Hi,
> I finally go to it! Whoohoo! Now you can all jump on yours truly the
> novice photog. Here is your chance, so go at it ;-)
Alright Acer! Congratulations on your first shot at a photo gallery! :)
> PS, Jan and Olaf should have no excuse, this is CCed to them as a special
> invitation :-)
>
> PPS, I'm HTML-novice, so comments to that effect will also be appreciated.
O.k., since you specifically ask for comments I will make a few general ones
over here and we can then take the rest off-list (especially the HTML
related details).
First off: your first attempt is not bad and you seem to be developing "an
eye" for interesting photographic subjects. However, there are several
things which could improve both your page and your pictures. Please do not
take any offence to some of the comments, but as Christopher already wrote:
when most of it is correct, you have to check the details (or something like
that). Now, for some advice on your page and the pictures:
Firstly some general page layout remarks:
try structuring the pages some more, currently it looks a bit like a
"regular text file wrapped in HTML tags", make some more use of the nice
features HTML provides you with. Christopher already mentioned setting
background colours etc. but I would take it a bit further, for each picture
take the description of the picture away from the link, put the actual
picture on a subpage and include the picture comment on that subpage. Use
tables to align your comments nicely, also, it can be a good idea to include
the picture itself in the table. Set a specific font (and size), that looks
a lot nicer than just using the browser's default. Make some sort of an
index, the <ul> tag (i.e. a bulleted list) was already suggested but I
personally am not too fond of that tag, check my "gear" subpage for an
example of how this can be resolved in a different way using a table. I will
not bore everyone on the list with HTML details, so I suggest taking the
rest of that discussion off-list, and then you (and anyone else, for that
matter) can ask me whatever you want about HTML.
Secondly, and most importantly, the pictures themselves.
-I second Christopher's remark about not including the "not so good"
pictures. I at times had a hard time choosing pictures for my own picture
gallery, as often a picture is _almost_ very good but something is just not
right (not properly framed, something distracting in the background, etc.).
The only possible solution in such a case is to not include such a picture.
At times it's a pain to have to be harsh on yourself, as there are pictures
which you may like yourself and would love to show to someone else, but it
remains a fact that if something's photographically wrong with it, it will
only have a negative effect on the page as a total. Remember: the page
should be an exhibition of your best work, so make sure you only select
pictures of which you feel there are no errors. You will see that a narrower
selection of your best pictures will lead to a more pleasing and interesting
page as a whole, quantity does not equal quality. Actually, to "disclose"
some information: the selection of pictures on my photo gallery comes from a
total of several hundred pictures. Typically some of my pictures suck, many
are O.K., some are good, but only a few are excellent; make sure to only
pick the excellent pictures for showcasing purposes.
-Regarding the actual pictures:
FLORA: The flora shots seem to be your best pictures, some of them are good,
some others have some minor flaws (too sharp backgrounds, framing, stuff
like that), when I have some more time I'll send you some more detailed
off-list comments.
ARCHITECTURE: two things are particularly important for those kind of
pictures: framing and perspective. Since you used the macro lens for both
shots the perspective is o.k., however the framing is not. The Kimberley
Crest photo is almost correct, but the horizontal lines are not properly
aligned with the picture frame, a pity, for it's a nice shot. Almost the
same goes for the University Of Redlands picture, the framing is not
correct, you'd better re-do this picture all together. Both subjects are
nice though, also consider using the 28mm for some of those shots and see
which focal length you like best.
CARS & PLANES and SCENICS: Make sure your subject is interesting enough,
otherwise there's some cool stuff there, I especially like the Sun Sprinkler
picture because of the cool light effect.
EXPERIMENTS: Not bad, and as the category already says, it's fun to
experiment with long exposures, I also love doing that.
PORTRAITS: I am actually currently doing my best to improve my own portrait
taking picture skills. Consequently I can give some remarks both from theory
(as read) in the books, and from finding out the hard way (i.e. from my own
experience): I would remove the Mum And Omer picture, it has a very
distracting background, the colours are off and the composition as a whole
is not so interesting (IMO). The Noora picture is probably the best of the
lot, the natural light is lovely balanced all over her face and there are
hardly any disturbing shadows, the reflections on the hair are nice too. The
only minus here would be the background, but that of course is something you
could not change in this picture. The Yasmeen picture is (unfortunately)
just not framed correctly, the background is very dark and a bit too
strong/distracting, the colours and (lack of) shadows in the face are not
bad, but somehow the contrast isn't all that great (a scanning issue?). The
Yasmeen And Nora picture has a nice composition, however, there are two
points that could be improved: firstly the background is very distracting,
something more neutral would have yielded a more pleasant result, secondly
the shadows on the faces are just a little bit too strong (this is where the
F280 gives excellent fill flash results --- dunno how the T32 does here).
Try to get them to pose for you again in a similar manner but with a better
background and you will get a lovely picture, I really like their facial
expression.
O.k., you asked for critique (in fact, you've specifically asked it to me
:)), so I hope these comments are useful to you. Let's take the rest
off-list, so I can give you some direct HTML suggestions and if so desired,
some more comments on some of your flora pictures (although Chris has
already made a lot of comments which I would otherwise have made).
Cheerio!
Olafo
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