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GAF Photography Q4 2015

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P

pringles

Member
JadedWriter said:
Where in the name of God does Pringle live? I've kind of pegged it as some place European. Makes me glad that my only issues have been idiots not wanting to be in shots. Last thing I want is running into a short bus with massive antlers.
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That's one of the many wonderful things we deal with above the arctic circle :p
 
R

RayStorm

Member
thespot84 said:
trying my hand at some food photography, feedback appreciated.
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I think the top down views (and especially the first) work by far the best. In the other pictures there's either too much distraction (the dumpling tower), or in the case of the second one (with the ice cream (?)) and the third with the glass of dry ice (?) it's just a bit nondescript and even dull. I don't take much from those two pictures.

The top views in comparison have a nicer array of colours and shapes, especially the first one. One thing to consider might be the placement of the dish on the table mat seeing as both are circles. I'm not sure if the placement shouldn't be either way off-center or in the total center, as is, it's just slightly off, which might look more disrupting than in the other cases. But I'm not certain about that either way.

For the Pizza picture, I might have tried to have the pizza just in the upper quarter and fill the rest of the frame with the black pan. Or at least crop the top right corner to remove that little bit of distracting crust up there.
 
T

thespot84

Member
RayStorm said:
I think the top down views (and especially the first) work by far the best. In the other pictures there's either too much distraction (the dumpling tower), or in the case of the second one (with the ice cream (?)) and the third with the glass of dry ice (?) it's just a bit nondescript and even dull. I don't take much from those two pictures.

The top views in comparison have a nicer array of colours and shapes, especially the first one. One thing to consider might be the placement of the dish on the table mat seeing as both are circles. I'm not sure if the placement shouldn't be either way off-center or in the total center, as is, it's just slightly off, which might look more disrupting than in the other cases. But I'm not certain about that either way.

For the Pizza picture, I might have tried to have the pizza just in the upper quarter and fill the rest of the frame with the black pan. Or at least crop the top right corner to remove that little bit of distracting crust up there.
Click to expand...

Thanks that's helpful. Definitely need work on composition.

Does anyone here use Google photos? I need a quick favor.
 
J

jongkookie

Member
I've been wanting to post my stuff on here but seeing as it's company stuff, I obviously can't so here's my car instead:

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With Christmas break coming up, I'm hoping to just walk around and snap shots of whatever.
 
J

JadedWriter

Member
jongkookie said:
I've been wanting to post my stuff on here but seeing as it's company stuff, I obviously can't so here's my car instead:



With Christmas break coming up, I'm hoping to just walk around and snap shots of whatever.
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Judging by your photostream you're in car gaf for a very good reason.
 
A

Astral/H3X

Member
jongkookie said:
I've been wanting to post my stuff on here but seeing as it's company stuff, I obviously can't so here's my car instead:



With Christmas break coming up, I'm hoping to just walk around and snap shots of whatever.
Click to expand...

A man with good taste. I can't wait to trade in my 99 Miata for one with a power hard top.
 
S

sarcastor

Member
thespot84 said:
trying my hand at some food photography, feedback appreciated.
Click to expand...

The pictures are fine. The biggest and most obvious problem is that you are shooting the food indoors with artificial light. Always shoot with natural light. If you do shoot indoors, adjust the color for fluorescent so they don't turn out so yellow. Also you definitely need a tripod since some of the photos are blurry. The composition is fine but its not something compelling or amazing. The croquembouche shot is good but the others are cropped to close.

fyi I do shoot food for trycaviar.com on occasion but I'm not exactly a professional myself but you can see some of my work here :)


H3XAntiStyle said:
Yeah, I really need to practice it more since that's where the money is haha. Do you have any tips?
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I've done over 200 photoshoots of people and I don't make money off it. There's more money in shooting food and weddings. The secret is to keep shooting more. Show off the subject. Don't use the camera flash, don't show the bad angles, and make sure its in focus :)

And always ALWAYS keep shooting!
 
