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New York [NF56K]

Posted: 2009-06-18 11:07am
by The Grim Squeaker
Alright, the first leg of photos from my trip across the US, New York (City), Manhattan Island, the zoo and etc':
IMG_0690
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IMG_0747
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NY A-33
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IMG_0627
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IMG_0648
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IMG_0654
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IMG_0624
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NY A-45
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NY A-59
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NY A-64
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NY A-65
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NY A-70
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NY A-77
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NY A-78
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NY A-80
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NY A-84
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NY A-86
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NY A-88
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NY A-89
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NY A-93
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NY A-95
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NY A-96
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NY A-97
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NY A-108
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NY A-109
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NY A-122
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NY A-123
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NY A-126
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Crazy pamphlet lady

NY A-131
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NY A-133
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NY A-135
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Camel

NY A-136
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NY A-147
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NY A-150
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NY A-162
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NY A-163
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NY A-167
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NY A-181
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NY A-182
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NY A-192
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a quickr pickr post

Re: New York [NF56K]

Posted: 2009-06-18 05:14pm
by Simplicius
Death wrote:IMG_0690
IMG_0747
NY A-33
NY A-78
NY A-80
NY A-88
NY A-89
NY A-95
NY A-96
NY A-108
NY A-131
NY A-136
NY A-147
NY A-150
NY A-162
NY A-163
NY A-181
These are all pretty solid. I like how you presented the swords, but those museum photos are all a good argument in favor of using a circular polarizing filter.
IMG_0627
The open air on the right doesn't help the photo any. I have an idea of how this might have been done better with the same general idea, but as it is this isn't a very strong photo.
NY A-77
Foreground-background separation is terrible, so the photo doesn't work. The part of the statue in focus is camouflaged so well with the out-of-focus parts that there's nothing to look at.
NY A-97
Custom/fine rotation -> straighten that shit up. There's no excuse for sloppy presentation.
NY A-109
The windows over the statue as they are don't work here. The glare, the crookedness, and the blue color of the light are all reasons for this. However, they could work well as compositional elements if problems like that were corrected for.
NY A-126
lol
NY A-192
The reflection's looking pretty good. Too bad about the top 1/3, though - the seal's head blends into the rock and the overexposure.

Re: New York [NF56K]

Posted: 2009-06-18 05:49pm
by The Grim Squeaker
Simplicius wrote:
Death wrote:IMG_0690
IMG_0747
NY A-33
NY A-78
NY A-80
NY A-88
NY A-89
NY A-95
NY A-96
NY A-108
NY A-131
NY A-136
NY A-147
NY A-150
NY A-162
NY A-163
NY A-181
These are all pretty solid. I like how you presented the swords, but those museum photos are all a good argument in favor of using a circular polarizing filter.
1. So, what do you have to say about my filtering abilities now, eh? (Out of hundreds! Over a thousand!).
2. Yeah, the amount of pictures I lost to an overexposed sky or mirror reflections on this trip... Ack. I need a filter (Curse the stupidly large size of my new 17-55 lens/77mm. :D.)
IMG_0627
The open air on the right doesn't help the photo any. I have an idea of how this might have been done better with the same general idea, but as it is this isn't a very strong photo.
What open air? You mean the stone?
Yeah, I was rather dissapointed by that, I took several shots at it, but didn't have any ideas. I got a decent shot of the eagle statue and in Arlington (In DC) at least.
NY A-77
Foreground-background separation is terrible, so the photo doesn't work. .
?
NY A-97
Custom/fine rotation -> straighten that shit up. There's no excuse for sloppy presentation.
Ack, don't see how I missed that. (I took a LOT of crooked photos this trip due to less than ideal shooting circumstances (Out of the window of a moving car/train for example).
NY A-109
The windows over the statue as they are don't work here. The glare, the crookedness, and the blue color of the light are all reasons for this. However, they could work well as compositional elements if problems like that were corrected for.
I have another "warmer" version of this shot, but I like this one, only miss that I see is that I should have pushed the underexposure down by another half stop.
NY A-126
lol
I thought SDN would appreciate that :D. (I have a lot more "comedy picks", but most are artistically speaking, crap).
NY A-192
The reflection's looking pretty good. Too bad about the top 1/3, though - the seal's head blends into the rock and the overexposure.
True. I saw the light issues, but I just had to play with that reflection (I have plenty of more generic shots of just the head in profile in the air, or just the upper part of the seal, etc'. It's on the facebook album if you want).

