Photo feedback and Critique
Hey, you’ve got to take the good with the bad. If you only put up good shots I won’t be able to give you grief 
So, with that lens, I don’t know, could you shoot it a bit wider and then crop the vignette out?
Is PBR the beer? Always try to sell your shots for money, and if you’re exchanging for product, never accept the retail value - always get the cost value. Otherwise they are getting a 40% discount or whatever their markup is. That’s the official line you should try to stick to as much as possible (but it comes down to negotiation sometimes and you cut a deal however you can without screwing yourself)
Haha.
With the lens, I guess I could, but I’ve not really come across something that I’ve shot at 15mm with the fisheye that doesn’t look better on the 16-35mm. Moving over to that lens in a tight area like that stair set is a little tricky. It’ll come down to trial and error I guess. I don’t mind the vignetting on the fisheye so much at these focal lengths, as it’s only slight on the corners, I’ll do one at 15mm and see how it turns out next time we’re out. I did shoot a few test shots with the 16-35mm and preferred what I got out of the 8-15mm.
The PBR is the beer, yeah. It’s an informal thing where I am being supplied for the season by a good friend who’s up there for them. While I’m on a travelling budget, I don’t mind having one print done for something like that, but I can see where you’re coming from.
If it wasn’t someone I knew, it would be a different story. Mind you, if it wasn’t someone I knew, it would be ~$1200 worth of beer, not $0. haha.
$1200 worth of beer! 
$1200 worth of beer!
Yeah, it’s not such a bad deal haha
I trade photos for about $1200 worth of retail value - mind you at wholesale it ends up being around $600.
The most recent was scoring a $600 room/night hotel suite.
And just to keep some perspective and things “REAL” - I’m left to shoot my snow shots in Thredbo, Australia and use a cheap camera body, having to rely on what I can get it to do.
Personally Grahamgee; the first thing I noticed about your fish eye photo was the distortion of the rider (it looks extremely 2D) - looks like it was lifted off a GoPro video. <I’m being harsh
Love the composition and lighting.
Personally Grahamgee; the first thing I noticed about your fish eye photo was the distortion of the rider (it looks extremely 2D) - looks like it was lifted off a GoPro video. <I’m being harsh
Love the composition and lighting.
Thanks spaz, can you think of a way to remove that kind of look? Personally I can’t see it myself so much, but that may be cause I shot it as MarcD was talking about before.
Thanks for the props on the lighting, out here on these shoots has been the first time i’ve really been able to play around with the pocket wizards, so i’ve been trying a few different setups.
Here are a couple from yesterdays shoot that I personally liked.
50-50 front 3 out
While I’m well aware this one breaks a fundamental rule, I tried to use the flash to erase shadows and think it turned out fairly well.
Front blunt
Background in both shots is detracting from the rider otherwise good subject matter.
I think the 2Dimensional look is caused by the lens - maybe buy a more expensive fisheye 
A smaller focal length would improve the illusion of depth. It can be difficult to get right: low f/stop and then manually focus on something like the person sitting’s right foot and hope it has the same focal point as the riders face as he jumps over them, making most of the other parts out of focus.
With practice you can get pretty good at knowing where to set your focus.
I shoot this way when doing race action shots (subject matter is moving much faster). This is from about 200m away, manual focus uncropped (BG distinctive from subject).
Nikon D70, ISO 200, f/8, 1/1000, +5ev, 600mm analog mirror lens
It won’t always be right.
Nikon D300. ISO 400, f/4, 1/4000, 120mm lens
But 3 frames later it might be.
I even shoot surfing on manual focus.
These aren’t exactly great examples as a comparison to your photo but I think you know what I’m saying.
I think that the rider has a white base, white top and the white from the snow spray is prob also influencing the 2d look, white looks good against the sky but blends too much with the snow and board. Maybe get the rider to wear something that pops and has more contrast
I also noticed you cut out the rail in the foreground (rhs).
There was a good opportunity to frame the whole scene with the railing as it would draw attention toward the active area (you were a bit tight). Being wider would also have included those nice straight edges of the steps and completed the framing.
edit: Just like MarcD said “shoot wider” - you can always crop.
I can’t get this framing out of my head! Your shot has so much potential to be really good but I feel it just missed it’s mark.
When setting up a shot like yours; you need to use everything at your disposal - those steps and rail would have made a hell of a lot of difference.
Take more time looking through the lens at the scenery; natural and man made objects can work wonders - especially straight lines.
Notice here how I used the fence to pull attention toward the rider.
I later moved because of the safety ribbon. The fence also allowed me to apply the rule of thirds.
i just think it looks like a gopro because they’re both fisheye lenses. That’s all. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Personally Grahamgee; the first thing I noticed about your fish eye photo was the distortion of the rider (it looks extremely 2D) - looks like it was lifted off a GoPro video. <I’m being harsh
Love the composition and lighting.
Thanks spaz, can you think of a way to remove that kind of look? Personally I can’t see it myself so much, but that may be cause I shot it as MarcD was talking about before.
Thanks for the props on the lighting, out here on these shoots has been the first time i’ve really been able to play around with the pocket wizards, so i’ve been trying a few different setups.
Here are a couple from yesterdays shoot that I personally liked.
50-50 front 3 out
While I’m well aware this one breaks a fundamental rule, I tried to use the flash to erase shadows and think it turned out fairly well.
Front blunt
good use of flash - it’s not noticeable, so perfect!
The spot needs to be cleaned up. All the grungy snow looks terrible. Also, can’t tell whether he’s coming or going. would like either a better angle, or you tell the rider what trick would look best from your angle. something like a nose press coming towards you, for example
Personally I like the last two shots better than the fisheye stair one!!!!!
I think the second shot of the pair is great cause of the grungy snow!!!!! It kinda suits the theme of the setting, of the car park, concrete and steel!!!!! The only thing that I don’t like about it is the guy standing in shot, and the pole in the top right corner!!!!!
The stair one, I think it’s too distorted by the fisheye!!!!! Maybe if the rider was centred in the shot, it would’ve looked better????? But then you’d be losin the couple on the stairs!!!!!
Just my take!!!!!
Shut up ol man! You are wrong!
Я никогда не ошибается в отношении несовершеннолетних!!!!!