Learning from my own bad photos

Рет қаралды 2,672

3 ай бұрын

I take a lot of bad photographs. But I can also learn from my bad photos. What went wrong, and how can I avoid those in the future?
From the production point of view, I made the following artistic decisions:
-I buttoned my shirt wrong in a few clips -- can you spot them?
-I played "I'm a looser" by the Beatles -- feel free to sing along :-)

Пікірлер: 44

@MarcoRoepers 3 ай бұрын

Sometimes I am disappointed about a picture I took but later on my judgement changes and I begin to appreciate it. Maybe photos are like children. "Kid, you disappoint me with what you have succeeded. I thought you would become a professor." But later on you acknowledge that what your kid have become, stands very much in his own right. It were your expectations that were wrong.

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

A very good comparison. I've also noticed that I later liked some pics I didn't like at first -- and the other way around. my kids -- I always liked them even though they can be irritating at times .....

@darrenbivings4227 2 ай бұрын

I completely love this video. I give you lots of credit and respect for editing and criticizing your work online. That is brave. The last time I experienced anything like this was in college during the late 70's and 80's. The pictures of the trees and snow really wasn't that bad. If you are going for whole frame perfection, then editing the trees and snow is done. A simple crop of the foreground to remove the distraction of some of the snow makes all the difference. Try removing half of the snow in the foreground. I remember my college training about cropping. If it is at all possible remove the distraction from the outside of the image. So that your eyes aren't wondering around the image. If the subject is competing with the parts of the image, remove it if possible.

@ejorbe 3 ай бұрын

I have always looked at my pictures afterwards and always find things that I did not see through the view finder. I always ask myself how did I miss that, then I decided to feel what I was doing when taking a picture. I feel anxiousness when I am in a crowded space taking a photograph. And when I am by myself I have target fixation where I am only focused on my subject to the point I miss what else is in my frame. Then I get back home and see it on a bigger screen and I see what I missed….or should say added, when I was looking through a view finder. I did like the picture of the book store in black and white, except for the guy in the bottom left corner wearing a tshirt, it feels timeless. Thanks for another great video!!

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

Thanks thanks. I also find many things in my pictures afterward that I didn't see through the viewfinder. But I'm getting better. This is the aspect that I've improved the most during the last few years. Earlier, it was a total surprise to me -- now I know much better what the final result is, and I see even many little things through the viewfinder. Not perfect, but getting better :-)

@wcrofford 2 ай бұрын

Thanks, my daughter asked me if I had taken some photographs at her wedding even though she had hired a photographer and I was asked not to take any at the wedding itself - fine. I did, however take several photos at the reception and after processing them (Canon T7i) I noticed in many of the photos that I hadn't been careful enough to see what was on the periphery of the frame. Too many unwanted objects/people. I had to do a lot of cropping to make them presentable. I was glad that I wasn't paid to take these photos - great learning time.

@garybrowne2409 3 ай бұрын

Fantastic. I love this take on photography. Very personal, and very engaging. Thank you.

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

Thanks thanks! Glad you liked it!

@dagebostrom6223 3 ай бұрын

A well-reasoned speech. Thanks for the video, Ari.

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching :-)

@davidottman9501 3 ай бұрын

Thanks Ari, well said! In self-evaluating my own work, I'm learning to allow time before judging like/don't like for any given photo. It's like a fermentation process, sometimes it matures into something differently delicious, and sometimes it just turns rancid. First impressions may be totally different, either way.

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

"It's like a fermentation process". -- exactly!! Well said!!!!

@tedphillips2951 3 ай бұрын

I totally agree with your analysis of your photos except for the first two of the police. I really liked the harsh affect & I liked the photos very much.

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

Thank thanks. And this is the beauty of photography -- and art. We do not need to agree and everybody is entitled to their own view!! :-)

@MatthewJTalas 3 ай бұрын

Applying the lessons I learn by analyzing my own photos is tricky. I need to remain in the moment when out with my camera and simultaneously listen to the voice in my head telling me to look for better light or find a better background. Happily, those lessons do seem to somehow make their way into my photos.

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

And that’s where analog photography helps. It clearly separates the time of shooting vs. viewing.

@distagon6052 3 ай бұрын

… and the horizontal element in the tree silhouette adds a lot…

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

… true

@jmcgonnell 3 ай бұрын

nice lesson Ari!

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

Thanks!