Thanks!
No more comments by New Yorkers? :)

Re: New York [NF56K]

Posted: 2009-06-18 06:00pm
by The Grim Squeaker
A few last shots of a basketball game and from the train to DC.

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IMG_1459
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Yeah, the exposure of the kid in the white sweatshirt was intentional :)


Next up, Washington DC! Smithsonian! Shep!

Re: New York [NF56K]

Posted: 2009-06-19 02:20am
by Simplicius
Death wrote:2. Yeah, the amount of pictures I lost to an overexposed sky or mirror reflections on this trip... Ack. I need a filter (Curse the stupidly large size of my new 17-55 lens/77mm. :D.)
It does suck that CPLs get rather expensive at that size (lucky me that all my Takumars are only 49mm!), but it's one of those necessary investments, like a solid tripod. You should have a CPL on your shopping list anyway for all that sky-shooting you do.
What open air? You mean the stone?
Yeah, I was rather dissapointed by that, I took several shots at it, but didn't have any ideas. I got a decent shot of the eagle statue and in Arlington (In DC) at least.
I mean all the space that isn't stone on the left side - daylight, greenery, tour boat, etc.

I imagine a successful version of this to be basically much tighter - compress the distance between the foremost and aftermost tablets with a medium telephoto, stand more to the right so that they look like a tight stack, and get a close framing of the foremost tablet. The important visual effect here is the impression of endless ranks of names - let the frame be completely filled by stone, no need to get a complete top-to-bottom or side-to-side view. Hard to describe without doodling it out, though.
I wrote:Foreground-background separation is terrible, so the photo doesn't work. . .
?
In other words, when you are making a photograph of a 3-D space (as opposed to a 'flat' photo like the detail of a side of a building) there needs to be some visual distinction that preserves the sense of depth in the scene. It could be perspective, it could be shallow depth of field, it could be composition - but there has to be something. When your foreground (the fist) blends completely into the background, there is no longer a foreground. Since the whole point of the photo is that only the fist is in focus, and that fist is no longer discernible, you are left with a photo of an out-of-focus background, which makes for a bad photo.
I have another "warmer" version of this shot, but I like this one, only miss that I see is that I should have pushed the underexposure down by another half stop.
Well, the placement of the statue in the photo and the mellow museum lighting + the black background creates a certain feeling, which the windows then ruin by being crooked and asymmetrically placed in the frame because of perspective, being far brighter than the rest of the lighting, and being out-of-color-balance. They look anomalous in what is otherwise a controlled photograph. They could be made to belong if control of the shot was extended to include them, but right now they look like an undesirable but unavoidable inclusion. Since the essence of photography is paring all the unnecessary elements out of the frame, the photo on the whole is weakened.

Re: New York [NF56K]

Posted: 2009-06-19 02:15pm
by The Grim Squeaker
Simplicius wrote:
Death wrote:2. Yeah, the amount of pictures I lost to an overexposed sky or mirror reflections on this trip... Ack. I need a filter (Curse the stupidly large size of my new 17-55 lens/77mm. :D.)
It does suck that CPLs get rather expensive at that size (lucky me that all my Takumars are only 49mm!), but it's one of those necessary investments, like a solid tripod. You should have a CPL on your shopping list anyway for all that sky-shooting you do.
Yeah, it'd be convenient too, unlike a ND filter.
What open air? You mean the stone?
Yeah, I was rather dissapointed by that, I took several shots at it, but didn't have any ideas. I got a decent shot of the eagle statue and in Arlington (In DC) at least.
I mean all the space that isn't stone on the left side - daylight, greenery, tour boat, etc.
Yeah.. I tried that, couldn't get it to work! (At least I got plenty of good shots on Ellis Island and the statue of liberty. Pity about the 2 hours it took to get back from the island :().
I have another "warmer" version of this shot, but I like this one, only miss that I see is that I should have pushed the underexposure down by another half stop.
Well, the placement of the statue in the photo and the mellow museum lighting + the black background creates a certain feeling, which the windows then ruin by being crooked and asymmetrically placed in the frame because of perspective, being far brighter than the rest of the lighting, and being out-of-color-balance. They look anomalous in what is otherwise a controlled photograph. They could be made to belong if control of the shot was extended to include them, but right now they look like an undesirable but unavoidable inclusion. Since the essence of photography is paring all the unnecessary elements out of the frame, the photo on the whole is weakened.
So, not straight and composed enough, in layman's talk? :)