NZ Lakes & Goldfields

[RayC]

Hi fellow members,

I am posting my first show and feeling a bit nervous in doing so, I did a litlle photography at 14 years of age but have had a 60 year break so learning again, I now have a DSLR and love getting out and about with it so any help about my Photos or show would be great.

I have had to split this slideshow into 2 parts as it was to large to upload to Mediafire but that turned out to be easy

with the wonders of PTE and Copy & Paste.

All criticism of photos or slideshow will be welcome for as My Father used to tell us a few knock downs helps one to learn faster.

Links:- Part 1 http://www.mediafire.com/?nhgjudtgtel

Part 2 http://www.mediafire.com/?dth0hmyoyy5

Thanks Ray

[Ken Cox]

Ray

SOME photos seem to be "soft"

nice scenery tho'

ken

[d67]

All criticism of photos or slideshow will be welcome for as My Father used to tell us a few knock downs helps one to learn faster.

Hi Ray

I downloaded the 2 parts of your sequence and started number one... but, honestly, I have to say that I stopped after 5 minutes.

Why ? .... Photos are sequenced with an unchanging rythm. Some shots and sceneries are very great but they are all or too soft (as Ken said) or with saturation/sharpness/curves much too manipulated.

I assume it's a shame because some shots are really great but, before giving up definitively, I rapidly checked the duration of the 2 sequences and found nearly 30 minutes !!! ... that is really too much (apart for those directly involved in this journey).

Sorry Ray, but if you severely select your photos (less than 8 minutes show for example = 50 to 80 shots) and give some rythm to your slideshow I will retry with great pleasure.

Did you post your photos to a server as Pbase, webshots, etc... and if so, where ?

Kindly

Patrick

[RayC]

Hi Ken & Patrick,

Thank for your comments these are the things I need to know so now I can at least keep trying.

as a I said I am a very late learner and it is harder the older you get.

Thanks again.

Ray

[dpeterso]

Hi fellow members,

I am posting my first show and feeling a bit nervous in doing so, I did a litlle photography at 14 years of age but have had a 60 year break so learning again, I now have a DSLR and love getting out and about with it so any help about my Photos or show would be great.

I have had to split this slideshow into 2 parts as it was to large to upload to Mediafire but that turned out to be easy

with the wonders of PTE and Copy & Paste.

All criticism of photos or slideshow will be welcome for as My Father used to tell us a few knock downs helps one to learn faster.

Links:- Part 1 http://www.mediafire.com/?nhgjudtgtel

Part 2 http://www.mediafire.com/?dth0hmyoyy5

Thanks Ray

Hello Ray –

It’s understandable about being nervous to post your first show. It takes courage and you are to be commended. I’ve posted quite a few shows and the uneasiness never goes away. But, that’s how we learn.

I have several thoughts about your show. Perhaps it would be helpful to think of the show as being for two different audiences: one private and the other public. Let’s address first the show for the private audience, namely you. If you like what you’ve done, then it’s perfect. Don’t change a thing. If you are uneasy about a few things, but can’t put your finger on what it is, then the public feedback may provide some clues. Family and close friends can be helpful also.

Assessing the show from a public perspective, it needs some work. You see, we in the public are not emotionally connected to your experience, so you’re going to have to make your case in a lot less time. Thus, we generally only want to see that which helps tell a story or that which is very pleasing to see, such as landscapes. From a public perspective, the show frequently uses multiple shots of the same scene. One or two good shots will suffice to convey the message. That being said, I think unnecessary repetition was the most serious problem. You have many good pictures to choose from, especially if you limit the duration of the show to 5 to 8 minutes. It’s hard to hold the public’s attention beyond that.

You can improve it by fixing the many tilting horizons, eliminating any shots that are out of focus, or poorly exposed. Regarding the focusing issue, it looks almost as though you saved the pictures at 1024 wide and displayed them at 1280 wide. Just a guess. I didn’t care for the moving clouds, but that my little problem. However, I thought the music was awesome. Was the pan flute done by Ghoerghe Zamfir? I really like it!

Ray, congratulations on getting back into photography. The digital world makes it much more fun I think. And again, hats off for have the courage to show us your work. Keep it coming.

Dave

[cottage]

Ray,

Your links no longer appear to be valid. ??

Regards,

Bill

[morturn]

Hi Ray

Thanks for posting your slideshows, and asking for some constructive criticism.

Firstly welcome to the world of digital photography, you have just taken the first steps to a life long journey, and as most journeys go, there will be a few up and downs.

Barry Beckham is a well respected producer of slideshows and the first thing he will always say is that an image must be sharp and have impact. Can you tell us what type of camera you are using as none of the images seemed very sharp to me, so was wondering what may be the cause of this.

Also do you do any post shoot processing in say Photoshop as I found a lot of the sky’s were overexposed which seems a shame, as a good dramatic sky can add that bit of impact.

I think even if the best photographer in the world presented their best ever images in a show, even then after about 100 images people would have lost a great deal of interest. I noticed in your show that you have repeated very similar images from a viewpoint only a few feet away, which to me do not add any value.

I noticed that about 90% of the shots were a very standard landscape shots, try to include a few more mid range and close up’s, and think about how they look, some had a lot of blurred foreground clutter.

I would say don’t do pan or zoom animations unless you can do them well, I noticed the tops of the mountains and the tree in the moving sky, this could have worked very well otherwise.

Have a good think about the music you are going to add to the show, something that reminds you of the place you’re shooting, or the images you want to capture. When you have done that, learn how to time your slides to the music, there are lots of members here who will help you with this.

Looking at your images, I found a lot of them had some great potential, and only require minimal processing to bring them out, if you need any advice on Photoshop, please ask I would be more then happy to help.

Thanks for sharing your first show with us, I am so glad that you overcame your initial nervousness; I hope that this will be an inspiration for others to do the same. Have lots of fun with your new DSLR

[RayC]

Hi Dave, Bill and morturn,

Let me first say Bill I took the slideshow off after the first to replys saying how large they were and I realised

then what a fool to expect people to download so large a file when I was when I was amazed at the uploading time

so sorry Bill.

Dave and Morturn thank you for you wonderful advice I must get out and practice now with my camera, by the way it is a Canon 400D with the kit lenses.

I dont do a lot of Photo post Processing only maybe a little with Levels, Most of the Photos taken were Jpg I only used Raw for maybe 4 0r 5 something to maybe practice with.

Anyway thanks once more for taking tim to download and respond I will for sure be reading over and over your most helpful posts.

Morturn as you are in Birmingham shout an Hi to coventry for me My Daughter is there and I was over there last Xmas took another of granddaughters over for a trip. I am from Cov and love comeing back now and again for a trip.

All the best guys and Thanks Ray