New Photographer

[msilgalis]

Okee doke,

I had been reading websites like this for about the past year and a half because I wanted to get into photography. (I always research the heck out of everything). I've gotten lots of great tips and I finally bit the bullet in Feb. and bought a Canon Powershot G5.

Since all my friends and family can say is "Nice picture". I was hoping that I could get some tips from the folks here on the shots that I've taken. I'm fine with critical analysis, but I'm not too keen on ridiculously rude people.

Anyway my pictures can be seen at:

http://www.silgalis.com/Photos/Art/index.htm

Much obliged and feel free to send email to my account on that page.

Mark A. Silgalis

[John_Reed]

Originally Posted by msilgalis

Okee doke,

I had been reading websites like this for about the past year and a half because I wanted to get into photography. (I always research the heck out of everything). I've gotten lots of great tips and I finally bit the bullet in Feb. and bought a Canon Powershot G5.

Since all my friends and family can say is "Nice picture". I was hoping that I could get some tips from the folks here on the shots that I've taken. I'm fine with critical analysis, but I'm not too keen on ridiculously rude people.

Anyway my pictures can be seen at:

http://www.silgalis.com/Photos/Art/index.htm

Much obliged and feel free to send email to my account on that page.

Mark A. Silgalis

Ha! You're no "New Photographer;" your pictures are really good, show a fine sense of composition and good selection of lighting conditions. I especially liked the contrast between the old church in the foreground and (is it the Hancock?) building in the background. Nice angles. But OK, you wanted criticism. Sometimes you can skew a photo afterwards to straighten out its perspective a little. I did this with your photo of the Chicago Board of Trade:

Besides skewing the photo to make the building walls look vertical, I used the "curves" function in Photoshop to lighten up the darks a little, show a little more foreground detail. You may not like it as well as the original; I thought it added something.
One other thing: Your images seem to take a long time to download, and I have a fairly high-speed link. You might try posting lower-res images for future viewing. It only takes at most an 800X600 image to give people plenty to look at.

[msilgalis]

I really appreciate your comments. Actually, I was trying to go for a darker look on the CBOT photo. Something about that building reaching out into the sky made a nice contrast for me. I'm still learning how to make a good B&W photo from a digital photo, so I'll probably still be playing around with that for a while.

Thanks for letting me know about the speed issue. I lowered the quality of the photos from Best to Medium in iView Media Pro.

Thanks again,

Mark A. Silgalis

[John_Reed]

Originally Posted by msilgalis

I really appreciate your comments. Actually, I was trying to go for a darker look on the CBOT photo. Something about that building reaching out into the sky made a nice contrast for me. I'm still learning how to make a good B&W photo from a digital photo, so I'll probably still be playing around with that for a while.

My eyeball interpreted the scene differently than yours; which interpretation is "better" or "worse" is up to the eyeball of the viewer. That's the fun thing about photography as a medium of expression. Why we could create a whole "Ceres"* of shots here.

*Ceres is the Goddess of the Harvest, I think, to explain a bad pun in advance, and the statue at the top of CBOT.

[D70FAN]

Originally Posted by John_Reed

My eyeball interpreted the scene differently than yours; which interpretation is "better" or "worse" is up to the eyeball of the viewer. That's the fun thing about photography as a medium of expression. Why we could create a whole "Ceres"* of shots here.

*Ceres is the Goddess of the Harvest, I think, to explain a bad pun in advance, and the statue at the top of CBOT.

C'mon John, wheres the sport in that? Everybody who's anybody knows Ceres. Saw her last week on Letterman. Most people will recognize her by her stage name of "Series" And that was a good pun until you gave it away.

Is that moire in the skyline shot (from Lakeshore)? Or just this darned LCD display? I'll look again on the home monitor later.

The train station shot is a little too blown-out for my taste (but a nice effect). Reminds me of Tokyo (or vice versa).

That said, excellent picure composition, and subject selection. Chicago is a great town, and you have captured some of that Chi-town feeling. It would be really great to get some night shots of the jazz clubs, and the "miracle mile". I'm usually not there long enough to shoot anything but aerials going in and out of O'Hare.

[ruben]

Mark,

I do not know a lot about photos, but they are nice pictures!

[Pheonyx]

U have great potential. Keep shoting!

[mgerben]

Hi Mark,

If you want some suggestions, the obvious one is to look at other people's photographs and see what you like about them.
This is why I personally will look at all your pictures to see how I can make them like that.
Composition is just spot on good, and eye-catching.
I think that if your family needs a wakeup call and they need to work on
better replies, as these are better than 'nice pictures'.

So, did you post your post to get some compliments?