Delete Me!

I just had my first truly useful “community site” experience.

I posted the image you see to the right into the Delete Me! Flickr group fully expecting that it would be harshly criticized. And, sure enough, it was.

I think the composition is good, but there are a number of relatively obvious faults with the actual execution. In particular, I did not use a tripod and the only way to get the shot was to bump the ISO to 1600 to make it possible to take the shot hand held.

While I couldn’t place exactly what was wrong with the image, the resulting criticism was hugely educational. Clearly, I need a tripod so that I can better control the exposure, use a significantly lower ISO to remove graininess and play with the depth of field a bit more. As well, a tripod would actually allow me to frame the shot considerably better than balancing on my tippy-toes.

I pretty much filter out the criticism along the lines of “I don’t like the subject material, therefore this photo sucks”. If I didn’t find the subject interesting, I wouldn’t take the photo and, ultimately, all of the photos are just for me anyway.

I’m definitely going to have to improve my posed still shot tools & skills. I have some ideas for lighting and environment that may prove interesting.

At left, is the second picture thrown to the wolves.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 17th, 2005 at 12:47 am and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.