[NEG] Critique please

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

You might have seen this one before. Spotmatic SP with S-Tak 1.4/50 on Ilford FP4+, developed in DD-X and scanned on my V700. I didn't record the aperture/shutter speed. The DOF looks at least f8 and it was a cloudy day so maybe 1/125 max.

From a technical view I think this might be my best pic since I started using film again 3 years ago. The carousel was turning at full speed and I had to catch the focus and composition as the little girl came towards me, so I was pretty pleased with the outcome. The only PP is a little sharpening.

But artistically I have much to learn. I was disappointed I aimed too high and cut off the little girl's foot. Sad

Please tell me honestly what you think!

Nesster · Expire: 2014-02-20

LOL, I do that all the time, you'd think we'd learn Wink

You stopped the motion - or followed it in some combination really well, and the tonal range is very nice indeed, I think Barbara and Lucy are spot on.

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

the tonal range is superb, great resolution, nice composition

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Thankyou all! That's good news.

A friend of my wife belongs to the local camera club and when I told her I was still shooting film she invited me to submit one or two B&W pictures for their next competition. They must be very short of entries! Smile

I've never entered a competition before so I needed to get a feel. I'll send her this one and a B&W conversion which I can't post here. I'll let you know how I get on.

hexi · Expire: 2011-11-18

Its very good in b&w rendtion as said above, after for the compostion you have to choose and the perfect pictures does not exist. Here you captured quite nicely the expressions which is far than enough to make it a great shot Very Happy

Fp4 is a very good film by the way

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Thankyou hexi! I've been thinking - if I had been further away (or had a wider lens) so as to include her foot in the frame, then her expression would have been lost. I feel happier now! Smile

I've been using PanF for a while, for the finer grain, but it's too contrasty for me and the grain in the FP4 shots is not really visible, so I think I'll go back to using FP4 again.

Katastrofo · Expire: 2013-11-19

Peter, this is one of my favorites of yours, thanks for posting. Agree with
above comments, you nailed focus and tones are superb.

marty · Joined: 09 Apr 2009 Posts: 767 Location: Italy

You captured the mood and the feeling of the scene and this is important as much, if even more, as other aesthetic or technical
aspects. The intense gaze of the child girl in that moment is really an open window into her soul. Talking of technicalities good negative with long tonal range, exposure and focus nailed to the last bit.
Marty

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Thanks Bill & Marty. She doesn't appear to be enjoying her ride, does she? Smile

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

This is a great shot, Peter!
You could talk about the crop but each new crop would mean a different picture.
I really like it!

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Thanks Carsten. I really struck lucky with this I think, it was the only keeper out of about 8 shots. This isn't a crop, by the way. It's how the image came out of the scanner. This is what I remember about taking the shot:

I wanted a fast enough speed to freeze the motion, but a fairly deep in-focus field, so it was a trade-off between aperture/shutter. I took several shots with different settings. Nothing was stationary for focussing, so I just set the distance on the scale and hoped for the best. I wanted to catch her face, so she had to be in the right half of the frame and I was concentrating on timing the shutter more than on framing. I think I just aimed to have her head around the upper 1/3 line and forgot about her feet.

Her's one of the other shots Smile