Visual Interest for Navy Events

[rrleesb]

I have been tasked with being our ships photographer. Right now I'm just using our point and shoot, but I will be receiving my 1d MK III soon.

Most of the pictures I take seem to lack visual interest, in my opinion anyway. Please leave constructive criticism.

I understand that the photos are not color correct...just looking for input.

[Djanvk]

You pictures seen to have a blue cast to them.

Fav is the old sailor with the medals.

[rrleesb]

Like I said I haven't adjusted for color or exposure.

The old sailor with the medals is the one retiring. I end up doing about one of these a month as a service to the person retiring, in addition to re-enlistments and award ceremonies. They just all seem to be the same to me so the photos are boring.

[DanteCaspian]

#3, 5 & 6 are good composition, 3 & 6 are the best. The others are just not that inspiring.
Best wishes with the new toy coming!

[eastcoast909]

These types of events are all very similar. You are attempting to capture this moment in time as a memento.

Emotions on faces will allways evoke a bigger response to a photograph and there should be times that this will be evident at these events.

People allways enjoy seeing their friends and families in these settings.

If the location is in keeping with the theme of the event perhaps some general pictures of the location or use the location as a backdrop to the people?

You will need a wide angle lens for this.

Keep shooting, it might not be all that inspiring to you but the people that you are taking the shots for will appreciate the time and effort that you expend.

and yess the portrait picture of the sailor is the one that I prefer. It shows his character and some of his career in his uniform and medals.

[Craze]

Were all these pics taken with a Nikon? It has that cyan that Nikons like to add in all the white a greys.
I too like the sailor with the medals, his clothes tell a story.

[gregnash]

#3 is probably the best composition wise, the rest seem to have a more P&S tone to them. One of those things that seems to change a bit once you get a DSLR in your hands.

[BottomBracket]

Welcome to the forum. What others said, + the color shift is easy to correct in PP, especially if you shot in RAW. I like the composition of the portrait photos, and you might want to work on the others. In the first shot, if you are going to a full body shot it is best to do just that and not cut off any part, in this case the feet. Being an official photographer is great, as no one will mind you as you take the shot. Don't be shy, move up close, but be mindful that you do not distract the ceremonies too much.

[rrleesb]

Thanks for all the input. I had another to do today which was a little challenging. They had their backs to the sun and this camera I'm using has a very weak flash for fill. You can see that the background is overexposed. CC appreciated.

[rrleesb]

A few more

[rrleesb]

last one

[rrleesb]

One more thing....If anyone has some interesting photos of award ceremonies or retirements that they would be willing to share it would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to see if I can copy your work.

[tomd]

Right now I'm just using our point and shoot, but I will be receiving my 1d MK III soon.


That a big jump. Better start lifting weights!

Congrats.

[rrleesb]

That a big jump. Better start lifting weights!

Congrats.
I had a 20d and 24-105 that was stolen on Christmas :cry: and I'm receiving my insurance check soon.:D

[rrleesb]

No more help huh...

[RadAL]

some need to be rotated horizontally too.

[Hamlet]

A couple of quick comments that might help you get better pictures.

1- If your getting a good quality camera, you'll have control over the F stop, thus depth of field. A lot of pictures of the type you'll have to take can be improved if you use a shallow depth of field. Make the background and foreground blurry if you can. that will focus attention to the subject, and often make it look stronger. Look at the picture of the woman holding the flag in her lap. Would it look better if the background was blurred?

2- When taking these shots, try to be aware of what is behind your subject. Avoid posts or door frames coming out of the top of peoples' heads, and try to avoid having a distracting background. Note the one picture above where a sailor's face is edged by some blue item. Would it have been possible to have the edge of the face totally in the green background?

3- Have some fun. This is a great gig.

Steven

[rrleesb]

Thanks for the input. That's the kinda stuff I was looking for.

[lmulderi]

I'd like to see if I can copy your work.

I'd definitely recommend looking at some different galleries to get some suggestions about composition, DOF, and such. Focus on developing your own style though rather than copying others...

[inchman254]

These are a good start, especially with a point and shoot. Nice move-up to a Mark III. Some of us can only dream...

Have a seat... I got a bit carried away.

In my opinion, the cropping on many of the photos could use some work. In the first, almost a third of the photo is sky and the feet are cut off. Cropping would allow more identification of the subject.

