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Water World We Live In For the past few months, I've been working on my graduation project. It started with the simple subject of water. I planned to photograph the water cycle and its usage by people. This proved to be a bit too hard, and nearly impossible to accomplish in several months so I decided to focus on the recreational aspects of water. For that, I drove around Belgium and Holland visiting diving quarries, beaches, parks... My evaluation presentation is in a month but I decided to post it so I can gauge the reaction from people who aren't familiar with the project at all, as well as a bit of advice. I'm currently working on the finishing touches, so it's not completely finished. The colours on several images don't flow well with the rest, especially on the last image. I find it ridiculously frustrating getting my colours just right, so if there's any hints or tips are welcome. Especially that last image is proving difficult. I also still got to write an artist statement. Presentation wise, I'm planning to display 44x55cm prints. (roughly 22"x18") I was planning to mount the prints on foamboard, but one of my teachers advised against it because it has the tendency to warp. I was thinking of putting them on dibond plates, or framing them, but that will quickly become very expensive. Sixteen to twenty prints that size will cost at least €2000. Instead, my teacher recommended ordering magnets and pinning the prints onto the wall that way.    If anyone's got a better name than Water World We Live In, say it, preferably without a pun in it. Edit: gently caress, forgot change the thread tag Fragrag fucked around with this message at 09:55 on May 21, 2014 |
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May 20, 2014 20:18
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Are these the only shots in your series, and are you looking for critique?
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May 21, 2014 05:43
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JesusDoesVegas posted:Are these the only shots in your series, and are you looking for critique? (First of all, props to your Panic on Funkotron av) If you click on the first 5 words of the post, you can see more than what's posted in the OP. I don't know if Fragrag is looking for critique since this seems to be a finished project that is just a matter of "finishing touches" as they say, but I suppose feedback is never a bad thing? I mean, Fragraf says that there is a month until the presentation, but I don't think they are anticipating any major changes in that time frame? If you don't mind my (very amateur) opinion: The first thing that pops out to me is that most of your work seems unsaturated, while a few photos have strong yellows or reds. This is not a color I associate with fun when dealing with water. I would like to see less saturation in the warm tones and more in the cooler tones that are associated with water, your subject. In the case of the hamster ball-ish one, you can't really help the tone of the water, but it seriously detracts from it, I think. All of your yellows and reds seem quite saturated to me, and that is a serious contrast to the tones commonly associated with the subject of your project. Those hues are quite distracting from your focus. There is the photo of yours that has cool-color beach chairs that are fairly vibrant against the sand and ocean. This says to me "relax by the ocean." It's a common sight, and I feel like I get this picture. The one after it, however, a stark contrast to the feeling I saw right before. Also, I don't quite associate the sea lion photo or the miniature golf photo with the overall theme. I get the sea lion, but again, the rich red tones are seriously distracting me from what I would think is the intended focus of the sea lion that ties it to your project. Also, the house in the background is very distracting. Again, I'm just am amateur who doesn't know much, but this is what stands out to me, someone who might not see the same as you. E: I'm sorry if this doesn't make sense. Between the meds for physical therapy and allergies, I may or may not be incoherent. Ignore me if I am.
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May 21, 2014 06:50
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Rotten Cookies posted:Again, I'm just am amateur who doesn't know much, but this is what stands out to me, someone who might not see the same as you. Don't worry, it's much appreciated! Well, it's finished in that I probably won't go out anymore to photograph and add pictures, but I'm starting to think that I shouldn't tunnelvision on having 20 images in my final selection so some of the pictures are going to drop off. I added a slight yellow hue to evoke a sunny feeling. You're right that the beach chairs has the best punch in processing, so I think I'll use that as my benchmark, along with the Orca picture for cloudy situations.
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May 21, 2014 18:14
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I realized there was a link to the gallery. My concern was that the series is all medium and long shots. I guess it's too late now, but you could really benefit from some close up and detail shots. Those shots really accentuate action and texture. Some nice frozen motion on water splashing would be really cool too (the one with the divers would have been a great opportunity for this) Another critique I had was that some of your shots really lack a clear subject. Numbers 5, 10 and 18 in particular. Number 5 could probably work better if it was cropped closer so that the spectators leaning on the rail were on the bottom left third and the raft was on the top right third. I like that you chose a more desaturated look to the series. It makes those bolder colors (reds canoes, yellow pool, blue chairs, etc) really stand out, and it does sort of feel sun bleached. The here are a lot of cool shots here, my favorites are probably the ones with the man and his car on the beach and the one with the two blue chairs on the beach.
