In-Depth Critique Thread

[Morbid]

In-Depth Critique Thread

This thread is meant to be used to both improve your photographs and to increase your skill at giving critique.

Rules________________________________________
• Make an in-depth review and critique of the current image.

• Every photo will be critiqued for one day, but longer if there are no critiques.

• After one day the author of the image will choose who of the critics made the best critique and is allowed to post an image of theirs for in-depth critique.

• If the chosen person does not post a new picture in 3 days time, the author can choose someone else, or anyone may post a picture.
____________________________________________



Guidelines____________________________________
• Feel free to use images and links to make your point. Do not give praise or for the sake of it, always explain what is good/bad and why, and how it could be better.

• Refrain from posting over processed photos or manipulations, to focus on the photographic aspect and not the editing.

• Give a reasonable amount of information about the technical setup, reason for taking the photo and the goals you wanted to achieve both artistically and technically.
____________________________________________

[Gentile]

:O

Yay I'm so excited! Hehe.

Here's mine :] (digital)

[Morbid]

That's a hard picture for me to critique. I kind of like it but I'm not sure for what reasons. Its intruiging, I wonder what she's smiling at, she seems to be looking at the sign. Maybe she's just turning away out of shyness when she saw her picture was about to be taken.

Technically I think the contrast is pretty extreme, and so are the colors. If you would either lower the contrast a bit or lower the saturation I think it would be more pleasing to look at. I personally like contrast and vivid colors, but not so much both at once. Also I would like to see the face clearer, it blends in with the sky. The framing is unusual but nice, original choice to cut the upper part of her head. That sign to the left is bright red and serves as a sort of background and a counter weight.

I might add more later if I think of anything...

[Mr. Mu]

Morbid,

I would like to very much encourage the addition of another rule where the one who posts a photo has to give a reasonable amount of information about the technical setup, reason for taking the photo and the goals he/she wanted to achieve both artistically and technically.

Otherwise we'd be fishing in the dark, mostly, in my opinion.

[Morbid]

Thats a good idea, will do. I'll steal your wording if you don't mind.

I will leave Gentiles pic open for critique for a bit longer, if anyone else wants to add anything.

[purplerose]

I think you covered everything.

Hmm, not so much of a critique, but just an observation:

- This would look pretty cool in a photo essay about a day out or first snow or something.

[Morbid]

Ok then, since I was the only critic this time I will post an image. Hit me!



Tamron 17-50 2.8 @ 29mm, 1/640s, f/4.
Taken in Thailand. I wanted to use the curve of the edge of the pool as a leading line to give it some depth. The building in the back has been edited, it was bright purple and stood out too much. Thats my brother in the pool and the dogs name is Lisa.

[Gentile]

I like this picture a lot.
I like the contrast a lot.
The color of the dogs fur and the pool blue look really nice together.
It looks like your brother and the dog are looking in the same direction too, like they're both intrigued with something. Awesome. And it's pretty chill. Man and dog resting together :]

The leaves in the background are kind of distracting though. I keep looking at them. I wonder how it would look if they were photoshopped out?

[klips]

This photo is unbalanced for me, the two of them looking off to the right with no space to look into. It's kinda like having someone walking out of frame in a shot. Zoom out, move back, whatever, just get some more of the panorama in.

The leading line doesn't realy work, it actually led me out initially. The reflection of the pool ladder does, however, so that's kinda cool.

Finally, the background is too dark, it's almost distracting in the way that it's substantially different to the rest of the frame.

[Morbid]

Thanks Gentile and klips!

Klips: I see what your saying, I actually cropped out some space on the right so I could give it some more space there.
I can't say I agree with you on the background though, looking at the original it looks like I've darkened it a bit, and to me it's less distracting. Maybe it looks a bit unnatural though?

Here's a new crop. Tried to put the dog about a third in, made the crop a bit more panoramic to get rid of some plants and distracting stuff back there as Gentile mentioned.



Thanks

[klips]

Digging it heaps more mate, the changed aspect ratio works really well! Also, the leading line now works, as it doesn't go out at the middle, it's more up the top by which time you're really into the pic.

[Morbid]

Yea me too, I think it works better this way.
Well, I guess your up for the next crit!

[klips]

Thanks mate.

For this shot I was really just aiming for an isolated model staring off into the distance, trying to make her look thoughtful/contemplative.

[someone]

I'm so horrible at critiquing :P

The first thing I noticed though, was that line right through the middle of the picture... it looks to me like it's coming out of her mouth and going to nowhere :-/

I do like though, how she's pretty much the only thing that has any colour... it really makes her pop out. (since the background is all mostly shades of black and grey and white...) I don't know if you did that on purpose or not, but I like it a lot

[Rhynome]

I agree with someone, who, I won't say, just... someone.

The colour aspect of it is brilliant, one's attention really is focused on the lady.

The line, however, is a shame, it may be remedied ever so slightly by cropping some off the bottom of the photo, that would put the line lower down in the picture and so less central and less prominent. Alas that if there were to be croppage then it would ruin the image of the lady almost entirely.

So I believe this is just a case of empirical learning; look, then look again! Hopefully the same thing won't happen in the future.

