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Are these B&W good enought ?

Antonio Correia

Antonio Correia

Well-known member
B&W magazine on it's April issue 50, featured to Chicago 1910, launches a contest until 15 June 2007.
I like this magazin a lot and I decided to compete.
I have done the photos herewith and I post them for your appreciation.
I would like to receive comments and feed back if you please.

One doubt I have to begin with is:
The photos are sent in a CD. How will they see them ? I'm sure they will not see them as I do because my monitor is different from theirs.
Some detail in the shadows may desapear or the other way around...

Move this thread if it is in the wronge place, please. Thank you. :) O0

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P

Paul Bestwick

pro member
Anthony,

I think #2 & #3 are the better ones. #1 is poorly composed, & too much bland, blown out concrete. #4 needs to be tighter & the subjects are not quite in position. Look at work by Sebastio Salgado,Cartier Bresson & there are plenty of others of course.
I have played around with one of the images & reposted it. If I were you I would pursue your goal HARD. Work at it but give yourself 12 months and then have a red hot go. Keep posting here for critcism. There are many people who will tell you what great images you are getting. That is not what you want to hear, you want to hear the things that will make you improve.

Cheers,

Paul

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Antonio Correia

Antonio Correia

Well-known member
Paul Bestwick said:
Anthony,... If I were you I would pursue your goal HARD. Work at it but give yourself 12 months and then have a red hot go. Keep posting here for critcism. There are many people who will tell you what great images you are getting. That is not what you want to hear, you want to hear the things that will make you improve. Cheers, Paul
Click to expand...

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your comment.
I will keep posting here for criticism. That's the ideia.

As a matter of fact I just don't want to read how great my images are. That's not enought.
I really would like to hear "the things that will make" me improve as you said yourself.

I have posted in Portugal and what I could get was: very nice, beautiful, gorgeous, etc, etc.
May be I was in the wronge place...

I know here is a nice place for positive criticism.

But the concept of a good photography depends very much of the viewer, his culture, his background, his knowledge.

I am not the kind of photographer that can/like to manipulate the images very much.
I like the B&W photos dark. I can see you have worked on the man's face and blurred the background a bit. I like it.

Cheers and thank you again.
 
K

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Antonio Correia said:
Dear Paul,

Thank you for your comment.
I will keep posting here for criticism. That's the ideia.

As a matter of fact I just don't want to read how great my images are. That's not enought.
I really would like to hear "the things that will make" me improve as you said yourself.

I have posted in Portugal and what I could get was: very nice, beautiful, gorgeous, etc, etc.
May be I was in the wronge place...

I know here is a nice place for positive criticism.

But the concept of a good photography depends very much of the viewer, his culture, his background, his knowledge.

I am not the kind of photographer that can/like to manipulate the images very much.
I like the B&W photos dark. I can see you have worked on the man's face and blurred the background a bit. I like it.

Cheers and thank you again.
Click to expand...

Antonio,

Internet photo forums, even relatively mature-minded sites like OPF, are awful places to seek critique. With all respect, Internet forum criticisms tend toward being technical (ex: aw dude, you blew your highlights) in nature and/or are offered from a very narrow aesthetic sensibility.

B&W is principally a magazine for collectors of black and white photographs. The judges of the contest are likely to be gallery owners, B&W magazine editors, and perhaps museum curators. Measure your own chances by looking at past issues of B&W, as that is likely to be the general genre against which you will be judged.

More importantly, however, judge your work against your own objectives. Impress yourself.
 
Antonio Correia

Antonio Correia

Well-known member
Ken [LEFT said:
Tanaka[/left];24189]Antonio,

Internet photo forums, even relatively mature-minded sites like OPF, are awful places to seek critique. With all respect, Internet forum criticisms tend toward being technical (ex: aw dude, you blew your highlights) in nature and/or are offered from a very narrow aesthetic sensibility.

B&W is principally a magazine for collectors of black and white photographs. The judges of the contest are likely to be gallery owners, B&W magazine editors, and perhaps museum curators. Measure your own chances by looking at past issues of B&W, as that is likely to be the general genre against which you will be judged.

More importantly, however, judge your work against your own objectives. Impress yourself.
Click to expand...

Hello Ken.
How do you do ?
I do agree with your appreciation of OPF and I thank you for your opinion.
I don't have many back issues of the magazine, but you gave a nice and good clue about it's editors or who ever is behind it.
Things are not that different from here, after all ...

Human race !
I'll try to impress myself. :)

On the other hand, they can just say looking at my work:
What's this ? A Portuguese? ah ah ah

Thank you Ken !
Have a nice week end.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Ken Tanaka said:
Antonio,

Internet photo forums, even relatively mature-minded sites like OPF, are awful places to seek critique. With all respect, Internet forum criticisms tend toward being technical (ex: aw dude, you blew your highlights) in nature and/or are offered from a very narrow aesthetic sensibility.

B&W is principally a magazine for collectors of black and white photographs. The judges of the contest are likely to be gallery owners, B&W magazine editors, and perhaps museum curators. Measure your own chances by looking at past issues of B&W, as that is likely to be the general genre against which you will be judged.

More importantly, however, judge your work against your own objectives. Impress yourself.
Click to expand...
Yes Ken,

You are correct. The B&W magazines are addressing people with a serious body of reference work in B&W by masters who's pictures are now monetized as valuable collectors items. This is a very serious business.

Here, for my part, emphasis is first on esthestics, ideas and demands on the viewer to engage. These aspects are also valuued by the B&W magazines, but technical excellence is always a major ruler for pictures that a "classed"as being a certain style for which there are epxectations.

Here we are nurturing. In magazines, you are, in a way, at the doorway of a store with you picture in hand. They may like it, but look to the tastes of their clients who actually buy.

And yes, beware of narrow critques on the web, including here.

asher
 
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