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May 24, 2014 02:14
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Another complete amateur here so bear this in mind when reading my comments. My reasons are mostly selfish to be honest - I'm hoping it might help my own photography. By scrutinising your photos and deciding concretely on what I like or don't like, it might help to focus what I do myself. To me, the biggest thing that stands out about this set is the lack of a strong theme or direction to many of the photos. I end up looking at a lot of the ones, like the one with the canoe ramp or the jet skiers, and thinking "ok, it's some canoes on a ramp and some jet skiers... what is the photographer getting at?" I understand the whole water theme, but my personal opinion is that the photos need to be able to stand up on their own and give me a strong reaction or something to engage with as a viewer. At the moment I'm getting the same impression I get from most people's holiday snaps, which generally only ever say "I was here" or "here is X", which is all well and good but isn't particularly thought-provoking, and ends up feeling a bit flat. I guess what I've just described is the underlying root cause, but in terms of concrete technical stuff, I think there are several things that manifest from this. To me, the main issue is the composition; it feels like you haven't really thought hard and refined the compositions to get the best you can out of each scene. I think it's already been mentioned by someone else, but almost all of the photos are taken with very similar viewpoints. They're all at about normal eye level, with the camera pointed either at the horizon or slightly down, at roughly similar subject distances. The same goes for the lighting, which again looks very similar across the photos. The other issue is, there are things in some of the shots that don't add anything, or even detract from the photos, which could have been avoided with different camera positioning or tighter framing. You'll notice from the comments already that people prefer the shots with less in them, which is no coincidence; it's much easier to get stronger composition with fewer subjects in the scene. Some of these photos could be really good if the ideas were refined and if some thought was put into what ideas you're trying to get across to the viewer. I really think that this would help with all of the technical points mentioned above. I guess I should go through a couple of examples to show you my thought process while I'm looking at the photos, I know that helps when I'm looking at my own work. I'll add suggestions if I can but every photographer has different ideas of how to interpret a scene, so I'll just throw whatever comes to mind out there and trust that you won't take it too literally. Ok, so the first photo: I see boats, that's your theme, I get that. What's the car doing there? Why a bin? Now, my eye wanders back to the boat which seems to be the only point of interest... but it's disappointing, it's all covered up, and why do I only get to see part of the boat? To me, maybe a nice wide-angle shot up close could have shown off the boats in the dock better, showing me more of what matters and giving a more dramatic view that I might not normally get to see. Even better, if you could go at a different time and catch people there doing stuff on the boats and perhaps see them uncovered, it would add some sort of narrative to the scene and provide more interesting detail to look at. These are things that would hold my attention longer. Second photo: This looks more interesting, is that a family canoeing up a ramp? I'm not quite sure what's going on but it looks like it's the focus of the photo, but I can't make out their expressions or quite what they're doing. They seem to be resting. There are people eating nearby, but why are they in this scene? It seems like they're just a distraction. Again, I don't quite understand what you're trying to convey with this, but my take on it would be that something exciting ought to be happening with the canoes, but it's not happening here and now. With this photo I'd be tempted to find the best moment and place to view whatever interesting is happening with those canoes. I'm thinking they have to hit water at some point, so you're bound to catch some dramatic expressions along with the colourful plastics and splashy water. With much tighter framing and perhaps a lower viewpoint, you could capture a more exciting and vivid scene with more movement and colour. Third photo: This is much more engaging than the first two. The shapes are much simpler and it makes for a stronger image. The subject is more interesting too, although it feels a little like I'm not being told the whole story - I guess it's a driving range over the water? My gut tells me there are possibilities here to refine this photo and make it really great. The lighting is one; it's a little flat and it doesn't seem like the colours pop as much as they should, unless you're going for a sedate, ordinary day look. Have you tried shooting this scene at different times of day? Also, are you constrained to using only one aspect ratio? It feels like this could benefit from a portrait view, to get the building in the background along with the islands in the foreground. The other thing is, what activity ought to be occurring at this scene? I'm guessing golf, but whatever it is, including some of that in the shot could be a benefit; for example, a view from behind a golfer taking a swing, with this in the background, would give you a full story that would immediately make sense to the viewer and have a strong, attention-grabbing subject. Jimlad fucked around with this message at 02:05 on May 25, 2014 |
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May 25, 2014 01:55
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| # ? May 5, 2024 22:22 |
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I'm just going to throw in a few quick comments: If you are able to nix the 1st photo, I would. I feel it's going to be somewhat jarring to have one single vertical photo. What were these shot with? The photos have a somewhat low impact online because of the lack of contrast, but the colors and contrast would work better printed large with a ton of detail. 4x5 or 6x7? Cool. If you're working with smaller formats/digital I'd bump the contrast and saturation a smidge. I think there are two projects here: 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 16 (if I got those numbers right) go together well. The rest feel separate/different. If you can afford it, I would go for the better looking presentation. Magnets might feel a bit like a cop out. Obviously don't go broke mounting photos, but I've regretted doing shittier presentation in the past because I didn't have enough money to do anything better.
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Jun 28, 2014 03:42
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