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UER Forum > Archived UE Photo Critiques > Paper Mills (Viewed 390 times) DrDeke  Location: Michigan Gender: Male  |  Paper Mills < on 4/27/2006 6:59 PM >   I've dug out a few of the more "artistic" photos that I took in some area paper mills a few years back to present for your consideration. I know a lot more about photography now than I did then, but nevertheless please feel free to unleash any constructive criticism you may have. Although I am aware of some fairly obvious technical errors in some of these shots, I would certainly like to hear what you have to say about them. I took some of these with a Canon Powershot G1, the others with a G2. These aren't the best cameras in the world by a long shot, but they certainly aren't horrible either, especially compared to the other "consumer" digicams that were on the market in those days. #1 - This was a handheld shot and I could not hold the camera steady for a longer exposure, although I think a bit more exposure would have been nice. Fiddling with the levels in Photoshop helped the contrast quite a bit, but I still feel that just a bit more exposure would have made the end image even better. #2 - This was shot with a tripod and I did not realize how overexposed it was when I took it. Nevertheless, I like the image. I did not do ANY post-processing on this image nor did I use a color filter; the green color is a result of the fact that the room was lit entirely by the light of the sun, but there were green pieces of plastic covering all the windows. #3 - One of the turbine/generators in the power plant belonging to the mill featured in the last two images. I'm disappointed by this image but I don't know why. I don't see any glaring technical flaws, and I like the subject matter, but this specific image strikes me as rather boring. Any ideas? #4 - One of the control rooms of the power plant mentioned in the last shot. This image is directly out of the camera. Image #5 is this same shot after having fiddled with the color levels and contrast in Photoshop. I am unsure which image I like best. The post-processed image certainly has better contrast and I suspect it better represents what the place "really looked like," but the yellow-grayish tone of the unedited image evokes feelings (to me at least) that the place is old and dusty, which it certainly was. #5 - See comments for #4. This is the post-processed version of that image. I guess the difference between the two images is more pronounced in the copies that I did not shrink to 800x600 for posting here. #6 - Power plant in a different mill. I like the shot, but I wonder how the shot would have looked had I rotated the camera 90 degrees... #7 - Looking in one side and out the other of one of the boilers featured in #6. #8 - I was just trying to take a snapshot of Mill D when I took this; I didn't realize that the power plant window and the sun were going to cause such an interesting framing and effect. If I had this to do over, I think I would lower the camera angle slightly so that the top windowframe piece would be at the very top of the image. Perhaps that way it would not have been washed out/overridden by the sunlight above and would have provided more contrast with the extremely bright (and somewhat washed out) area below. Again, please don't let my comments to the effect that I like some of these shots stop you from criticizing them; I welcome all feedback. -DrDeke If you don't want it known, don't say it on a phone. uair01  Location: Rotterdam.NL Gender: Male -=|x|=-  |  |  Re: Paper Mills <Reply # 1 on 4/29/2006 7:26 PM >   I know this will sound nasty but I mean no harm ... really! These are great documentary pictures - the summarize what's in the place very well and give a good overview. But somehow they don't capture any atmosphere. I'm sorry that I can't point out what's missing ... "Not to look behind a door is an insult to the door, and the reality it is hiding." DrDeke  Location: Michigan Gender: Male  |  Re: Paper Mills <Reply # 2 on 4/29/2006 8:17 PM >   Posted by uair01 I know this will sound nasty but I mean no harm ... really! These are great documentary pictures - the summarize what's in the place very well and give a good overview. But somehow they don't capture any atmosphere. I'm sorry that I can't point out what's missing ... Well, it doesn't sound all that nasty because it is kind of along the same lines as what I was thinking myself. Now, granted, I did take these pictures several years ago when I was first learning about photography, and my primary goal, as you noticed, was to take "documentary" style pictures that show what's in the place. But the locations _do_ have a TON of atmosphere, and I'm not sure what to do in order to try to capture some of it. I would go back and re-photograph these places with "atmosphere" specifically in mind and compare the results, but both of the locations have been or are being destroyed, so I can't really use the trial-and-error method