Portraits aren't my thing - I find them incredibly hard and they never come out right, so for now I've decided on just aesthetic scapes. These are two from a trip to Bruges, taken with a simply point and click. I like them, but they don't have that extra zing. How would you improve?
During trips I also enjoy photographing food - because I think it contributes a good slice of a succesful trip. This one I nearly contributed to (last week's?) session of cafe shots. I think the grainyness of the picture actually contributes to the atmosphere. Perhaps I should convert this one to black and white.
I think only that bit is properly exposed ...
Question: how would you reduce that kind of flaring effect?
Perhaps I should just take a beginner's course before I start bothering people here...
Basically, that's scattering off and between the surfaces of the individual lens elements within the lens (as far as I know!). High-end lenses are designed to avoid it, use all sorts of funky glass and special coatings to reduce the amount of flare from bright patches and correct for other things. (I'm having a sudden crisis of confidence that flare is the right work now. Oh well.) They don't always succeed - even some very expensive lenses can need careful handling to avoid it.
If your camera can't handle it you need to avoid the bright patches when you can.
I don't see the point of moving towards expensive equipment if I can't make decent compositions in the first place...
Anyhow, you'll just have to talk to Mr Sun about the whole scheduling thing.
A lot of landscape photographers talk about the early and late hours of sunlights as being the magic times for photos. That or an overcast day: trying to take photos in midday sun is hard work.
Besides, I can't check. It has broken down since and I left it in the Netherlands. I'm devoid of camera at the moment. If there's money over after my car purchase (trepidation, trepidation) I can focus on that one...
Digital or film?
I can't check that either - when I had the film developed I also requested a digital format. That's the one you see here. Interestingly, I like the paper version over the digital one.
There are people who go to some trouble and expense to buy older lenses without some of the high-tech coatings in order to get certain flare effects like that.