In 208, his wrist is cut off so it took me a while to orient myself to what he was doing and which hand I was looking at. I'm thinking that including the shoulder, or at least the elbow in this one would help. Also, give him some space to "move in to".

In 236, the subject only takes up about 1/8th of the photo. The whole bottom half is podium and deck. A wider angle shot might be appropriate if there were something of interest behind him or if the podium had a crest on it or something, but there's nothing there... in fact some of the background is rubble. Try different angles for different speakers to add interest as long as the background is "clean".

I'm not a big fan of sunglasses, either. You can't help it in the one of the gentleman speaking, but you could have had the posed sailor remove them.

As others have said, a shallower depth of field would probably help in some of these. This (and the crop) is one of the reasons why people like 224, IMO. Just be careful to avoid getting the aperture so wide open that you get out of focus ears and stuff.

One or two group shots is ok to show the environment, but I would concentrate on shots of smaller groups of two or three people after that. If you're going to get a group audience shot to provide context/environment, get one of the whole audience. You have a couple of pieces of them but no single audience shot. I like the fact that the tops of the buildings are not cut off, without getting too much sky, in the shots looking across the harbor.

In the second set, the 3 people seem to be looking at another photographer. make sure, especially if you are the official photographer, that you insist that everyone look at you for a couple of shots. This will be easier when you get the 1D, especially if you add a honkin' big flash :cool:. It will also get easier as regular participants get used to you being there. They can even help to coach the non-regulars to look at you.

Speaking of flash, if you're going to be taking lots of pictures of people with hats on in bright sunlight, I'm thinking a good flash would be helpful for almost every shot so the upper portion of their face is not in shadow. The flash would add some life to their eyes, too.

Watch for clutter you can avoid like the chair in the foreground of the presentation picture. This one might be better in landscape anyway, because of all of the wires and junk on the ground in addition to the chair. Again, as the official photographer you should be able to "claim" a good shooting position (don't bruise anyone with your elbows!).

... I just had a revelation that full length seems to work for 2 people, but 3 or more is probably better in landscape. Not sure if this is an accepted "rule" or not.

A better position might have helped avoid the bright sky that caused you the challenges with this photo in the first place. If you will be at the same venues for a lot of your work, scout out the best positions/backgrounds for various times of day and maybe even ask that podiums, etc be placed in certain areas for the best backgrounds/lighting, or at least to avoid the type of lighting in this one. It might be worthwhile to go out with a shipmate before the next official event and take pictures from various angles to see what works best.

When taking shots of individual people sitting down, try to get down on their level as you did in the last one (although this one might be a bit too close for a shot of a person grieving). In the one of the lady sitting I think this would have helped, but you might need a bit of an angle to include the flag in her lap. And in 224, being a bit lower might have helped get rid of a bit of that railing behind him.

I like the overall feel, especially the graininess, of the B&W shot. I would be careful, though, when constructing the actual series for this event, to not include something like this in the series. It is a great personal shot, so this might be a great photo to present to him individually, but it would be too imposing to include in the series if he's only a participant and not the subject of the event.

Make sure you get a clear podium shot of every speaker. Leaving someone out would be a faux pas (and it would probably be the guy with the most stars or anchors :o). You may have done this in your collection, but it is not explicit in what you have presented here (eg. you haven't displayed a close-up of the person at the podium in 203). And make sure you get a few of each speaker so you have some to cull. Speaking makes people do weird things with their eyes and mouth.

I've tried to come up with mental checklists for certain types of shots, but the biggies, IMO, are f-stop/DOF and crop for every photo. I try to remember that I can always crop (within reason), but I can't go the other way if I don't get enough in the original. So I try to get just a bit more than I think I need at the time. In 203, part of the flag is cut off. Not sure if this would have made a difference in the final crop... maybe cut off works, but it's better to have the choice to play with.

Cropping is fast and easy in a product like Lightroom, or even Picasa.

I'm still on the steep learning curve myself and I certainly don't always have the presence of mind during the shoot to get all of this right, but just thought I'd add my two cents worth. I'm just glad that I'm starting to be able to see some of these things in my work and that of other people.

[rrleesb]

Dave thanks for all the input...its greatly appreciated.