in this manner. However, these aren't the only two abandoned factories in the world and I would very much like to be able to capture more of the atmosphere of the other places I explore. So, if you or anyone else has any ideas, I'd be grateful to hear them. -DrDeke If you don't want it known, don't say it on a phone. sam  Location: se england  |  Re: Paper Mills <Reply # 3 on 4/29/2006 10:56 PM >   this may or may not help, but what ocurred to me was that i can't tell what it is you were looking at when you took the pictures. the one i like best, no. 6, my eye is drawn to a bit of the wall on the right and not to the end, because it doesn't seem to be where you're pointing. possibly that's because when you take pics presenting what is there, you're not really looking at anything specific? they're also quite bright and with flash which rubbishes atmosphere. i used to take very documentary style pics and suffered from trying to cram everything in each picture, plus i used flash. so when i had to reload older pictures back onto my site i cropped them to make them more specific, lowered the brightness and then cheated and sharpened them. it seemed to improve them quite a bit. that's a drastic measures bottom of the bag suggestion maybe. sam www.section61.com - uk ue mag www.nobodythere.co.uk - ue pics archive nohbdy  Gender: Male  |  Re: Paper Mills <Reply # 4 on 5/2/2006 3:48 AM >   i love paper mills, they wont let me in to any of the ones around here, 2 and 6 i really like patrickemmons  Location: Seattle, WA Gender: Male yeah  |  |  |  Re: Paper Mills <Reply # 5 on 5/2/2006 6:03 PM >   They do look like strictly documentary photos, which works well if you are using them for the DB or to show people the experience of being there. I really like the green one a lot except for the normal light in the back of the photo. Also, the electrical room one looks like flash fired and I HATE seeing flash reflections in metal... Patrick band: nativetrash.bandcamp.com | screen printing / record label: acityinside.storenvy.com DrDeke  Location: Michigan Gender: Male  |  Re: Paper Mills <Reply # 6 on 5/2/2006 8:54 PM >   Posted by patrickemmons I really like the green one a lot except for the normal light in the back of the photo. Yeah, the green-lit room was pretty promising. I wish it were still around for me to work with today. #2-1 - No white light in this one; too bad it's so poorly framed. #2-2 Link to HiRes - This one would have been a lot cooler without the general overexposure and especially the glare on the control panel (not sure what caused that; I didn't use flash on that shot, so that wasn't it). Posted by sam-uk this may or may not help, but what ocurred to me was that i can't tell what it is you were looking at when you took the pictures. the one i like best, no. 6, my eye is drawn to a bit of the wall on the right and not to the end, because it doesn't seem to be where you're pointing. possibly that's because when you take pics presenting what is there, you're not really looking at anything specific? I find your comment about not being sure what I was looking at when I took the pictures quite interesting. Now that you've mentioned it, when I look at the photos and try to recall what I was thinking when I took them, I definitely see what you mean; in most cases, I wasn't really looking at anything in particular. I also find it interesting that you mention that in #6 your eye is drawn toward the wall on the right (which are actually large boilers), since that is the one picture of the set where I did know specifically what I wanted to look at, and that was the wall of boilers! --- A couple of you mentioned the flash, and that is also a good point. Despite the rather obvious reflection, I guess I had looked at the photo so often that I kind of forgot I had used flash in the control room. Thanks for all of your comments. I will be sure to keep them in mind as I photograph other locations in the future. -DrDeke EDIT: Fixed link. [last edit 5/2/2006 8:55 PM by DrDeke - edited 1 times] If you don't want it known, don't say it on a phone. Arthemys  Location: Winooski, Vermont Gender: Male 10-75!  |  |  |  Re: Paper Mills <Reply # 7 on 5/3/2006 12:47 AM >   Posted by DrDeke If you composed it differently, in it so that you got rid of the equipment on the right and concentrated more on the vertical tube things, you'd have a much more artistic shot. Else wise I second the statement that your shots thus-far in this post are mostly documentary styled. Nothing wrong with that at all, I personally take mostly documentary photos to record our trips. It all really depends on what you have an eye for. -C1, from... http://www.neueu.org/ Glass  Location: Chicago as one does  |  |  Re: Paper Mills <Reply # 8 on 5/7/2006 7:11 PM >   6. Wow. UER Forum > Archived UE Photo Critiques > Paper Mills (Viewed 390 times) All content and images copyright © 2002-2024 UER.CA and respective creators. Graphical Design by Crossfire. 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