@marknicholson5293 3 ай бұрын

I liked the first photo with the very dangerous looking police. The contrast helped with that. The background could be fixed with a heavy irregular vignette. You are always interesting and helpful but this time more so.

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

Yeah, I could partially fix the background -- you are right!!

@williamshaffer9216 3 ай бұрын

I always enjoy your videos! I alsoalways enjoy your photographs, even the ones that you are less than pleased with. We allsee photographs differently and I find that even the photographs you have taken that do not suit your taste are beautiful images. I knowI keep my "failure" photographs as well as the good ones and several years later, I will come back to one of those "failures" and suddenly see it in a different, more favofable light. I hope that you might come to that conclusion in later years, too! Keel up the good work!!!

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

You are so right that we look at our photos differently as time passes. Some get better over time, but some get worse :-).

@terencelaubach6565 3 ай бұрын

I like the picture of the five police officers. An excellent group photo with strong lighting, a straight forward composition set simply in their natural environment. I see quiet confidence in their faces and posture as their workday begins.

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

I like them too. Such a pity that I don’t like the photo of them. 😅

@robertyoung1777 2 ай бұрын

If they had menacingly expressions on their faces, the contrast would have be effective. Because they look at ease, a softer light might have been better. On second look I like the picture. Its size on my phone could be a factor - if I was looking at a large print, it might go flat. Pure speculation on my part.

@lupindeweir 3 ай бұрын

Hi and good morning! On the comparison of the two pictures of the trees would you say that the second example was the stronger image because you also had stronger anchors? The trees in the first were very thin and looked more like scratches but the trees in the second were more substantial and held your eye so that you could then wander to see the structure coming from them. Anyway, enjoyed your presentation as always! mike

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

Very true. The first one is weak and messy.

@proctormacbelle4904 3 ай бұрын

wow the image at 6:15 reminds me of an SD card (with your (inner) image inside)

@tumaprints 3 ай бұрын

That's cool, never saw that.

@wolfganggerlach1868 3 ай бұрын

I like this video, Ari! Thanks for showing! I have a question. Could you show how you flatten your fiber papers? Kind regards from Sweden!

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

I thought I made a video about, but it seems I haven't. But this is what I do: -After the final wash I hang them to dry with clothespins -Then, when they do not drop water any more but are still wet, I lay them on our dinner table (that I've wiped out clean). I put a drinking glass on every corner to push corners down. Turn the glass upside down and put it on the corer tip of the paper just enough to press the corner down -I let them dry over night -then, I have several old large IKEA (ha ha, you Swede!! :-) ) shelfs that I took from a large bookshelf that we threw away. Now that the pictures are dry and fairly flat, I put them between the shelves, and put books, and other stuff on them to press them down. It's my simple presser 🙂 -after a few days the pictures are flat

@wolfganggerlach1868 2 ай бұрын

Thank you very much for this information! I will try it, but instead of IKEA shelfs (I do not have any, 😅) I will buy some acid-free cardboards in order to press the photos between with books on. Kind regards, Wolfgang.@@ShootOnFilm

@mnickdell8104 3 ай бұрын

It's amazing that you think Rolleicord is "leftish" and is equal to two "right-ish" lomo cameras ... never mind, i am joking...haha... . great video as always... please keep up the good work! t.... hank you very much .... 🙏🙏🙏

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

:-). Ha haa -- they are both fine in their own ways!

@chriscard6544 3 ай бұрын

I dont want to improve my photographs, I want to get closer to truth and trigger emotions to people. I want my photos sound like Joy Division songs

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

Good points. Me, on the other hand, I’m not interested in truth. Quite the contrary. I’d like my photos rather sound like John Prine.

@chriscard6544 3 ай бұрын

@@ShootOnFilm interesting. truth is something I like in Emily Dickinson poems

@stephenm103 3 ай бұрын

Is it coincidental that those pictures you like were shot in what appeared to be relatively flat light whereas those you did not like were all shot in relatively harsh light? The dynamic range of human vision is orders of magnitude greater than that of film. It occurs to me that in flat light the dynamic range of the scene is at a minimum and as a result what we see is closer to what will eventually Be realized on our negatives. The opposite is true in harsh lighting.

@ShootOnFilm 3 ай бұрын

Excellent point. I do like diffused light, even low light. And I always struggle with sunlight and high contrast!

@stephenm103 2 ай бұрын

@@ShootOnFilm And me as well . . . . thanks for bringing these points into the light of day