Some photographers claim to shoot only natural light while others depend largely on their strobes. This episode of Critique the Community is for those images shot only with constant light.
Between now and May 1st, we will accept up to two images that were shot with only hot lights to be critiqued. We will be choosing a total of 20 submissions to provide feedback to and two of the entrants will win a free Fstoppers tutorial. The first winner will be based on the image that gets the highest averaged community rating and the second will be chosen at random.
Once you've uploaded your images, scroll through the rest of the submissions and provide some feedback of your own. Use your number and keypad to rate the images quickly. When you come across an image where you notice an area that could be improved, we encourage you to leave a positive and helpful comment.
A big thanks to Jason Vinson for providing this week's featured image.
I see some very good work from Kindergarteners ... also they don’t seem biased and assaulting like in a photo forum
Bet you Dollars to Donuts there is a ton of 1 voting in this contest
I bet there is too. :( I am sorry that you have had the experience here that you would describe as 'assaulting'. That stinks. I know that when my profile gets hit with a cross the board "1" voting, I feel really badly about it. I try to chalk it off as something that people do to moderators but it should not happen to anyone.
You cannot look it up if there are many different opinions of what constitutes "hot light" (see this very thread). Define it properly in the briief, easy.
You can't look it up? You can't look it up to learn about this interesting photography technique because other people have expressed contradicting opinions? Uh ... This is exactly when you should do your own research. I don't understand why other's lack of clarity would stop anyone from educating themselves.
My thoughts on the off/on topic discussion: indeed for newcomers the discrepency between the contest-title and the first sentence of the contest description can be misleading: "Some photographers claim to shoot only natural light while others depend largely on their strobes. This episode of Critique the Community is for those images shot only with constant light. " Regardless of any definitions of "hot light", this introduction could be interpreted in either of the two ways.
The way I view the brief description of "Hot Lights" is if you are using a continuous light to control the exposure of an image light you would do with a flash would be acceptable. To me there is a thin line between considering light from say a street, light, candle light, neon signs ect. Because yes you are using those items to control the light in the exposure but have very little control of the light its self. So i see stuff like that ato be considered a ambient light source. That is obviously just my opinion.
Example: lets say im shooting a model in studio and i want the final picture to have a vintage pin up look, i would chose "hot lights" (spot lights, modeling lights, tungsten lights, L.E.D's, powerful controled continuous light. Ect) over flash. The reason i would do that is because, when the old vintage pin ups were painted back in the day thats how they were lit. Hot lights give a different feel, look and type of light to you're image.
I agree there should be an off topic button but also believe a rating less than 3 should come with a comment. It may mean less votes but the value will increase.
I'm a beginner as a photographer, I'm learning so that I can better support my son (media student), take better photos of my family and have a better understanding of the skills and attributes of the media professionals I commission.
I open myself up by submitting to the competitions and also with the hope of winning a random tutorial (I need it),however in this case I have submitted 2 images, I know they are not as good as others by a long way but they are the best I can do at this time. My problem is that I believe I have followed the brief 100% being that I only used constant lights (cheap amazon studio kit). By default according to the rating system the images couldn't be a 1.
So now (due to the absence of comments) I don't know if people think I haven't used constant lights (off topic) or that they don't understand the rating system or that they believe the images are so bad that they ignore the rating system. Not one single comment helpful or otherwise, I thought this was critique not just Judge.
Looking through some of the amazing submissions I think it most likley that we have people just pressing '1' on everything, I'm not a professional so my expectations are low and I know I am progressing (slowly) but for the real professionals out there this must just be insulting.
As I have said to Lynne Guenther (who I would commission on the basis of the images she has sumbitted) in another comment I commission and buy a lot of photography and vidoegraphy, I am pleased to say that this forum is not a reflection of the highly collaberative professionals I have had the pleasure in engaging with.
For those of you who just click '1' or maybe even '2' imagine if I just walked up to you on set and said 'awful' then walked off, would you consider that helpful? Be brave, be honest, be helpful provide constructive supportive comments, that's what communities do (At least good ones)
Aww, thanks for the shout out and praise Julian! My experience in professional settings is the same, highly collaborative. I spoke with an artist from Colorado that I told you about for an hour the other day and he doesn't know me but was very kind and humble!
