What’s my opinion?
Valeriano sent me these two photos to comment on. I usually like to copy the question the photographers that submit photos write and some explanation of why they took it, but this time he choose not to say anything and only wanted my opinion of the photographs.
Well, in that case let’s just get to the video critique of both images:
http://screencast.com/t/MhAKz5ODp
Here’s Valeriano’s second image and video:
My opinion.
http://screencast.com/t/di0FFxjVEHK
As I tell people that take my online class with the BPSOP, and also in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, before you raise your camera up to your eye determine where the sun is in relation to your subject. If your subject is anything translucent, try to backlight it as it will appear to be glowing…as it does in Valeriano’s two images.
Really nice photos!!
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my upcoming workshop description at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I have recently written the description for my next “springtime” workshop to be next May 17th, 2017. We will be spending three days in Vienna, and three days in Budapest. I hope you can join me for a wonderful week in two of Europe’s most beautiful cities…during festival time.
Keep sending in photos and questions to:AskJoeB@gmail.com and I’ll create a video critique for you.
JoeB
Hi Joe,
thanks for the critiques.
Regarding “White Balance”: in the old “film” days, what choices did we have? Exactly: I have my camera setup on Daylight all the time, as if I were using film. I’ll never set it up on AUTO as you suggest in your classes, thus having the camera correcting it with its software: something that you don’t want to happen when shooting in “magic hours” (gold and blue hours) light conditions thus having strong color casts which you want to record on your pictures to better convey mood.
The yellowish cast on those greens in the second image are due to two facts: first I shoot in RAW format and in this case I forgot to convert the image using one of the camera profile in LightRoom, and kept the Adobe Standard: for my Nikon D300 it translates in having greens shifting to yellows. Second, the two shots were taken in different days and complete different light conditions.
In particular the vertical composition was done at sunset, hence a warmer light (thus some color cast), complete different lens.
Finally: I’m looking at these pictures on your blog on a different computer than mine, with a display which isn’t color calibrated. They look pretty different from my original ones, especially in the shadows. I guess there has to be something wrong with my conversion from LightRoom to JPEGs for WEB.
These two shots were all in the shadows, and the shapes I’d captured in them.
Valeriano,
Since the day I took my camera out of the box, I have never changed the balance from AWB, and my photos come out pretty good. I guess if it makes you more comfortable to leave your on Daylight, then you should. The AWB setting on a Nikon is a lot cooler than Canon so using Daylight might be a good thing for you. Did you know that you can put an 81A filter over your lens and get a similar effect?
In the film days we had lots of choices in the form of filters. I often would use the 81 series which would warm things up. If I were back lighting a subject and I wanted the skin tones to be warm, I would put on an 81C, 81D, or sometimes an 81EF. I almost always had an 81A on. I could also make things cooler with filters. I could also correct color temperatures with color conversion filters, ie., 80A, 85C FLD…etc.
You’re right about different monitors looking different. Every so often I calibrate my screen using the i1DISPLAYPRO. Highly recommended by a leading authority to me.
Btw, when shooting at sunset the light is already warm so adding a setting to create even more renders your images unnatural. I shoot almost all the time early and late and I find that AWB is plenty. Just one less thing to cloud up an old mind!!!
JoeB