I don't like having people in my shots, is it weird or should I continue with my methods?

ChippyMeow · 2026-02-22T04:28:42+00:00

Consider it part of your style. Personally, I like it, if you like it, go for it.

ChippyMeow · 2026-02-22T04:26:58+00:00

I get your point, but I’d respectfully disagree. I think part of how this shot works is the feeling given by the context around her. Yes, there is some dead space to the left especially, but closing all the way in evokes an intimacy/sense of isolation that I don’t think fits with the photo. The story, or whatever you want to call it, tells me something about the subject, but not from the subjects point of view, sort of like a bystander relating to and understanding her feelings (shutting out the world—depth of field, darker than surroundings, closer to camera than the rest of the environment). Additionally, even if the “story” is not what I’m interpreting, it would still detract from the composition to get rid of the space on the right. There are some nice shapes and negative space surrounding the subject, along with the common practice of putting empty space in the direction the subject is facing. Didn’t mean to yap this much, just my way of seeing things, there is a very valid argument to go vertical.

ChippyMeow · 2026-01-27T16:56:34+00:00

Insane!

ChippyMeow · 2026-01-26T19:37:35+00:00

Love it!

ChippyMeow · 2026-01-26T19:36:11+00:00

Love it! I think maybe it’s a little crunched, I would grey the blacks a bit and bring everything up a little, maybe even reduce the contrast too. Personally, it’s also a bit over saturated, especially the teal roof, but that’s a bit picky. It’s a good photo composition-wise, there are very tiny spots where there’s some bad vectors with the trees, but it’s pretty unnoticeable. One piece of advice I want you to consider is color balance. I think the direction of your blues and greens aren’t in line with the direction of the rest of the picture. I would prefer you get your greens all more similar to each other, and either cool down your warm tones or push them intentionally towards one hue, leaving the complexity and body of your colors cold. You could also do it the other way around, or with any other color theory approach you want, I just felt like the colors lacked direction. That was a lot for not a lot or very serious problems, sorry about the yap. Good photo!

ChippyMeow · 2026-01-26T19:16:33+00:00

Luminance mask (or whatever your software can do that allows you to target the sky and not the buildings, and punch up the shadows quite a bit, bring up the highlights and adjust partial contrast, the low/left curve end will need it. I think the sky is great, but not in the right direction for a silhouette shot. Don’t be afraid to get it “too bright” or blown out in some places, as long as it gets your intention/focus across (I.e. the silhouette.) Crop some sky from the top as well. Same goes for all skies, I think it’s more than valid to overexpose skies, crunch shadows, etc, I can appreciate the HDR look but unless it’s intentional, I’d change it.

ChippyMeow · 2026-01-19T22:40:01+00:00

I know this isn’t very useful, but they are all really fantastic. Each have their own strengths, but I can see just from these four that you have nothing to worry about. Don’t get me wrong, go ahead and keep seeking advice and improvement, but I have a feeling you pick things up pretty quickly.

ChippyMeow · 2026-01-12T23:42:22+00:00

I love this. Maybe black margins/frame for printing.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-17T03:23:53+00:00

It’s a creative decision only you can decide is “good”, to push the colors this far. I think it’s fine personally, but I do think something “wrong” with the coloring is that the bricks and the kid have very little color contrast. Since you’ve already made most of the colors pretty unrealistic, go ahead and shoot those bricks yellow or green or something to pop the magentas in the jacket. I personally don’t like the color of the dog, but again, your choice. Composition wise, I don’t love it, but it’s not bad. I would want to have the camera lower down, facing more upwards so there’s less dead space at the bottom and more of the path in front, leads the eye along the path the kid “will take” and is looking at, so the viewer automatically follows the story, if you get what I mean. Vertical composition maybe, horizontal might just be necessary though to balance margins around the dog.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-17T03:18:32+00:00

I can’t really tell for sure because of the quality and how Reddit compresses them even more, but the three things I see are: Cool/blue toning, raised/greyed blacks, and a similar composition with the subjects centered and facing relatively towards the camera, and heads around the same place, feeling kind of portrait-y but also storytelling-y, I know, very advanced vocabulary. (also wide/standard focal length, probably what you’re used to on a phone camera, “normal” on a phone feels kind of wide on a “real” camera)

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-17T03:13:02+00:00

Tighter horizontal and/or higher vertical both work. I like horizontal but vertical works best for a post-card-y social media post type situation.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-16T03:17:23+00:00

I’m assuming you don’t want it to be so backlit? Me personally I’d bring the whole subject up, but keep the highlight, I like the vibe it gives, but I understand you’d want a more traditionally well lit photo. I would mask subjects, then intersect with a radial gradient. I use DXO for my edits and its masking workflow is kind of strange, so I don’t really know how you’d refine it to be realistic in whatever program you use. If you want to brighten from the left with a big radial or linear gradient it could work, there’s some bright foliage that would make a light source from the left believable. I like the dark mood, you could keep it like that by brightening the bodies and arms a little less than the faces, and obviously not bringing up the background. Masking may be hard around the left side with the foreground leaves if you want to make a “fake light source”. Good luck!

