Portfolio - BSoUP Best of British

[Cussy]

I have decided that entering competitions will (hopefully) increase the standard of my photography. On every dive now I consider what there is down there that could result in competition standard images. It also means that I am a lot less of a snapper now.

I entered the BSoUP Best of British competition earlier in the month. Being totally unorganised I didn't plan it and threw it together far too quickly - but that's not an excuse. I did look at other portfolios to see what works and what doesn't, but didn't necessarily take everything in. At the first EMUP meeting Trevor Rees, Rob Bailey and Charlie Erb offered excellent advice (as did others), but by that point it was too late and I'd submitted my original image. To my utter surprise, I ended up with 15 votes and came 8 out of the 18 entries - well chuffed!!

So here is my portfolio. What have I done right and what have I done wrong? Be brutal, it's the only way I'll learn:



There are a couple more portfolio competitions coming up, so I'll be using this advice to plan these properly. I find portfolios different and it's weird that images that would stand up on their own don't always work, whereas images you may discard as competition standard do work.

Cheers,
Rob

[Tank]

Your photos are spot on! Composition Rocks!!...Sorry, I have nothing negative to say about them its a GOOD day...lol

[DDT uk]

I do remember this one from the competition. I didn't realise that it was yours.

The judging at BSoUP is not at all what i would have expected. The photos are shown in sequence twice but only a few seconds on each at a time. I does make it difficult to really compare the merits of each and to make comparive judgements (for me at least). Perhaps I'll get more accustomed to it as I attend more meetings. This does tend to mean that, for photos to do well, they need instant impact. That is certainly true of Trevor's over/under shots [in the winning entry].

Labelling your shots 1-6, left to right, top to bottom, I really do like 1,3,5 and 6. I think these are excellent and amongst the best in the competition. I am less keen on 2 and 4.
I really don't know what it is about 2. Its a lovely composition. I'm not sure if it is that the amount of contrast between the light and dark leaves the foreground without that much detail.

The difficulty with 4 is that, if I didn't how what it was, I'm not sure that it would be instantly obvious. The barrel distortion and darkness around the struts doesn't help.

One last point, in entering a series of pictures, I think that the strongest shots need to go in the middle and that all leading lines draw the eye inwards, not out. If I were entering this series I would swap 2 & 6 and flip 3 through 180 degrees. Then, as the eye follows the pipe fishes snout it would strike image 6, rather than going out of the shot, and the leaves of the kelp would point towards the cuttlefish.

That said, our club have an annual britsh natural history triptych competition and I am not sure that I have ever seen agreement on the order of an entry.

As I said above, well done on some cracking pictures. Bearing in mind the competition I would have been chuffed with 8th. I need to build up my portfolio before I start entering these, or at least start scanning my slides.

Daniel

By the way, I voted for the 2nd placed image, then the 3rd placed and then one other. I didn't vote for the winner because I didn't really 'get' the seal and fin shot.

[Cussy]

Dan,
Thanks for that. Everyone that has offered feedback has pointed out the kelp shot is the weak one - I personally like it's simplicity. I think it was Alex Mustard that said that there were a lot of portfolio's in the British Underwater Festival that were let down by one poor image.

What I set out to achieve was colour in 1, 3 & 5, with green images in 2, 4 & 6. When I put the RAF thing in 4 I wanted a round image for 6 - but didn't have anything round and green. I take your point that I could swap 2 & 6, but if I did so I have better ones of that particular jellyfish (these were actually a series I took in St Abbs to show the Ikelite TTL after Sam Bean had asked how good it was - on spot metering it is damn good). The pipefish in 3 looking in that direction was to counter-balance the crab. I've since noticed looking through all of the Best of British on the BSoUP website that a lot of people try and create diagonal in 1, 3, 4, & 6 (which is what I originally set out to do - thinking of the union flag).

Having just put my website together (robcuss.co.uk) I've noticed a lack of range of different types of shots. Something I'm going to work on before entering more portfolio competitions.
Cheers,
Rob

PS I'm going to try and make it down to BSoUP more often.

[Trevor Rees]

These portfolio competitions are a tough challenge and are very much a BSoUP thing.

