You don't become an artist in a vacuum. If you want to be a good writer, you need to read. Likewise, if you want to be a good photographer, you need to spend time looking at other people's photos.
To that end, here are some pictures - one a day - that I pick out of flickr that I think are interesting in one way or another. You should try it to - that's why Flickr has that Explore menu option.
Photo by: Sziga.
I found this simple studio portrait in the “Portraits” tag on Flickr. It’s a good execution of a simple two-light scheme. If you click through to the photo page, there’s a description of the lights. But, you should have a decent idea based on the catch-lights in her eyes. The left eye tells it all – one light coming from off to camera left and one light off to camera right. They’re pretty even in terms of power output, because you don’t have a real contrast between the left and right sides of the face; there’s just a little shadow on the left cheek where the hair blocks some of the light.
Photo by: henrikj.
Found this in the Recent Interesting section of Flickr. It’s such an awesome scenic shot, I couldn’t pass it up. I love the composition, with the body of water in the lower left flowing out into the ocean. And there’s just a hint of a sky and horizon at the end of the picture, the bulk of it being land. Really makes you want to go travel and find some awesome scenes like this. There’s nothing like this in central Jersey…
Photo by: Viele Geischter.
This photo of some football (soccer) players posing together came out of the recent uploads section of Flickr. It’s a great illustration of how to take a quick posed shot outside in the afternoon: find some shade! Look in the background (or in the other pictures in the photostream) and you’ll notice it’s a very bright, sunny day. Put the three lads out in the sun, and they’ll be squinting and have some harsh shadows all over. Instead, they’re sitting in the shade and they’ve got some nice, soft light all around them. One problem with this is your background (if it’s in the sun) will usually get blown out, so don’t expect to get a lot of definition out of it. It can also help to throw in a little bit of fill light from a flash, but you don’t want to over do it.
Photo by: Ft. Couch Potatoes.
This snapshot of some cyclists taking a break came out of the recent uploads section of Flickr. Two things of interest here. One, a “sports” shot doesn’t necessarily have to be an action shot. Those are cool and all, but at the end of the day a lot of sports shots start looking alike – a cyclist riding down the road, a football player making a catcher, a pitcher tossing a ball. The really cool, defining pictures catch moments and faces that draw you to the picture. Which brings me to the second point. I love the way the guys are just standing around, in the middle of doing their usual stuff, and they looked over at the camera. It’s a lot more candid than a “Get together for a group picture!” group shot, but at the same time everyone (except the one guy checking his bike) is looking at the camera. Nice capture.
Photo by: Khamkheyal.
I found this in the Recent Interesting section of Flickr. It was just so cool looking that I had to click through. I like the way the picture is taken looking straight up as the jet flies by. It’s kind of a bit disorienting to look at the picture and figure out which way your looking… and the smoke trail behind the plane, especially at the very bottom of the picture, is really awesome.
Photo by: Eirik Solheim.
It’s about to get extra hot here in New Jersey for a few days, so I went looking for a nice, cool picture of winter. I found this in the “Winter” tags on Flickr. It’s a nice shot. Good example of how hard it can be to take pictures of snow, too. The snow on the left side of the river is a little bit overexposed/blown out, but that’s a trade-off you need to make to get the river to come out well exposed. It’s hard to believe just how much light reflects off snow…
Photo by: Uncle Phooey.
This is a cool picture I found in the Recent Interesting section of Flickr. I love the black and white conversion. The lighting on the trees makes the black and white come out great. It helps make the image look older and more vintage; appropriate for a century-old mill. The composition is cool, too, with the road bending away behind the mill.
Photo by: dangorman16.
I didn’t have any inspiration as to what to look for today, so I headed to the recent uploads section of Flickr. There were some slim pickins, and it took me about a dozen reloads before I found this picture which kind of caught my eye. Composition is tough with sports pictures, since you’re often shooting something that’s happening in a split second and you’re confined by your lens and your position relative to the players. So, while this may not be the best composition for this image (I’d be curious to see what the field around the player looked like at the time), the image is still cool. It’s a good example of capturing the right moment at the right time. It looks like the player just landed a nice header going off to his left, and his body is still all contorted from the effort. Not a whole lot o’ time in which to capture that… good job.
Photo by: yangmc.
I chose “Flower” today out of the popular tags on Flickr. Not really sure why. But after some lackluster photos, I came across this one. Not especially awe-inspiring, but nice and technically sound. I really love the depth of field and sharpness here. The subject (the plant in the focus) is really crisp and sharp. The rest of the image is more or less completely blurry and out of focus. When you’re doing macro work like this, you need to have a shallow depth of field; otherwise the subject won’t stand out against the background. That means a quick lens and the ability to focus on a macro level and get in close to the object itself.
Photo by: Laurent.GL.
Found this image in the “Night” tag on Flickr. Cool shot. I love the reflection of the buildings coming off the water. If you’re thinking of taking night pictures like this, then there’s one thing you need to understand: it’s all available light, so it’s all long exposures. In this case, the image was taken with a 2 second exposure. I wouldn’t hand hold that if I were you, so a tripod is definitely necessary. This leaves the shutter open long enough for the distant lights of the city to burn into the image. There’s also a relatively small aperture (f/8.0) which gives you a decent depth of field; that’s pretty normal for landscape/architectural work.
