens, or nature, or the environment... and right away you've got four different uses from the same image (and four different sales for the stock library! )

If you can create images that suggest/illustrate a number of larger concepts, while slotting effortlessly into a press / editorial layout with plenty of room for copy, then you're MUCH more likely to sell your images to libraries or agencies.

No disrespect though - it's still all good work. Keep it up!

Well, yesterdya I ended up buying the 70-300mm Canon IS USM lens. I had tried the 75-300 non IS(Image Stabilizer) lens and man, talk about camera shake. The IS one is a godsend. And being able to zoom in is da bomb. Now, all I need is a good macro and some of those extensions you mentioned that I read about.

CDN_Merlin - IS is very helpful I agree. 2-3 stops lower in shutter speed helps a lot.


Gekko71 - Thanks for the advice. Everything you said makes sense to me and has been 'floating' around in my head for some time now. I just have to differentiate between artistic photos and photos meant to be more commercial/advertising. The tin-toys were my fist attempt at commercial type photos. I bought some studio lights, built a light tent etc so I have more freedmom now setting up my shots. I will try to mix it up a little and incorperate your advice. Thanks.

Dude, I just realized you are in Regina. To cool.

Cyclone wrote:CDN_Merlin - IS is very helpful I agree. 2-3 stops lower in shutter speed helps a lot.


Gekko71 - Thanks for the advice. Everything you said makes sense to me and has been 'floating' around in my head for some time now. I just have to differentiate between artistic photos and photos meant to be more commercial/advertising. The tin-toys were my fist attempt at commercial type photos. I bought some studio lights, built a light tent etc so I have more freedmom now setting up my shots. I will try to mix it up a little and incorperate your advice. Thanks.

No worries Cyclone - Like I said, you work is genuinely good, and with a few small changes it can become eminently useable for commercial graphic design / advertising purposes. And being able to turn your interst into your profession is very rewarding...

...But keep shooting for yourself too! The Advertising stuff will get you paid work and keep feeding you and your family. But ALWAYS keep shooting for yourself too - cause the work you do for yourself - that's the work that truly feeds the soul and helps one realise their full potential for happiness.

Keep it up!

Lovely work. Wish I had a clue how to work a camera like that. My only hope is to take dozens of shots and get lucky on one. Thank goodness for digital!

CDN_Merlin --> Another fellow canadian

Gekko71 --> Thank you for the constructive critism and confidence in my skills. Thats how you learn.. and I like learning lol.

Kilarin --> thanks. I to take more then dozens of pics befor I get one thats decent.

a few crops of the the dog photo above. Like the first, second or third dog crop? thanks.

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Hey everyone. I took these a while ago. Just some fall photos. They aren't technically perfect but I thought they were interesting.

If you feel like it you can rate/critique them. Which do you like/hate the most?

Thanks for looking.

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I love the most recent #4 (bug through the leaf).

You may want to create thumbnails of the older pictures, or provide links, to keep the thread from taking too long to load.

Thanks.

Is there a way to force a page 2 in this thread? Or should I just create a new thread altogether?