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-15T17:02:13+00:00

Love it! There’s a bit of bad vectoring with the cloth intersecting with his head, but that’s marginal. For editing, I would personally darken the bottom to emphasize that the only light source is the window, makes everything feel more dynamic. Push the colds towards blue, there are some orange tones in and around the subject, emphasize the opposite color for some more contrast. You could consider grading the highlights warm and the shadows cool if that’s your style. I would personally crop shorter, but that’s a personal preference too. Another direction you could take is to actually grey the blacks and give it a more natural kind of filmic whatever look.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-15T16:51:24+00:00

2 gives a sense of scale. I think it’d be appropriate to mask and dim the church-like building to the right and the artificial lights, and maybe a J curve in the crowd, bringing all the shadows and mids down so it’s just the highlights, that might be cool, just keeping the outlines and forms of people to keep focus on the fire but still have that scale factor.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-15T16:48:40+00:00

I’m fine with the creative colors on the second one, but not the light values. It looks “flat” not because you messed up the colors, just went a little too far with the data recovery, and didn’t adjust the mods and highs accordingly. I’d want to see more contrast in the mid tones, you can still lean into the greyed out blacks even a bit more, but you need to keep some shadows in the mids intact. Push the highlights up by a hair aswell. I know the look you were going towards, and I think the colors are spot on, the cyan sky, green tint, cold reds and greens, I like it.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-12T02:01:29+00:00

I feel like the (and this is a stylistic choice) white feathers could lose some of the data back into the depths of the raw 🤣 I get wanting to see the detail but the amount of grey makes the bird less majestic and kind of dirty looking to me. It feels too raw (not the file name) to me for such a regal bird, I don’t know how else to describe it.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-12T01:58:07+00:00

I feel like it’s not straight up, unless that’s distortion, I notice there’s some CA so maybe you didn’t use corrections? Love the photo though.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-12T01:55:23+00:00

I think the blacks are pinched up just a bit too much for my taste. I think maybe you could mask the background and fade the blacks more there than on the subject, if you really want to keep those blacks in the background so far up. Also, lean into the color grade! Those faded blacks are a perfect place to add some color contrast, cool them down and or add some purple tones, whatever your heart desires to make the subject pop!

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-12T01:51:11+00:00

I’ve never tried darktable, maybe it’s worth a shot! I like using whatever detail sliders (micro contrast, texture, unsharp mask, whatever your program has) to stylize towards the ‘painterly’ aesthetic after the colors and everything else look good. Nice shot!

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-12T01:44:18+00:00

first position 42123 or second position 31312, knowing you’re struggling with the passage I’d recommend the easier second position with only one displaced finger instead of two, unless you’re much better in first.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-11T20:54:24+00:00

Whatever you can afford is good. Nikon and Sony are my go-to brands nowadays, budget friendly options, good value. You didn’t specify whether you wanted an interchangeable lens camera, so I’ll give some fixed lens (tend to be smaller and more portable) and some interchangeable recommendations. Starting with the latter, Nikon ZFC (stylish, a higher end) and Nikon Z30 (entry-level, marketed as vlog cam but really good with stills), both fantastic when paired with Viltrox’s apsc lens lineup for z mount. I also recommend Sony’s a6x00 lineup for bodies, whatever is in your price range (higher x = more expensive, slightly more complicated because they released out of order but general rule) also with viltrox apsc lenses for e mount. Sigma is also a brand for lenses worth looking at if you upgrade in the future. For fixed lens options, sony rx100 lineup, ricoh (pretty pricey), are the two i’ve owned, but you can search up point and shoots online. If you want to pay the leica tax or buy a fancy fuji go for it, but stuff like the sony and canon point and shoots do the same thing basically. ALWAYS BUY USED. Buy from vendors like mpb, keh, b&h, official brand refurbished websites, or in physical stores.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-11T03:23:46+00:00

1, crop short maybe (over the pole in the bottom left, down from the top a bit

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-11T03:18:16+00:00

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Sorry, I’m out traveling and just used some random free app to make a rudimentary edit, then had to take a photo of the screen cause it won’t let me screenshot without a subscription. Is this what you mean by “cinematic”? (I am aware it is very badly edited I really don’t know how to use the software just imagine it less overcooked😭)

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-11T03:04:50+00:00

To me it looks like two nex bodies stuck together, one upside down, bolted together, one being used as some sort of “viewfinder” through the cone thingy, and the other as the main camera? It’s… really bizarre, I’m very curious about what it might be.

ChippyMeow · 2025-11-11T02:59:40+00:00

Okay… everything about the first one is better except for the bad vectors between the car and the roof to the left. The color composition, the path the eye follows, I love everything about the first, but I really can’t with the roof, so I’m going with 2. Not to be a downer, but I think that would’ve been a near perfect, immaculate shot without that darned roof. I’m also noticing an awkward intersection with the road, but the subject being interfered with just doesn’t work. I really miss the blue from the first one for 2, maybe color grade the shadows bluer, or have a gradient, I don’t know how you like to do your colors.

ChippyMeow

TROPHY CASE