I was in Kelowna for Canada day the past weekend

anyway here are too shots from the band that was playing, the guy in the picture is the brother of a friend of mine.

[Gaelen]

anyone have any thoughts or comments?
I'd love some ideas, and suggestions on how to better my shots

[Jack Simpson]

I was in Kelowna for Canada day the past weekend

anyway here are too shots from the band that was playing, the guy in the picture is the brother of a friend of mine.

Hi Gaelen,

As I mention, I had a fiddle with the photo's that you posted (and hope you don't mind) to show what I (hopefully) would have done differently ...see below in the attachments.

Firstly, I would have shot/cropped the shot tighter and lowered the saturation a tad (in one) and/or completely desaturated the photo. Secondly, I would advise you to try and watch the background of the photo whilst shooting your subject and, of course, this is one of the many "easier said than done" pieces of photography advice. Also, dont' be afraid to use flash (both in day and at night or indoors or outdoors) when shooting events like this....if it is OK with the subjects and if they are in flash range

Hope this helps somewhat and hopefully you don't mind me having a fiddle with your pics.

Cheers,

Jack

[Gaelen]

Jack,

I have never been one to fiddle with photos, just really not sure what to do I think.
I Tried to watch the backround but there really wasn't much better to work with, as for the flash, I have not been a fan of the built in flash so I'm waiting until I get my flash to really test that out.

I have alwasy been more of an action shot person than an artistic type, I really appreciate the help as I am very interested in learning how do do more artistic types

[little laker]

Gaelen,

I don't see any reason not to apply a little artistic touch into action photography.
It can usually be achieved by altering the exposure just a little adding or removing some background blur or motion blur.

Could you imagine how the second picture would look if you had both narrowed the DOF so the background all blended together and still showed a little more motion of his hand strumming the guitar
Although this might not be possible without a little post processing, it's achievable.

[Gaelen]

I entirely agree, I have been shooting mostly cars for 8 months and framing something right when it's doing 80km/h isn't easy lol.

I have no idea what DOF is....I'm a little new to this, i have used p & s cameras years

[Jack Simpson]

Jack,

I have never been one to fiddle with photos, just really not sure what to do I think.
I Tried to watch the backround but there really wasn't much better to work with, as for the flash, I have not been a fan of the built in flash so I'm waiting until I get my flash to really test that out.

I have alwasy been more of an action shot person than an artistic type, I really appreciate the help as I am very interested in learning how do do more artistic types

Hi Gaelen,

Attached are two(2) shots I took at Lonsdale Quay yesterday (Sun July8th) for "fiddling" I lightened them up a little and, sadly, the majority of the Post Processing work was "cloning" out a boatload of CCD dust bunnies Aside from that, I just moved around so until I was able to find a (relatively) clean background...."CDD Bunnies, not withstanding.

FWIW, I used a 80-200 lens and tried to used my (add-on) flash but the light/shadow combo was too harsh for it to be of much help and, I just forgot to use 'spot metering'

Hope this helps explain a little of what I meant in my previous post

Cheers,

Jack

[little laker]

Nice photo's Jack. You sure know your stuff
It looks like my trip to Vancouver might be bumped ahead 1 week, since I'll be attending a writers course in Fernie the weekend I was planning on heading that way

I have no idea what DOF is....I'm a little new to this, i have used p & s cameras years

DOF is Depth of Field basically meaning the amount of the picture that's in focus.

This to a large extent is effected by the aperture or F-stop, and how close to the object that you are.

You'll learn more about it over time, but basically say that if you laid a series of pop bottles out along a sidewalk all 3" further away from you, set your camera onto AV, then turn the dial to the smallest number possible (4.5 on the lens presently on my camera)then look through the view finder you'll discover that you can focus in on 1 bottle.
Then turn the dial making that number bigger and bigger and you'll see that you can have 2 or more bottle focused relatively close.

It's something fun to try on your own and will teach you a lot about your camera.
They don't have to be bottles, use your imagination.

You can use this effect to make an artistic photo.

I will point out that every lens is different when using this technique, but they all have a similar effect.

The problem with lowering the F-stop to take this sort of picture is it also speeds up your camera, so any motion blur will be reduced.
So what I would have done with that photo is taken it at a higher F-stop setting (to slow the camera down) to increase the motion blur of his hand, but done some post processing to blur the background

I hope that this helps you a little.

[Jack Simpson]

Nice photo's Jack. You sure know your stuff
It looks like my trip to Vancouver might be bumped ahead 1 week, since I'll be attending a writers course in Fernie the weekend I was planning on heading that way

Morning Stu,

Thanks very much and I get lucky one in a while .....but, of course, there are plenty more that were deleted and, if memory serves, I believe I deleted about 90 photo's on Sunday

Cheers,

Jack

[Gaelen]

Nice photo's Jack. You sure know your stuff
It looks like my trip to Vancouver might be bumped ahead 1 week, since I'll be attending a writers course in Fernie the weekend I was planning on heading that way



DOF is Depth of Field basically meaning the amount of the picture that's in focus.

This to a large extent is effected by the aperture or F-stop, and how close to the object that you are.

You'll learn more about it over time, but basically say that if you laid a series of pop bottles out along a sidewalk all 3" further away from you, set your camera onto AV, then turn the dial to the smallest number possible (4.5 on the lens presently on my camera)then look through the view finder you'll discover that you can focus in on 1 bottle.
Then turn the dial making that number bigger and bigger and you'll see that you can have 2 or more bottle focused relatively close.

It's something fun to try on your own and will teach you a lot about your camera.
They don't have to be bottles, use your imagination.

You can use this effect to make an artistic photo.

I will point out that every lens is different when using this technique, but they all have a similar effect.

The problem with lowering the F-stop to take this sort of picture is it also speeds up your camera, so any motion blur will be reduced.
So what I would have done with that photo is taken it at a higher F-stop setting (to slow the camera down) to increase the motion blur of his hand, but done some post processing to blur the background

I hope that this helps you a little.

wow, that is something I never even thought of, I will definately get out and test out a few things, The problem with a higher f-stop and not having a tripod was the fact that it would be too hard to hold the camera still in the lighting conditions....and my lack of a flash

[little laker]

Your a lucky man Gaelen, if you don't have an extra pillow or jacket or something along those lines to set your camera on I'll mail you something free of charge

It's all that you need. Tripods are almost a luxury in the beginning.

I'd suggest also bringing out an old blanket or something to lie down on. There's really no reason to take this sort of picture while standing or sitting.

For a photo shot where you can't lie on the ground bring out a table or a chair. Although people might think that you look funny while doing it they'll take everything back when they see the results

Edit, If everything goes right I'll be passing through Richmond in less than 2 weeks. And I've got a 35+ year old tripod that I'm never going to use.
It isn't the best, however it will work for you for a while.
It's yours if you want in exchange for a Timmies coffee.

[Gaelen]

Thank you very much, I have an old tripod that doesn't really hold still anymore
I am looking into a few different ones...If you're cruising through richmond let me know...I'd love to pick your brain. I am up in the okanagon quite a bit so maybe i'll see you around up there too

I unfortunately don't have $400 to spend on a tripod setup....but it is a priority after my flash right now

[little laker]

I'll let you try my $40.00 Walmart special as well, it might be all that you need.
I like it because it's very light weight so it's my first choice on walk arounds

I'll drop you a Private Message and let you know when I'm going that way as soon as the trip is confirmed