V

vern

Member
Had a quick trip to Dongbei, haven't finished going through the photos yet. Also got to use my new lens, Sigma Art 35mm 1.4. These are my first batch of shots with it. A bit different to use considering for my street stuff I usually use 24-70mm and even though that zoom isn't much but helps a lot for different kinds of things. Using a 35mm fixed I really gotta use my feet a lot more to get the shot that I want.

师傅 by Eric, on Flickr

旅客们 by Eric, on Flickr

冻死了 by Eric, on Flickr

沈阳站 by Eric, on Flickr
 
J

JadedWriter

Member
vern said:
Had a quick trip to Dongbei, haven't finished going through the photos yet. Also got to use my new lens, Sigma Art 35mm 1.4. These are my first batch of shots with it. A bit different to use considering for my street stuff I usually use 24-70mm and even though that zoom isn't much but helps a lot for different kinds of things. Using a 35mm fixed I really gotta use my feet a lot more to get the shot that I want.

师傅 by Eric, on Flickr
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I love this one and yeah having to zoom with your feet really does change how you go about shooting since it's a lot more active on that front. Will also change up how you do some portrait shoots too.
 
A

Astral/H3X

Member
sarcastor said:
The pictures are fine. The biggest and most obvious problem is that you are shooting the food indoors with artificial light. Always shoot with natural light. If you do shoot indoors, adjust the color for fluorescent so they don't turn out so yellow. Also you definitely need a tripod since some of the photos are blurry. The composition is fine but its not something compelling or amazing. The croquembouche shot is good but the others are cropped to close.

fyi I do shoot food for trycaviar.com on occasion but I'm not exactly a professional myself but you can see some of my work here :)




I've done over 200 photoshoots of people and I don't make money off it. There's more money in shooting food and weddings. The secret is to keep shooting more. Show off the subject. Don't use the camera flash, don't show the bad angles, and make sure its in focus :)

And always ALWAYS keep shooting!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd really only want enough to fund my little addiction, just enough to pay for camera stuff haha.
Now, if I could be like a company photographer, THAT would be awesome. I don't know if I'm really there yet though. I can operate my camera perfectly, but I still need to improve my composition and post processing, as well as my creativity.

EDIT: I suppose I should post some photos in here. I've got quite a few figure photos that I usually don't post in here (I don't really think it's something you guys are interested in), but I figure a few here and there won't hurt:

20150805-_DSC7387.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20150826-_DSC8772.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20150826-_DSC8798.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20150826-_DSC8819.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20150826-_DSC8811.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20150826-_DSC8830.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20150902-_DSC9115.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20150902-_DSC9147.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
20150902-_DSC9140.jpg by Hunter Mauro, on Flickr
A lot of these were me experimenting with Flash and trying some negative space composition, so forgive me if I didn't get enough light on them. Honestly, I probably need to go back and tweak the levels a bit now that I know more about Lightroom.... These photos might end up looking different later today!
 
J

JadedWriter

Member
H3XAntiStyle said:
Yeah, I'd really only want enough to fund my little addiction, just enough to pay for camera stuff haha.
Now, if I could be like a company photographer, THAT would be awesome. I don't know if I'm really there yet though. I can operate my camera perfectly, but I still need to improve my composition and post processing, as well as my creativity.
Click to expand...
It's really all just about doing it more. Pretty much you learn how to shoot certain things just by shooting it often. I find that I learn more about how to shoot a person and how to utilize the location the more I shoot a person or the location. You notice certain things and just figure out what does and doesn't work. Hell I had to learn how to use my hotshoe flash on the fly earlier this week and get used to manual again after using aperture priority for months. Manual is king of portrait shooting. Now I have to get used to off camera flash cause I think it messed up a shot or two yesterday just keeping it on my camera. You learn something on every shoot I think.
 
