General Chat / Allahu Alkmaar (Pictures from Alkmaar; seeking advice)

  • Liampie%s's Photo
    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.

    Y9dUnHU.jpg

    FffknH2.jpg

    Wq5GiWa.jpg

    4CTsCYN.jpg

    tygZYUh.jpg

    MiiZ9zl.jpg

    j6ONoDV.jpg

    LGhArv4.jpg

    6BPsKV0.jpg

    eXEBn06.jpg

    PPHjMjB.jpg

    B5QPJhF.jpg

    55WSRKF.jpg

    pcQV0w9.jpg

    IAnDjUD.jpg

    y7tOTrH.jpg

    uw2iAyI.jpg

    xjCSQGq.jpg

    9cX7TYO.jpg

    SIqe9oR.jpg

    T0D4W8T.jpg

    ItOziaW.jpg

    6vTycYF.jpg

    W41MaMs.jpg

    PabXwsK.jpg

    ERn71X9.jpg

    QhjJKzn.jpg

    3uZQEfa.jpg

    7WeAf3y.jpg

    1Flr9ie.jpg

    P7QeGxs.jpg

    r1ZtN1D.jpg

    lqNtuzz.jpg

    csHfJXa.jpg

    F6wQX9C.jpg

    SfuSYOX.jpg

    QUwthwl.jpg

    Ssxz3eT.jpg

    iIYW3Iw.jpg

    oW51bIU.jpg

    f6BQyFf.jpg
  • alex%s's Photo

    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.jpg

     

    this 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.

  • posix%s's Photo

    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.

  • MorganFan%s's Photo
    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

    Here are some more.

     

    Hope you found this helpful, and don't forget your rule of thirds!

Tags

  • No Tags

Members Reading