When I put my entry together I kept a few things in mind -

1) The portfolio is shown for such a short time that it must provide an instant 'hit'. If the viewers have to think about it, it's probably not working.
2) To get an instant hit, especially in Britsh images, strong colours and simple shapes are needed.
3) Finally, something unusual is needed to seperate your portfolio from the pack and make the vewers take note.

I was pleased you asked for feedback at the first EMUP meeting and now in this forum. I gave Rob Bailey a lot of prior feedback on his entry and I was chuffed when he came second on the night. I never made it to London to see how mine projected.

When I look at yours again I reckon they are strong images and I can see a train of thought. The trouble is, for me, it just takes too long to think about what is going on. Hope that helps.

One final thought - I have listened to Alan James give a presentation on putting together portfolios and I know a while back he was keen on getting out to various groups to give talks. He may be a willing speaker at a future EMUP meetings

Trev

[Cussy]

Trev,
6 image portfolios may well be a BSoUP thing, but I think they are a great way of displaying images and sharpening photographic skills. I like the fact in your portfolio you've used 2 over/unders in portrait; whereas your landscape one you used at the BSoUP splash-in and EMUP is a better image. It's not just a case of throwing together your 6 best shots. Those two images are certainly what catches the eye as they are different, you don't see many in green water.

If you look at the RPS website, portfolios are at the heart of what they stand for and even though they aren't projected together, getting a collection of photos that work is an essential skill of a photographer. One of my friends from college displays her work, and to get an exhibition of photos is very challenging. There is a cafe in Nottingham that allows artists to display works for a week or two, I'm tempted to put something together for there.

Alan is on my list for EMUP - I thought I'd let him recover from his heart attack first before asking. I'd like to get Heather and Alan up to do their Photoshop course, which is great for beginners.

Looking through my images I'm not sure whether I'm going to give the British Underwater Festival a go, I'm not bothering with BSoUP Beginners Portfolio (I know Simon is, so good luck on that one!!).
Rob

[simonmort]

Thanks for the support rob. As trevor says, and many probably find, these portfolio competitions are a tough challenge.
I have gone backwards and forwards on so many images that i am not sure which to put in or not. and having shown my first atempt to rob have changed again,again,again.

You go through this mind set that are these images good enough?. what will people think?.

my first thought was fill with colour which rob picked up on,so then changed, included some different types of shot moving away from all macro.
have two portfolios in mind for beginners competition.

But as my main camera underwater is a compact, there is a limitation to my range of shots.(IN MY MIND).

So here is my first put together, for my first comp.
be kind!!. sorry tim not green water.

simon.

[DDT uk]

Simon

My two pennies worth. Feel free to ignore if you do not agree.

With a polyptych I think that the way in which the images interact will often make more of a different than the quality of the individual pictures. Bear in mind that the judges in these competitions will see this for a few seconds twice around. It needs to be simple, bright and eye catching. Further the images must work together.

As I said in my post to Rob, I do think that you need two relatively static images (in terms of lead lines) in the centre and then to have the surrounding images leading into the centre rather than out of the picture. The problem that I would see with this entry is the number and variety of different lead lines and the lack of stationary highlights on which the eye can settle.

1 leads out of the top of the image, 2 leads to the right, 3 leads back into the middle (as I think it should), 4 leads out of the image to the left, 5 to the right and 6 again correctly to the centre. It may be that, if you were to swap 4 and 5 you could lead the eye in a circle around the whole shot. It would be an interesting idea.

Personally I would move 2 to the 1 position, flip 4 through 180 degrees to face right, and see what you have in terms of non leading pictures for the 2 and 5 slots, even if these are not the most powerful as individual shots.

As I have said, these are only my thoughts. I hope that they are useful.

Daniel

[simonmort]

Thanks for the reply daniel, and all feedback is welcome.
sorry rob, dont mean to hijack your post.

ROB WITH THE BEST OF BRITISH PORTFOLIO,you entered i thought the crab shot with the eyes was very well set as if just looking through a window.
I have posted a collection of 6 images tonight. Having taken on board some points from rob and a couple of other people.And double checking the point about leading in, as you picked up on daniel

Fingers crossed and lets hope and see!!

Just tried crossing me toes, but fell over.
we will have to wait and see, and i will post the image entered, later on.

simon.