Photography Experiement - Full Frame Photos

[my_daroga]

For some time, it's been annoying me that the aspect ratio for standard photo sizes has nothing to do with the actual film. To get a 4x6 or 5x7, you're cropping a significant portion of the image. Not really internalizing this, I've always composed "in camera" and am frustrated when my carefully-aligned images get cut off.

So here's what I'm doing.

I'm choosing 12 or so negatives at a time from my "best work" to get 8x12 prints done. Some of these you've probably seen before. But I want to try to find a "next level" for my photography, and at the moment this is my best next step. I'm not sure what to do with these now, but take a look and tell me what you think. Is this a quality I should pursue? To set me apart, just a little?

Comments

[beagley.livejournal.com]

Wow. Lovely.

The first image is by far the best.

[my_daroga]

Thanks! Mostly, I think, that's due to there being a random track running into the ocean.

[beagley.livejournal.com]

No no--
the first image is the best because it balances color, light, and subject perfectly. It's got it all. Seriously, it's award winning!

Second place goes to the cactus,
third place is the ladles... though I kinda hunger for a different crop.

The doves are also AWESOME, but the picture has too much extra noise and too many levels and distractions for me. Maybe consider a crop?

And, lest you think I'm just a big daroga compliment flood with no discernment, I'll say that those are the only four I like. Piano feels typical and the lighting/focus choice doesn't rev my motor, the two miniature shots feel like great ideas that never found the perfect shot, the human pics seem rich in personal impact but not for a stranger, and the black+white bus seems to be trying to picture too much at once, i.e. distracting.

They are all great source materials, and I imagine some PS work fiddling with levels and crop might produce something that turned me on more.

There, see? I can say mean things too! *grin* I'm an opinionated bastard.

Before printing the first image, I might shift the levels just a little bit or brighten... I wouldn't want the details in the tracks to get lost because of a too-dark print. The image needs "just the right amount of light", and that's challenging... similarly, I would experiment with darkening/re-leveling the cactus shot.

All just my opinions, of course...
-d

[my_daroga]

Those are all really good comments. Thank you.

Most of your suggestions are problematic, in the sense that 1) I work in film and 2) I can't develop/print/modify color prints myself. This severely limits my choices. Hence the attempt to find a way of being "different" by not modifying anything--which, admittedly, may not work at all. Or may only work a few times. Most of these have different crops/levels/PS stuff in my DevArt account, but I grow weary of fiddling with things. I can spot it right away and if I can tell something's been done, it tends to distract me. I'm more documentary-focused than stylistically, I think.

What's weird about this selection is that half of them are photos I like and half were chosen by Mr. Daroga, inexplicably to me (pigeons, the bus and the horse/indian model, for instance, are ones I never cared for, but he's an art teacher, what do I know?).

I really appreciate your opinions. I need that variety.