Your Best or Worst OOF (Out Of Focus) Shots that Somehow Turned Out To Look Like Art

[DavidWatts]

Now, this thread is experimental, to the extreme. You shoot something thinking everything is fine, but when chimping or reviewing the shot you immediately dismiss it as a gross mistake because it is completely Out Of Focus (OOF), or the shutter dragged too long, but for some reason, you don't immediately nuke it. Later, maybe much later, you go back and look at the shot again and think, "hey, wait a minute, this might not be so bad after all!" Perhaps you mangle it some more in your editing software and now you have, um, something. Perhaps barely acceptable to post somewhere. Well, you're in luck! This is the thread to display that artistic mediocrity!

Suggestion, since nobody but you know what you were thinking or doing at the time of the shot, probably best to explain what went wrong and how you made the picture just somewhat better. Really looking forward to see your pics here!

 

[DavidWatts]

Example. Gull at Lake Tahoe. I was attempting a panning shot. See EXIF below to figure it out. But, the bokeh is wonderful!

Canon 40D, Canon 70-200 f4 L IS + 1.4 TC, 280mm, f/8, 1/30, iso 400. Do you see the problem in the EXIF? 200mm+1.4x TC and 1/30th? Dumb.

 

[Joeseph]

not sure if this quite qualifies - RNZAF Boeing 727 landing at Whenuapai:




(no prizes for guessing what happened with this one!)

 

[Darkslinger]

Probably should resize this for this post...

 

[Pantry42]

I took this with my very first camera. I was out on a trip with Photographer friends to York and I wanted to get this image of them walking through the foot tunnel.
Having no idea what I was doing and very little understanding of Aperture,shutter speed and ISO I took this, but didnt to show anyone this image for a long while.
Robin, who is a terrific photographer, finally got to see it when I posted it on an old forum I frequented then about a year later, and said that he thought it was great,
so much so that he kept raving about 'that' photo and said it was brilliant. From that day to this I still have no idea what he saw in it back then !

 

[Darkslinger]

I took this with my very first camera. I was out on a trip with Photographer friends to York and I wanted to get this image of them walking through the foot tunnel.
Having no idea what I was doing and very little understanding of Aperture,shutter speed and ISO I took this, but didnt to show anyone this image for a long while.
Robin, who is a terrific photographer, finally got to see it when I posted it on an old forum I frequented then about a year later, and said that he thought it was great,
so much so that he kept raving about 'that' photo and said it was brilliant. From that day to this I still have no idea what he saw in it back then !

I agree with Robin, I think it's a great shot, even if it was unintentional. It gives a sense of movement and mystery and having the sharp white painted man and bicycle in the foreground along with the, kind of, in focus man in the distance, is a bonus!

 

[Pantry42]

I agree with Robin, I think it's a great shot, even if it was unintentional. It gives a sense of movement and mystery and having the sharp white painted man and bicycle in the foreground along with the, kind of, in focus man in the distance, is a bonus!

Well, Robin never described it in your astute manner Darkslinger, but I thank you for doing so! He did say it would make a great album cover for a Vinyl record

 

[OhLook]

Robin, who is a terrific photographer, finally got to see it when I posted it on an old forum I frequented then about a year later, and said that he thought it was great,
so much so that he kept raving about 'that' photo and said it was brilliant. From that day to this I still have no idea what he saw in it back then !

I can't speak for Robin, but I agree with him. The photo conveys movement and depth more than a sharp picture taken at the same time and place would have.

 

[OhLook]

Any guesses?

 

[Pantry42]

I can't speak for Robin, but I agree with him. The photo conveys movement and depth more than a sharp picture taken at the same time and place would have.

Cheers, now where is the number for that auction house?........

 

[Pantry42]

View attachment 1201

Any guesses?

Very uniform layout to the white area's with a soft blue background, a reflection of overhead lights on water????

 

[OhLook]

Very uniform layout to the white area's with a soft blue background, a reflection of overhead lights on water????

Noooo . . . but they are lights.

 

[Pantry42]

Candles on a cake?

 

[OhLook]

Candles on a cake?

Not that, either. Hint: The surface was vertical.

 

[TerryPinky]

The Dance

 

[Pantry42]

The Dance

The mind boggles , but a great photo all the same, I'm beginning to understand that these mistakes of ours have definitely got something

 

[DavidWatts]

The Dance

From what I can barely see, that one might be a good pic to blur, intentional or not.

 

[ebrakejake]

 

[Darkslinger]

 

[Stic2]

The art of traction by M Smith, on Flickr