Rate my photos on a scale of 1-5 please?

  • Context: Art 
  • Thread starter Thread starter BadgerBadger92
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  • #31
sbrothy said:
Maybe what you need is a red thread that goes through them all. Of if you already mentioned one, then a less artistic one. One of the Danish photographers I wrote about started out taking shots of children in inner Copenhagen in the 70s but ended up just taking pictures of the architecture. Her collection just got its own exhibition on some museum in Denmark.
I’m mainly a street and architectural photographer. I admire the work of the great street photographers like Robert Frank.
 
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  • #32
BadgerBadger92 said:
I’m mainly street and architectural photographer. I admire the work of the great street photographers like Robert Frank.

See I'm way out of my comfort zone here. How did you select precisely which pictures to show us? Was there an underlying message?
 
  • #33
sbrothy said:
See I'm way out of my comfort zone here. How did you select precisely which pictures to show us? Was there an underlying message?
Some yes, some no. The majority of my photos express a sense of “nihilism,” there’s not much of a story behind the photographs as a group (they’re fine individualistically) but I am looking to give the viewer a certain vibe. It’s somewhat hard to explain.

I have more good photos, including several excellent ones on my Nikon d750 I need to upload and use photoshop to edit them.

So to wrap it up, there’s a connection in that it’s intended to express meaninglessness of life besides what we make of it.
 
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  • #34
Zaciekawiony said:
The problem is that only you know that you see some kind of geometric progression and connection between objects. Western viewers are accustomed to "reading" photographs from left to right, unless there's something compelling in the strong points of the composition.
And there's nothing wrong with that. It's not a shortcoming of the observer, nor is it a "problem".

Art is a communication between artist and viewer, supported by some amount of agreed-upon language.

Imagine me publishing a poem I wrote from back-to-front, and then telling you the reader that the "problem" is that you only know how to read front to back.
 
  • #35
BadgerBadger92 said:
I went to school for photography but dropped out because I thought it was limiting my creativity. I dislike the idea of “artistic rules.” I just follow my gut and heart.
That is unfortunate.

Have you heard the expression "You can't think outside the box if you don't know what's in the box?"

School doesn't limit your creativity. It can't jam your camera when you want to take a pic you like, and it can't fire your shutter against your will.
 
  • #36
DaveC426913 said:
That is unfortunate.

Have you heard the expression "You can't think outside the box if you don't know what's in the box?"

School doesn't limit your creativity. It can't jam your camera when you want to take a pic you like, and it can't fire your shutter against your will.
I know the basic rules like the rules of thirds, Fibonacci sequence, basic compositional techniques, leading lines, framing, symmetry, negative space etc., you can find these techniques in my work.

Plenty of famous photographers dropped out of art school or never went on general, such as Robert Frank and William Eggleston, and Saul Lieter. Though Saul lister went to school, it was to be a rabbi not an artist. Many artists would agree with my statement.

Van Gough dropped out of art school too.

Even Ansel Adams didnt go to college.
 
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  • #37
BadgerBadger92 said:
I have low confidence. But luckily my portfolio gets a 5/5 by peers, family, and art teachers.

What can I improve on? You rated my school house pic and train station pic low. Those are usually my most popular. What needs to be improved?
It's art, by definition it is subjective. Also you scored 80% on some of your pics, that's very good.
 
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  • #38
It is subjective, I’m just used to people really enjoying my work. 90% of the people I asked, including my art professors gave my body of work a 100%
 
  • #39
BadgerBadger92 said:
I’d like to hear people’s critiques out of five. Please look at and rate all of them.
5/5
5/5
3/5
3/5
1/5
5/5,5/5
5/5
2/5
5/5
 
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  • #40
BadgerBadger92 said:
I’m mainly a street and architectural photographer. I admire the work of the great street photographers like Robert Frank.
I find your subject matter depressing so if I rated them, I would have to do it using technical criteria which I don't have.
To compliment you, your images look like the sort I might expect to see at an art exhibition, or in a Sunday British broadsheet news paper.
Have a look in random photos to see what other members put on.
 
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  • #41
No ratings from me (at least not yet), but I want to say I like the last photo the most:

BadgerBadger92 said:
IMG_0398.webp

I like the atmosphere a lot. A lot.
It's desolate, almost dystopian, which can be an interesting twist on things.
Which makes me doubt there is fine furniture inside the store, despite the ad :smile:.

And the perspective is very, very nice.
And the lighting (and lighting differences) are very nice and interesting.
I would guess it was taken at sunset (or some short time before) or sunrise (or some short time after).
 
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  • #42
BadgerBadger92 said:

I won't rate them on a scale, but I will repeat what I've said before: I like them.