A

Astral/H3X

Member
vern said:
Really like this one. Probably my love for Metroid has something to do with it, but I think it's really cool.
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Yeah, the Metroid in particular was really suited to this. I actually had to try a few times to get the light to shine through the body like that, there's quite a few less impressive ones haha.
 
T

thespot84

Member
sarcastor said:
The pictures are fine. The biggest and most obvious problem is that you are shooting the food indoors with artificial light. Always shoot with natural light. If you do shoot indoors, adjust the color for fluorescent so they don't turn out so yellow. Also you definitely need a tripod since some of the photos are blurry. The composition is fine but its not something compelling or amazing. The croquembouche shot is good but the others are cropped to close.

fyi I do shoot food for trycaviar.com on occasion but I'm not exactly a professional myself but you can see some of my work here :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback. Your work looks great and will definitely provide some inspiration. Unfortunately I am also shooting after dark, and this is for a dinner club where we rotate hosts so I don't get to be picky about plates and the like. I'll keep at it though.
 
B

brerwolfe

Member
Was working on my video for Special Olympics Florida last week and had to take at least one photo. They hire me to put together a video for their fundraising efforts every year.


Special Olympics Florida - Basketball Competition by brerwolfe, on Flickr

I wish they could find someone else to do the video and then hire me for the photography, because I really want to photograph the athletes. They're so much fun to watch because they try so hard and never give up-- and they're just happy to have the chance to compete. I love it.

And then here's a simple cat photo. It was cold(ish) in Florida this weekend (we're back up to the 80s this week, though). We had our windows open to enjoy the cooler temps, so the cats spent more time trying to soak up the sun's warmth than usual.


Draco cat by brerwolfe, on Flickr
 
J

JadedWriter

Member
Man I want to get a full frame just because of how well those things handle ISO. Cat pictures of a lot of detail in them. Why didn't you share some of those golf course landscapes?
 
B

brerwolfe

Member
JadedWriter said:
Why didn't you share some of those golf course landscapes?
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I've shared them in the PGA Tour thread, and I think I've posted them in the appropriate quarterly photo threads. People don't really respond to them though because golf has the stigma of being boring, so I don't really post them anywhere.
 
J

JadedWriter

Member
brerwolfe said:
I've shared them in the PGA Tour thread, and I think I've posted them in the appropriate quarterly photo threads. People don't really respond to them though because golf has the stigma of being boring, so I don't really post them anywhere.
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I thought the one titled "1st Hole Panoramic" was beautiful.
 
M

Mr. Hyde

Member
I have not shot enough the past three weeks so I feel on edge since it has become a sort of addiction of needing to constantly be shooting. However, I have three modeling shoots plus a conceptual series to shoot for an upcoming apparel company starting in January. I'm also studying and now begun practicing new off camera flash techniques incorporating gels and soon grids. I'm excited to advance my flash skills because it's so much fun and also helps me with understanding light more in general. I am going to attempt staying focused solely on photography this year for my main hobby/side work.

I've also been editing portraits from my last session when I have an hour or two available. I try to learn something new with each portrait edit.

Here are a couple of them:

Remember by Tony F, on Flickr

Reflect by Tony F, on Flickr

Gypsy Fascination by Tony F, on Flickr
 
M

Mr. Hyde

Member
JadedWriter said:
Man I want to get a full frame just because of how well those things handle ISO. Cat pictures of a lot of detail in them. Why didn't you share some of those golf course landscapes?
Click to expand...

I want a full frame so much but I keep telling myself to get better and learn everything I am using to the point where I actually need a full frame to push my skills further. I hope this is the year I finally take the plunge.
 
J

JadedWriter

Member
Mr. Hyde said:
I want a full frame so much but I keep telling myself to get better and learn everything I am using to the point where I actually need a full frame to push my skills further. I hope this is the year I finally take the plunge.
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Yeah, I know I need to get better at flash photography, but at the same time some people just want natural lighting...in a location where there is no fucking light available.
 
