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Jack Hopkins's picture

Shot from Brecon Beacons

Hey guys,

Back in the day I was a concert photgrapher and now work full time as a video editor and vfx artist. Been wanting to get back into stills for a while, now im 24 and think it is the right time. Went for a very quick drive up to the Brecon Beacons and took some shots, any CC appreciated! Shot on a7si with a Samyang 24mm cine-prime.

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8 Comments

At the age of 24 you're officially forbidden to use the phrase "back in the day"

To your images:
I feel like the first 2 lack a bit of a subject. While the atmosphere is very dark and moody, there is nothing that really pulls you into the picture.

3 and 4. Are they cropped for phone use? 16:9 vertical? It looks a bit weird on the PC.

3rd: That car door should not be in the frame, i think a lower point of view and a tighter crop would serve it better,

4th. This one is the one i like from the series. It has composition, a subject, leading lines. But again the crop is weird as long as you don't see it on a phone. There is a little too much road and a little too much cloud. Crop it down to sth. like 3:4, 4:5 or even 1:1 and i think it would be better.

Hey Max,

Haha ok I won't use that term for a good few years.

Yeah totally get everything you suggested, thanks for taking the time out and giving me the feedback, really good for me to take forward and get back into the swing of stills.

The previous 2 are cropped for iPhone yes, I should go back and change this for desktop. This is the first time in around 2 years I've gone out with the intention of taking photos so I'm excited to do more and learn new comp techniques.

Thanks bro!

The weather looks very bleak and I often think these sort of shots look better in black and white to give a dark moody look.Good luck with getting back into photography. One of my sons was involved in vfx for some years but has now gone on to something totally different. I mostly kept my day job to pay the bills in my career(now retired) but always enjoyed my photography, and still do, as a creative outlet. I did occasionally make some money out of it.These are not striking shots in my opinion but each shot you take is an experiment and exercise in learning your craft.All the best with your endeavours.

Hey Geoff,

I may do a black and white edit just to see how they are, I definitely wanted to show how gloomy is what and everything already had a nice, diffused washed out look due to the cloud cover and fog.

That's cool! Your son didn't like vfx much? It's not my main duty but I just graduated from a vfx course so I get to do a little bit on the side. Yeah I want to get back into stills as an extra motivation and outlet for my creativity, like yourself. I'm eager to get back into it! Thanks for taking the time and commenting.

Thanks Jack.My son was very good at Vfx and in demand but the industry is not user friendly to young families.He wanted to do more in working with people.He still does creative stuff.

Hi Jack. Just an update. My son has now gone back into VFX in Adelaide,South Australia, as a Lighting Trainer for Mill Films which is part of the world wide Technicolor group.It is just starting up in Adelaide. They are now hiring. I have enclosed a link for your info. cheers Geoff
https://careers.technicolor.com/location/adelaide-jobs/3488/2077456-2061...

Can you please explain your intent with the colour balance?

Hey Will,

To be honest, not much intention. Everything was already so washed out and flat, I wanted to try and emphasise that in the grade. The only real alteration I did to the colour scheme was split tone, using blues in the highlights and warmer/green tones in the shadows and de-saturated everything slightly. Just experimenting I guess! Thanks for commenting.