(I've seen some of these photos from a previous post, several years ago [and I remember commenting on them at the time]. Some of the photos are good enough that I still remember them.)

There's definitely some potential shown, anyway.

By the way, there is a sort-of category of photography called "liminal photography" where your photos (at least a few of them) might fit into quite nicely. If not "liminal" per se, some of your photos capture a certain "uneasiness." That's a good thing to capture in a photo; it keeps things curious.

So what can you do to improve? (You asked in a post above somewhere or another.)
  • Get out there and take more photos. Carry a camera around with you whenever you leave the house, if it helps. This is "practice, practice, practice," sort of advice.
  • Study the work of famous or noteworthy photographers. I'm not saying you should copy their work or style, but rather gain inspiration from them. Look at their photos and ask yourself why certain compositional elements work. Some photographers you might find interesting are (given the photos above you've shared), to name a few:
    • Henry Wessle
    • Todd Hido
    • Michael Ackerman
    • Trent Parke
    • William Eggleston
    • Saul Leiter
    • Lee Friedlander
    • Joel Meyerowitz
    • Stephen Shore
 
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  • #43
BadgerBadger92 said:
I know, I know. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I’m just on a journey to being a respected photographer like my heros Robert Frank, William Eggleston, Ansel Adams, Saul Leiter, Vivian Mayer, etc.
I could not name one photographer so if I rated your photos, my assessment would be pretty worthless.
Having said that....
I like colour BUT I like black and white when I think it adds (just for me)
1 and 2 my favourites.
I try and do perspective but usually mess it up despite instruction from a friend who has been doing this for a while as an amateur photographer.
1 makes feel uneasy but then again, that's art!
 
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  • #44
BadgerBadger92 said:
Some yes, some no. The majority of my photos express a sense of “nihilism,” there’s not much of a story behind the photographs as a group (they’re fine individualistically) but I am looking to give the viewer a certain vibe. It’s somewhat hard to explain.

I have more good photos, including several excellent ones on my Nikon d750 I need to upload and use photoshop to edit them.

So to wrap it up, there’s a connection in that it’s intended to express meaninglessness of life besides what we make of it.
Harsh. Cynical even. But the artistic aspiration is admirable, IMH (and uneducated) O.
 
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  • #45
pinball1970 said:
I could not name one photographer so if I rated your photos, my assessment would be pretty worthless.
Having said that....
I like colour BUT I like black and white when I think it adds (just for me)
1 and 2 my favourites.
I try and do perspective but usually mess it up despite instruction from a friend who has been doing this for a while as an amateur photographer.
1 makes feel uneasy but then again, that's art!

Yeah, some art knocks you out of your comfort zone. I'd call that result a success, if it's within what you extended intended of course. Not that all art have to have an unequivocally consciouss agenda to "work" - so to say....
 
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  • #46
sbrothy said:
Yeah, some art knocks you out of your comfort zone. I'd call that result a success, if it's within what you extended intended of course. Not that all art have to have an unequivocally consciouss agenda to "work" - so to say....
And.....we are discussing it.
 
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  • #47
pinball1970 said:
And.....we are discussing it.
Indeed. Than again we were asked to do so, but yes, mission accomplished. :woot:
 
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  • #48
BadgerBadger92 said:
I have low confidence. But luckily my portfolio gets a 5/5 by peers, family, and art teachers.

What can I improve on? You rated my school house pic and train station pic low. Those are usually my most popular. What needs to be improved?
5/5 with family perhaps isn't so boast-worthy! :smile:

So you turned here to get a tougher audience? And then, typical for physicsforums, immediately ran into a "geeky" discussion about the relativity and mean score of the rating rules! :woot:

EDIT: We may have to involve ChatGPT and do a Monte-Carlo simulation!
 
  • #49
I’ve seen it before, some interesting stuff on there.
 
  • #52
  • #53
BadgerBadger92 said:
Never knew there was an art competition, wish I could have been part of it
There used to be a weekly photo competition for photos on a subject designated by the thread's originator.
As I recall, votes (as likes or as a poll) were used to decide a weekly winner.
This was fun but it probably took a fair amount of time and effort for the thread runner. He stopped at some point.

However, anyone could restart this. Its just a bunch of work every week. The current random pictures thread is a kind of follow up on it, without the topics and voting. Low labor requirements.
 
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  • #54
BillTre said:
This was fun but it probably took a fair amount of time and effort for the thread runner. He stopped at some point.
That was @ZapperZ that managed that thread, IIRC. :smile: (Yeah, what a lot of work!)
 
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  • #55
BillTre said:
There used to be a weekly photo competition for photos on a subject designated by the thread's originator.
As I recall, votes (as likes or as a poll) were used to decide a weekly winner.
This was fun but it probably took a fair amount of time and effort for the thread runner. He stopped at some point.

