Photo Critiqing Thread

[mtnbike28]

Nice job.

Brian,

Thanks for answering and playing with the photos. I think a lot of people are learning and thinking about what they are doing. The Taz examples work well, btw. I am also glad folks have a "thick skin" and not taking constructive comments personally. I work with photographers all day and teach it part time, so I know a lot about "thin skinned" photographers.

Again thanks for sharing

Jay in NY

 

[Photog]

You are sooo right about that. Some photographers (artists) see their work as some piece of their soul. If anything is said, that would suggest it could be improved, they just fall apart.:littlefriend:

It has been really wonderful to analyze all the different types of photos posted to this thread, and be able to provide a constructive opinion, without a heap of stress on the other members. There are some great people here.:26_7_2:

If folks can take some of these critique ideas with them, it will really improve the work they do with the camera, before they fire up the computer. There are a great many books on this subject; but it is difficult to post your images to a book, and get constructive feedback.

 

[Photog]

Joel,
Try taking your Autumn Bridge photo, and vignette the area around the bridge. Darken the road a little more too; and see what you think. This will draw a little more attention to the bridge, and a little less attention to the blazing colors.

 

[Blair G]

Here are some shots I took at the Historic Races at Laguna. Not a photographer (no kiddiing), but what could I do to make these type of shots better? I really enjoy vehicle pictures as well as candid pictures of people.

Blair

 

[Lost Canadian]

Ok, finally got my Server up and working again. I am open to critique and recomendations. All these are striaght from my Canon 30D w/ 17-85 f/4 IS lens. Color pics have the saturation pushed to +3 on camera.

Beautiful shot!

 

[J_wings24]

Beautiful shot!

Thanks :26_7_2:

 

[Photog]

Blair,
I think you have a great eye for detail. These type of photos are exactly what owners of those vehicles want to hang on their walls.

For the yellow/chrome detail. The chrome piece is the subject; but it is bullseyed in the frame. Play with a little cropping, to move it off center (into the right side of the frame), and see what you think, and post it up again.

Try using a tighter aperture (f8 to f16), and get a few more details in focus. Then try an open aperture (f2), focusing on a single detail. these extremes are fun to work with.
Nice work, over all.

 

[pwc]

Brian (from WA), now the tire is on the left side.

On the topic of cropping after the image is shot, I posted an article over on digital photography site. It's mainly aimed at cropping for printing mainly with some freeform cropping thrown in.

 

[Photog]

Brian (from WA), now the tire is on the left side.

On the topic of cropping after the image is shot, I posted an article over on digital photography site. It's mainly aimed at cropping for printing mainly with some freeform cropping thrown in.

Peter,
That is an excellent article, covering all the differnt aspects cropping. Shoot what you want, with proper composition (in camera crop). Finding something more in the image, by cropping further. And, non-typical cropping (panoramas, etc).

In the comments below the article, there was mention of the Golden Ratio. All these ideas have to do with what is subconsciously more pleasing. Sometimes an image can be cropped to a custom ratio, and then placed in a frame, built to the Golden Ratio. This often looks great too. It creates the illusion of the Golden Ratio, while only showing the portion of the image that is desired.

Again, I must say - That is an excellent article. Great job. All the folks following this thread should go and read it.

 

[Lost Canadian]

Great article Peter, well done! Brian, that golden ratio is very very cool, and interesting. Here is a picture I found when researching this topic a little more, it almost prefectly illustrates the application of golden ratio in photography. Here's the article that accompanies the picture. Be warned though, it's pretty heavy reading.

 

[Photog]

Great article Peter, well done! Brian, that golden ratio is very very cool, and interesting. Here is a picture I found when researching this topic a little more, it almost prefectly illustrates the application of golden ratio in photography. Here's the article that accompanies the picture. Be warned though, it's pretty heavy reading.

It does get deep quick.!

 

[TeleScooby]

Here are a couple that I'm going nuts trying to figure out. I really like all 4 of these, but there's just something I feel could be better:

This is inside the wall of the Old City of Jerusalem...

Have a black and white of this one too...love it, but what's not right?

Threw this in for the Rover folks...from a British car show outside of Seattle...

Experimenting with cropping...did it work?


I have several of my other favorites in a gallery here

Really appreciate this thread!

 

[Blair G]

Thanks for the nice comment. I tried cropping it. The one thing that seemed to happen was that I keep losing what the lever was used for. Does this work?

I also included a couple more for ideas.

I think this one is a neat picture. I had to cut the wheels off a little to eliminate people and more modern cars in frame. Not sure if it was the right thing to do.

The one thing I have never done was played with editing on the computer. Aside from cropping I really don't adjust anything else. Not sure if thios picture could benefit from it.

This car had so many cool things it was hard to focus on all the detail. Maybe you don't have to all the time?

Thanks for doing this. The one thing that has been a goal of mine is to take better pictures and learn what is considered a "good" picture.

Blair

 

[Photog]

Scooby,

Something drew you to the images or the stairwall and the forest. When you are in these places, try to determine what it is that draws you to take a photograph of these things. Once you understand what attracted you, it will be easier to create an image that captures that feeling.

The Stairwall: I had a hard time determining the attraction; so I worked with the graphic shapes, colors and contrast.
1) crop to an 8X10 format, and removing most of the hand rail at bottom-right, and keeping a little tunnel.
2) added contrast with CURVES layer
3) Darkened entire image, to improve color density, and masked off the tunnel blocks, to keep them lighter.
4) Darkened further, the bright blocks in the direct sunshine.

Effect: Mush more contrast with the shadows along the stairs, and razor-wire. Draw some attention to the tunnel, under stairs, to keep the eye looking inside the image, instead of falling out at the bottom of the stairs.

Again, this is just my interpretation. Depending on the actual end use of the image, many other things could be done.

 

[Photog]

Thanks for the nice comment. I tried cropping it. The one thing that seemed to happen was that I keep losing what the lever was used for. Does this work?

Blair

I like it! :luxhello: You could crop even tighter, removing top & bottom, for a horizontal image, with just the handle, and curves in the yellow bodywork. The nice thing about capturing automotive details, is, they don't always need context, to be graphicly pleasing.