I am usually a kind person and had maintained that for my reputations sake until this contest. I lost my shit a little on 2 people who attacked me, 1 personally. It doesn't help that I'm ill and in pain today, but it doesn't make it right and apologize for being unprofessional to a couple of you.
This was a very well written and insightful post. You communicate well and your technical skills will catch up to your vision! No doubt! Communicating is communications, written or visual. Many artists are authors as well.
Some of you should shoot more and whine less!
But then what will I read on the toilet?
Good point man, but some are just way to concerned with a contest
Yea, I know what you mean. I just have fun entering the contests and watching the videos.
I have never seen such whiners .. and attacking ..
oh wait .. yes I have .. When I deleted my previous Fstoppers account years ago.
It would be a great improvement for the rating system to get a "off topic" button to avoid to give harsh note to some pictures that are good, but off topic. Giving some bad readings on the quality of an image.
Has anyone here ever had a reply from fstoppers - either through the report function or the contact us?
I don’t think they even monitor the report function.
I would like to block some as FB allows .. WIse Asses in every group.
Does anyone know how Fstoopers downgrades the IQ of your work ??
Say you load 10 MB image .. what do they down grade it to be ??
With FB is pretty radical.
I also don't think they are monitoring the report or the contact us.
And, since they also don't respond to the significant number of requests for an off topic option in competition after competition OR the constant request to make all voting not anonymous, I don't think anyone is actually there at all. :(
A long time ago when I was in this group they were people that did answer.
Now it’s a dead plane on autopilot.
They are way too many authors that have no technical merit and often don’t say anything of value.
Fred Miranda and 500px are much better and they post your work at full res.
Even FaceBook groups are better managed and you can block the AH’s.
This is now a commodity group on the level of Popular Photo with spam and spam articles.
Rude People also.
I will check out those you you mention. Thanks for the tip!
Is this the only forum like place to comment? Is there a way to see the best accounts? I'm new and don't want to just look at popular or newest in the main community, I'm trying to learn what makes good composition and want to look at the best of the best accounts. Thanks for the help!
*When I say best, I meant highest rated. It doesn't seem that popular means highest rated?
I can't figure out how to search for the best macro photographers, could any of you help me by suggesting people on here that are good at in home studio stuff like food, products, flowers? I used to be a birder, but I can't get around as well anymore. I'm also hoping to maybe get into making greeting card images for side money if I can learn to set up scenes like some people I've seen on here. I've seen cars and toys made to look real and I'd like to find someone making there own landscapes so I could ask them some questions. I've done crafts in the past so I can build dioramas but I'm not sure how to get the atmosphere, mood, or whatever it is that makes it look real in a photo. They just look like dioramas. Thanks for the help!
That's actually really cool. I've had several ideas for projects that include dioramas and miniature sets.
I have no idea how it would work out, but if you're interested in collaborating on something, let me know.
How do you mean? I'm in Austin. Do you mean over the internet? I know I'll definitely need help with editing because I only know the basics, but I feel like the pics I've taken so far aren't good enough to bother editing yet. I feel like I'm missing something in camera.
Try these:
https://fstoppers.com/spotlight/skoda-car-campaign-was-shot-using-tiny-t...
https://fstoppers.com/originals/toy-changed-photographers-life-241243
Hey Mimi, I don't think you'll find anything closer to what you are wanting than Felix Hernandez's account
(on this site). Actually, his portfolio shows more behind the scenes than any site I can think of off the top of my head. I also don't know how to search for profiles. Sorry, sweetie!
Try googling "behind the scenes photographing dioramas" and select images. I saw some cool stuff with cacti/desert landscapes came up, and maybe there are tips in the articles if you click on images you like. Good luck!
My niece sent this and now I think I'll get better pics. I was just using one light and putting it too close
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCPMsG3zYpM
Good luck on your contest!