M

Mr. Hyde

Member
JadedWriter said:
Yeah, I know I need to get better at flash photography, but at the same time some people just want natural lighting...in a location where there is no fucking light available.
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Yeah I actually love to use super low light so that's my main reason of wanting one. I like moody naturally lit photos as much as utilizing flash photography. I want to be able to crank the iso up high and get a good naturally low lit shot without excessive noise and loss.
 
J

JadedWriter

Member
Mr. Hyde said:
Yeah I actually love to use super low light so that's my main reason of wanting one. I like moody naturally lit photos as much as utilizing flash photography. I want to be able to crank the iso up high and get a good naturally low lit shot without excessive noise and loss.
Click to expand...
Same here. When it's right it looks so good, but noise and image noise can really mess up an image. I can crank my camera to 6400 but my god I'd never use that picture for anything. I love night photography, but holy shit, my lens can't handle that nonsense. It's F 1.8 but I'd never take that iso above 1250 for the most part.
 
A

Astral/H3X

Member
JadedWriter said:
Same here. When it's right it looks so good, but noise and image noise can really mess up an image. I can crank my camera to 6400 but my god I'd never use that picture for anything. I love night photography, but holy shit, my lens can't handle that nonsense. It's F 1.8 but I'd never take that iso above 1250 for the most part.
Click to expand...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/h3xantistyle/shares/9Vci5V
How about one at 10 times that ISO? And this was a photo that I did *not* properly prepare for, and there's about 3 or 4 ways that I could've made huge improvements to it.

There's always ways to get usable photos, even in low light. Sometimes you just have to embrace the "low light look" of it, and stop trying to make it look like it was super bright.
 
J

JadedWriter

Member
H3XAntiStyle said:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/h3xantistyle/shares/9Vci5V
How about one at 10 times that ISO? And this was a photo that I did *not* properly prepare for, and there's about 3 or 4 ways that I could've made huge improvements to it.

There's always ways to get usable photos, even in low light. Sometimes you just have to embrace the "low light look" of it, and stop trying to make it look like it was super bright.
Click to expand...
I can't even go above 6400 I mean I technically can, but they I just get an H with some weird numbers as my iso. I got a decent one at 2000 iso in a room that technically shouldn't have called for 2000 iso cause the over head lights were on. Lighting is just a really weird thing at times.
 
H

hEist

Member
iPhone

12353479_997109143687388_732625418_n.jpg
12298804_1108435482507457_990991541_n.jpg

12256636_202834313385120_735237830_n.jpg
11371073_1690440341190682_1011696627_n.jpg

927111_1614181682178352_1133942169_n.jpg
12139629_550994485049409_840733777_n.jpg

12224577_1528649694121785_1848999323_n.jpg
Click to expand...
 
H

hEist

Member
Thug Waffle said:
Dude these are really good. I suck at shooting with my iPhone. Do you use any additional apps to shoot/edit? Which ones?
Click to expand...

hehe thanks.
in my opinion you can get always better results out of a picture if you edit/process them. Even if you think they "suck".

Sure i'm using other apps, but only for editing. 99% of the time i'm using the normal camera.app for taking photos.

Most of the time i open them in snapseed. There i edit the brightness, sharpness (+20-30) and rotate them, if i'm not happy with the alignment. Back in old days i used often the vintage filter on my pictures, but after they changed/updated snapseed i don't like them anymore.

Before i move on to apps like VSCO or Picfx, i try to remove things on the photo which distract me like in the before/after with the app "retouch". (works like Photoshops Content-Aware kinda)

Before/After:
vFJsFFu.jpg
12256636_202834313385120_735237830_n.jpg
Click to expand...

After that i often use VSCO App for the real "color" processing. Sometimes i want more moody pictures, then i use picfx (the pfx film "presets") but i often want to play around with the shadows and add a tiny bit of fade effect in them, so it's VSCO App.

