General Chat / Allahu Alkmaar (Pictures from Alkmaar; seeking advice)
- 27-September 16
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Liampie Online
I visited the city of Alkmaar a few weeks back, and my camera was one of my companions. I took quite a lot of pictures, half of which are just ugly pictures with the sole purpose of registering interesting buildings and things, not meant to be publicised. The other half are attempts at pretty images. And this is where I need advice. I love historic architecture and cities, and I love exploring and documenting them. But the photography part is getting stale for me, I feel like I'm just taking the same pictures all the time. 90% of the pictures are deep shots along a street or canal, a close-up, or a angled portrait of a single building or small ensemble of buildings. The morphology of the city is quite restricting of course, but I know that there must be opportunities that I'm missing. What am I overlooking or doing wrong? Am I wrong, perhaps? Advice from some of the more experience photographers here is more than welcome.
Here are the pictures, anyway.
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alex Offline
I'm not much of a photographer but I'm good at understand images and composition.
Often they seem to lack a specific focal point or some foreground detail or are cropped with an awkward bit of something creeping into the frame.
Many are too dark/underexposed too. Particularly these ones: http://i.imgur.com/6BPsKV0.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/4CTsCYN.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SIqe9oR.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/3uZQEfa.jpgthis one has a lot of potential -
http://i.imgur.com/j6ONoDV.jpg
I like the centered bridge, the perspective that leads up to it and then uneven buildings on the left. What maybe lets it down is that the water takes up most of the frame and in this instance the reflection isn't very interesting. Here you may have been better getting lower with the camera, with it tilted more upwards.. so you'd maybe see a little sky and some roof lines which would also add to the perspective.
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posix Offline
More people, less ghost town. People doing things, putting the viewer into their perspective. Requires you to become invisible. More depth of field too to focus. Everything is in focus in your pictures.
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MorganFan Offline
I feel like I'm just taking the same pictures all the time.
Looking at your photos, I get a very photojournalistic feel. Everything seems to be coming from the same point of view. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but they're worth even more with good presentation. Framing is arguably the most important part of photography.
Make things interesting! Crouch down on the ground; get up close; capture unique textures; play with your surroundings; find obscure/awkward angles. Ask yourself "What is the subject of this picture?" and make the subject shine! If the point you are trying to get across isn't crystal clear, then your audience won't buy in. Engage them by making things interesting.
If you can't find the photo you want or aren't satisfied, walk around, think about what you want in the background/foreground/details/etc. Start here to get the gist, then look at and analyze professional photos (for your style, I would suggest researching architectural or street photographers).
National Geographic -obligatory
Josef Schulz -some very inspirational (albeit banal) archy photography
Henri Cartier-Bresson -one of the best street photographers IMO
Rux Blees Luxemburg -maybe not really your style, but a very fresh take on perspective
Hope you found this helpful, and don't forget your rule of thirds!
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