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That’s funny. I don’t really remember the smell, but I don’t remember it as being unpleasant.
I tried to look up what it smells like and found this:
Anyone who’s ever stood in a photography darkroom won’t ever forget the smell. It’s a distinctive blend of chemicals—hydroquinone, acetic acid, sodium carbonate, phenidone, and ammonium thiosulfate—that combines to form a pungent metallic-like odor many people find appealing, just like gasoline.
https://www.wired.com/brandlab/2016/05/finding-the-right-light-in-the-darkness/
So I guess I am one of the people who find it appealing 🙂 I’ll let you know if I still do when it all arrives. The kit is still coming, but the film arrived already. So I’ll be able to get out and start taking some pictures at least.
I love both takes. At first I was thinking how beautiful the colours in the first one were, then I scrolled and in the second one realised there were mountains that I didn’t even see in the colour. It looks much more dramatic.
very nice all round.
And it occurred to me that there might be a darkroom nearby and there is! just a couple of suburbs away for a very reasonable price, so maybe I will do some prints after all 🙂
It’s funny because when I got my first digital camera is was a revelation, but at the same time one of my fondest photography memories was shooting using a large format camera which is about as slow and manual as you can get.
If you ever get the chance to shoot with large format I highly recommend it. It’s a pity they are so expensive.
Oh, and I do still have lots of negatives and some prints I made from the last time I was doing darkroom photography. I won’t be printing any this time around because I don’t have a darkroom, but I do enjoy the process.
I’ll dig some out to share while I wait for the kit to arrive – it has to be special ordered so will be a while.
They look delicious! Are the pink ones edible or would I be dead now?
Re the photo: The colours and soft contrast are just right in that first one to give that cosy autumn feeling. Very nice.
Just a little experiment in abstract art. Spoiler: I was in a carwash. The patterns the waster was making on the glass were just so pretty.
No need to be embarrassed. A big reason to take photos is hoping other people will like them. It only needs a normal sized ego 🙂 Not that you should tie your worth to other people Liking your photos, but it can be a nice dopamine hit when they do.
And at least you know where the issue lies, and it’s not too hard to fix. You just need to find some more places to post your photos. As nice as people are here, there’s really not a lot of people.
Places like Flickr or instagram where people like to comment and like especially if you comment and like their stuff too, will get you lots more engagement. I am sure there are other places too that would be good. It can be quite shallow of course, especially if your photos are quite generic, but if you specialise and use lots of relevant tags, you might find some lovely like-minded people.
And re: taking portraits – it can be tricky because other people need to cooperate and it can be quite terrifying asking people if you are anything like me – so it can feel demotivating, just because it’s hard to get going. My only advice here is to just be brave (or ask a brave friend to find models for you and be your assistant).
But the big bonus is, that if you do nice portraits, you will get lots of positive attention from the models and all their friends and family in a way that you never get from a landscape 🙂 And it’s harder to give it up if you’re booked up with people wanting sessions.
I feel like part of it is there is less pressure. If I use my DSLR I want it to be a great shot and I’ll have to take loads and then spend time choosing and editing them.
But if I’m on my phone I know it won’t be great quality, so it’s just about capturing the moment and the vibe and if my in phone editing is a bit heavy handed, well, that’s just part of the charm.
All the photos are all great in the story they tell but in 5, the framing of the bull and man, and their expression is just perfect.
Has the guy seen your photos? I bet he’d love them.
Did you have any fill light coming from the left? I feel like maybe not. A reflector on the left to bounce some light back into the dark areas would bring out more detail. And the water/plastic will look nicer when they are transmitting some light, so a reflector bouncing light from behind will be good too.
The pure black background seems a bit harsh. I feel like you have made the whole thing too contrasty in the process of making it black. If you want to stick with black, you could use a flag to block light to the background instead of dealing with it in post (this article has a good example – https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-control-and-modify-your-lighting-with-flags/). But you could try a more neutral, earthy background too.
And finally, I agree with the others about the bottle. You should definitely remove the label unless you’re making a point about that company in particular. And it just physically takes up too much space in the photo. Could you crop it so just the top of the bottle is in shot? So it’s only taking up about 1/3rd of the photo instead?
First thing to do is identify WHY you’re putting photography on the backburner, because that will determine your solution. Some possibilities:
- work/life getting in the way and no time for hobbies
- other hobbies taking your attention away
- frustration from not taking the photos you want to be taking
- frustration from not getting enough attention for your photos
- overwhelmed by all the amazing photos that you see and feeling like your photos are pointless because there are already so many
- something else?
No photograph is actually reality, just like the images our brains produce are all filtered through our perception. In every single photo, the way the light is captured is manipulated by the photographer whether deliberate or not. I find it interesting that Graham said that “Even the grand masters like Ansel Adams manipulated their images” when he was a Grand Master because of his skill at manipulating his images.
The word photograph should be descriptive, not prescriptive. Does calling something a photo tell people something true about how the image was created? In the context you’re using the word do you need more adjectives? Are you communicating clearly?
However, in some circumstances, you can be prescriptive. Like for a photo competition, it’s reasonable to put some limits on what counts as a photo for the purposes of entering into a competition. Or require the photographer to disclose how much manipulation they did and have the judges take that into account, in the interests of fairness. It’s literally impossible to come up with a definition of photo that is not subjective. IMO the only difference between the example photo and one no one would have any issue with is how heavy handed it is.
But yes “Is this a photograph?” is not a meaningful question without context.
I’m in Brisbane. We went to Rotorua for a week. It’s such an interesting place.
Thanks for clarifying when it happened. I just realised I said this year, but yes, it was 2019 of course. It doesn’t feel like that long ago that we were there.
Welcome! I look forward to seeing your birds. Do you mind saying where in the world you are?
Thanks! It’s a lovely community.
I even took some photos with my SLR today. I just need to find my card reader…
I actually like it better in black and white. It’s got a rural gothic atmosphere. The coloured ones have a whole different vibe to them.
But, your shadows are too dark. I’d like to see some detail in the ends of those biggest hay bales and in the furrows on the right. Those furrows especially are very contrasty and harsh.
Are you doing any dodging and burning in your editing, or global adjustments? I feel like you have all the zones in the sky, but the ground is lacking mid tones.
This is great for showing off the texture and translucency of the glass. I would like to know what colour the glass actually was though. Was the light actually purple or have you added that in post?
Whether it’s crystal clear or has a colour tinge gives information about the chemical structure of the glass. This looks like a display in a museum so I feel like that kind of detail would enhance the whole thing. So I will disagree with the others and say I’d like to see natural colour instead of b+w.
Also, there is a tiny white spot on the second piece from the right and now I have noticed it I can’t unsee it.