However, anyone could restart this. Its just a bunch of work every week. The current random pictures thread is a kind of follow up on it, without the topics and voting. Low labor requirements.
berkeman said:
That was @ZapperZ that managed that thread, IIRC. :smile: (Yeah, what a lot of work!)

I was about to say: "You'd get a lot of feedback.". Not necessarily artistic and maybe nor exactly the kind you'd like. It wouldn't revolve about you only. And as @berkeman said it'd probably be a lot of work. These things always are. I suspect @BillTre is being a bit optimistic with regards to the amount of labour needed. :smile:

EDIT: Or perhaps more likely he's just being ironic! o0)
 
  • #56
BillTre said:
There used to be a weekly photo competition for photos on a subject designated by the thread's originator.
As I recall, votes (as likes or as a poll) were used to decide a weekly winner.
This was fun but it probably took a fair amount of time and effort for the thread runner. He stopped at some point.

berkeman said:
That was @ZapperZ that managed that thread, IIRC. :smile: (Yeah, what a lot of work!)

I remember it very well, it was very fun!
And it actually played a part in my growing interest in photography.

It was fun to get a weekly topic for photos, and then try to go out a shoot something suitable for the topic of the week. It was often a reason for me to go out shooting (I used a smartphone at that time).

And after that I started to go on my own dedicated photography walks in the city...
...good exercise and creatively rewarding at the same time...
...and soon my desire to get better gear came too! :biggrin:
 
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  • #57
BillTre said:
There used to be a weekly photo competition for photos on a subject designated by the thread's originator.
As I recall, votes (as likes or as a poll) were used to decide a weekly winner.
This was fun but it probably took a fair amount of time and effort for the thread runner.

berkeman said:
That was @ZapperZ that managed that thread, IIRC. :smile: (Yeah, what a lot of work!)

Sidenote: A little bit of humor... :smile:

Gosh, now I remembered one of the most fun topics, which also was repeated a couple of times: Bad Photos.
Hilarious. 😄

ZapperZ said once said:
As before, this must be a photo that didn't turn out right, either overexposed, unfocused, a body part blocked the view, etc. These bad photos must have been taken by accident, not on purpose.

Threads:
Enjoy! 😄
 
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  • #58
My feeling upon viewing your photos was the reason you took them. This is where the insight comes in with more famous photographers.

For the first three, they are very interesting:
- p1 looks like a ghost is teching to a class of enpty students
- p2 has a geometric look
- p3 has an empty diner look with one patron leaving
- p4 decay
- p5 emptiness
- p6 night diner in the evening
- p7 poverty reminds me of the Appalachian photos during the great depression
- p8 mystery door in a derelict building
- p9 A Barchart of bldgs
- p10 a daytime view of the night diner )I know its different bldgs but that was my feeling based on the photo geometry

In summary, my favorites are:
- p1, the sad ghost teaching a class of absent students.
- p2 the geometric view reminds me of Harry Potter at the train station
- p8, the mystery door, I wonder where it leads

One nice thing about today's photography is that you can take a picture of anything at any time and see the results immediately.

So many photographers in the past had to really know their craft to get great photos while contending with the cost of supplies and the cost of lugging them around.

Have you seen the movie with Ben Stiller: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

It's a humorous nod to Life magazine and how its photographers traveled the world to find great photos.
 
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  • #59
jedishrfu said:
My feeling upon viewing your photos was the reason you took them. This is where the insight comes in with more famous photographers.

For the first three, they are very interesting:
- p1 looks like a ghost is teching to a class of enpty students
- p2 has a geometric look
- p3 has an empty diner look with one patron leaving
- p4 decay
- p5 emptiness
- p6 night diner in the evening
- p7 poverty reminds me of the Appalachian photos during the great depression
- p8 mystery door in a derelict building
- p9 A Barchart of bldgs
- p10 a daytime view of the night diner )I know its different bldgs but that was my feeling based on the photo geometry

In summary, my favorites are:
- p1, the sad ghost teaching a class of absent students.
- p2 the geometric view reminds me of Harry Potter at the train station
- p8, the mystery door, I wonder where it leads

One nice thing about today's photography is that you can take a picture of anything at any time and see the results immediately.

So many photographers in the past had to really know their craft to get great photos while contending with the cost of supplies and the cost of lugging them around.

Have you seen the movie with Ben Stiller: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

It's a humorous nod to Life magazine and how its photographers traveled the world to find great photos.
I love the look of film, but that’s exactly why I go digital. I can see the results right away and adjust exposure accordingly. Also nowadays photoshop has ways to make your digital pictures look like film which is great.

I currently have a Nikon D750, and got it from my dad. I believe at the time he bought it it was $3,000. Now I’m saving up for a Nikon z9
 

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