Sk8ter Boi

[sagelike31]

Again criticism and comments are welcome.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q207/sagevarious/Sk8ercopy.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q207/sagevarious/Sk8er_1copy.jpg

I took these shots at a local park around my way.
I didn't know the gentlemen that I took shots of. They were just skating around a certain area and I decided to go up to them and ask them if I could take a couple shots of them.

****This is the most probably the important part about this project.****
I went up to someone randomly and asked them to take shots.

They were nice enough to allow me to do it and I started snapping away.

Now for the technical stuff:

- I shot with my 28 - 135mm lens as that it was night time and I wanted minimal unintentional blur as possible. Aperture was set at f5.6, the on board flash was used, shutter was set to 1/20 and ISO was at 100.

- As they were coming into the frame I panned to the right to keep them in frame as to not allow complete ghosting.

- No cropping was done as that I figured I wanted to use brushes to accentuate the shots but some color and curve adjustments were made..

- I got the extra photoshop brushes that were used at this webste: Brusheezy (http://www.brusheezy.com/brushes)
I downloaded mostly grunge brushes.

- With whatever brushes I used made sure the colors were complimentary.
It was done randomly (or what I was feeling at the time) to keep the composition chaotic.

- I increased the canvas size to make a frame and added more brushes to that.

Again criticism is fine. Anyway I could have improved on this?
Thanks in advance guys.

[jiminyClickit]

sagelike31,

You know I like graphics. And photography. Combining them is difficult.

So I want to appreciate these for what they are, as an experiment to see what could be made from skaters and shapes in paint. I am distracted by each, so it's hard to critique a photo I can't see fully, and graphics that may or may not have something to do with photos.

Assuming some of the paint is connecting wheel shapes and tracks to skaters
and maybe reflecting some of their scenery (Post no bills?), I can see your direction and applaud the effort.

In another way, it's almost vandalism to graffiti a work of art. I'm split; the parts of the photos showing are probably well-shot. The graphics by themselves are bold and arresting.

[trelaflip]

As a tip I have gotten myself from pro skateboard photographers. Always shoot from the front side making sure to capture the emotion of the skater.

I'm feeling the brushes are a tad overboard but thats just me. I like keeping things really simple.

[alissasanderson]

I think they are very cool, if critiquing them as their own thing. The graphics are bold and bright, and the photographs look good. Together they may not be everyone's style, but I quite like it.

Most importantly, I am so impressed that you went up to strangers and asked to photograph them. I have never been able to achieve that much nerve, though there have been times I have desperately wanted to. Did they ask to see the photos?

[sagelike31]

Yeah I can understand that this isn't everyone's style.

It's meant to be a bit chaotic and the brushes are meant to give a urban anarchist ind of look. I will take heed the given criticism and I would still like to see more but keep in mind the look I am going for.


Yeah I am trying to get into asking strangers for pictures more. I learned that if you explain what you want to do and say that you will send the originals (which is the honorable thing to do).

I'm gonna be working on this for the next couple weeks and we will see from there.

@ trelaflip can you explain "Always shoot from the front side making sure to capture the emotion of the skater. "

[Simon]

too many graphics. im not sure why the most important part of the project is that you went up to random people.

[wyndhydra]

sagelike31,
I am in awe of your works. I totally dig your style. The brushes are great and give it a great urban feel. The only thing that strikes me as a bit odd are the borders which I think are a bit bright for the rest. I can't wait to see more. Just amazing!!

[BlueEyedNanuk]

I like your posters a lot. I think the graphics add to the thrill of the moment. Shows excitement and action.

I made a poster for my son but it is pretty plain. He wanted to pin it up in the local skate park office and wanted to accent his team and the particular trick...... LOTB=Lords of the Boards (Florida)
<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g103/keibahh/Skateboarding/TySpencer1020283600x400.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a>