There i use most of the time the sets like the old 05/04 or C1-C3/F1-F3/M3. Depends how much light are available in the picture. Then i always play with the shadows (to see more in them) and add a little fade. Maybe again +1/2 Sharpening if i'm not satisfied and last but not least a shadow tint (red, +2 - +5). That's it.

this is not always my "main" process but i start like this and play after that with the other options in vsco (which may vary on each picture). Hope it helps a bit =)

here are other "before" pictures:

TDD7roG.jpg
11371073_1690440341190682_1011696627_n.jpg

g00kWaI.jpg
927111_1614181682178352_1133942169_n.jpg

not the "real" before image, couldn't find the original because they all look quite the same (took about 10 images)
Click to expand...

vern said:
How do you upload your pics to GAF? Yours I can never see no matter if I have my VPN on or not. I'm in China so the internet is hot garbage, but with VPN on I can see 99% of the internet. Pretty much everything except what you post actually haha.
Click to expand...

direct linking instagram and the before images were on dropbox (uploaded them to imgur now)
 
V

vern

Member
hEist said:
.
Click to expand...

How do you upload your pics to GAF? Yours I can never see no matter if I have my VPN on or not. I'm in China so the internet is hot garbage, but with VPN on I can see 99% of the internet. Pretty much everything except what you post actually haha.

@heist see them now oddly, with VPN using public wifi in a cafe. I think it's the first time I've actually seen your photos lol.


I'll add some more pics from Dongbei while I'm here:

Dashiqiao by Eric, on Flickr

Dashiqiao by Eric, on Flickr

Dashiqiao by Eric, on Flickr

Dashiqiao by Eric, on Flickr

Dashiqiao by Eric, on Flickr

Dashiqiao by Eric, on Flickr
 
T

Thug Waffle

Member
hEist said:
hehe thanks.
in my opinion you can get always better results out of a picture if you edit/process them. Even if you think they "suck".

Sure i'm using other apps, but only for editing. 99% of the time i'm using the normal camera.app for taking photos.

Most of the time i open them in snapseed. There i edit the brightness, sharpness (+20-30) and rotate them, if i'm not happy with the alignment. Back in old days i used often the vintage filter on my pictures, but after they changed/updated snapseed i don't like them anymore.

Before i move on to apps like VSCO or Picfx, i try to remove things on the photo which distract me like in the before/after with the app "retouch". (works like Photoshops Content-Aware kinda)

Before/After:


After that i often use VSCO App for the real "color" processing. Sometimes i want more moody pictures, then i use picfx (the pfx film "presets") but i often want to play around with the shadows and add a tiny bit of fade effect in them, so it's VSCO App.

There i use most of the time the sets like the old 05/04 or C1-C3/F1-F3/M3. Depends how much light are available in the picture. Then i always play with the shadows (to see more in them) and add a little fade. Maybe again +1/2 Sharpening if i'm not satisfied and last but not least a shadow tint (red, +2 - +5). That's it.

this is not always my "main" process but i start like this and play after that with the other options in vsco (which may vary on each picture). Hope it helps a bit =)

here are other "before" pictures:





direct linking instagram and the before images were on dropbox (uploaded them to imgur now)
Click to expand...

this is super super helpful. i've struggled with my 5S camera. can't always lug my dslr everywhere so having this information will make mobile photography much easier for me. thanks dude!
 
R

RayStorm

Member
TurtleSnatcher said:
Vancouver Sunset Skyline by TurtleSnatcher, on Flickr
Click to expand...

I think that one would work even better if the amount of sky and water was reversed. The sky and the silhouette are way more interesting to me than the rather regularly patterned water. Granted it might have something to it on its own, but it just pales in comparison.

The one with the boat does not do much for me I'm afraid. The boat (especially the mast and the read) blur into the buildings in the background, which in it self is way too busy. To me the most interesting thing is the reflection of the boat in the water/water on the boat.
 
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