[Morbid]

I like the framing, and the fact that she is facing and looking into the light. The composition is nice aswell with lots of space. She doesnt look exactly like shes contemplating, she has a slight smile instead of that totally expression-less face you have when deep in thought.

I somewhat agree with someone and Rob about the line, but I also think it converges with the line at the bottom and the direction in which shes looking. Like so:




The image has a calm atmosphere. I think that mood is ruined a bit by the busy bokeh, I dont know if you used your biggest aperture or not, but if you would have opened up a stop it wouldve been less busy. It can be fixed in photoshop with a little work, here I made an example for you.



I used the quick selection tool to select her head, inverted the selection and contracted a few pixels, 3 px I think. I then made the selection into an alpha channel and used the lens blur filter on the alpha channel, masking out her head.

[someone]

That blurring also reduces that pesky line so that it's not noticeable too! wahoo

[Mr. Mu]

excellent demonstration, Morbid!

[klips]

Thankyou everyone for your crits, it's something that was unsettling me but I didn't know it until it was pointed out. Morbid, I think I'm going to have to give it you again, stop being such a good/consistent/awesome critter!

[Morbid]

Smoking hot, right out of Photoshop!



Another one from Thailand.
Dark cave, iso800, 19mm, f/2.8, 1/13s, handheld.

[purplerose]

Hah, I made it on time this time... You guys are too fast for me.

-Really nice color in this image that's not overwhelming.
-You made a seemingly "touristy" shot a step above and somewhat interesting.

-It has a nice composition. I only wish the bookshelf/cabinet thingy wasn't there (which is totally unavoidable). You could crop it out, but that would mean cutting off the table even further.
-Referring to the last bit, the cut off table edge is distracting to me. Was it possible to step back a little?

-Very nice tonal range, if I may add so again.

-Just a little nit-picky, but I would heal the small area of white powder on the floor near the mat.

-Attached a somewhat reasonable crop:



Edit: Hmm, I wonder how this would have looked like as a panorama to add more space to the right, making the cabinet thing fit in with the picture more.

[Rhynome]

I think the sideboard adds something to the photo, something somewhat surreal. The problem is, however, that it's almost impossible to look at, every time I try and look over to it I get distracted by the Buddha via the table.

I understand what the Rose means by she wishes it weren't there. In my opinion it's a really interesting thing and if it could be included in the photo then all the better, but it seems like the outcast of the photo, unnatural to look at (in terms of composition) and so unfairly dismissed.

A shame really, because the colours truly are fantastic.
This is my little crop of it, I cropped out the red a little, which could be seen as a bit of a shame, but I'm going to be stubborn and say that the Green and the Blue mats complement each other better without the red! [Or not]

[Morbid]

Originally Posted by purplerose

Hah, I made it on time this time... You guys are too fast for me.

-Really nice color in this image that's not overwhelming.
-You made a seemingly "touristy" shot a step above and somewhat interesting.

-It has a nice composition. I only wish the bookshelf/cabinet thingy wasn't there (which is totally unavoidable). You could crop it out, but that would mean cutting off the table even further.
-Referring to the last bit, the cut off table edge is distracting to me. Was it possible to step back a little?

-Very nice tonal range, if I may add so again.

-Just a little nit-picky, but I would heal the small area of white powder on the floor near the mat.

-Attached a somewhat reasonable crop:



Edit: Hmm, I wonder how this would have looked like as a panorama to add more space to the right, making the cabinet thing fit in with the picture more.

Thank you rose!
I agree on most of your critique, but I feel that I must explain a little more about my intention with the photo.

The clutteredness of the photo, showing the powder on the floor, candles and books is intentional, because I wanted to show that this is a place that is used for prayers and meditation, rather than an old abandoned cave. I think it would look better at a larger size, because then you would be able to see the items more closely, and study them.

I agree that the cabinet is a little distracting, though I have a version without it and I somehow prefered this version. Again, the bookshelf is a sign of the activity and study that is going on here at times.

I also think your right about the cut of table, should have zoomed out a few mm to include it.

Good crit, thanks!

[Morbid]

Originally Posted by Rhynome

I think the sideboard adds something to the photo, something somewhat surreal. The problem is, however, that it's almost impossible to look at, every time I try and look over to it I get distracted by the Buddha via the table.

Yes, I think so too. It feels like something out of a game like Morrowind: Oblivion.

Originally Posted by Rhynome

I understand what the Rose means by she wishes it weren't there. In my opinion it's a really interesting thing and if it could be included in the photo then all the better, but it seems like the outcast of the photo, unnatural to look at (in terms of composition) and so unfairly dismissed.

Yes... maybe if I burned it a bit to make it more a part of the background. I wish I would have included a bit more to the right as Purplerose said to give it some space and make the placement feel less akward.

Originally Posted by Rhynome

A shame really, because the colours truly are fantastic.
This is my little crop of it, I cropped out the red a little, which could be seen as a bit of a shame, but I'm going to be stubborn and say that the Green and the Blue mats complement each other better without the red! [Or not]

I like that crop. Maybe sacrificing the red mat has to be done for the good of the photograph. But the more I look at it the more I wish I had left some more room to the right. Though now the red cabinet stands out more because its so red, with no counter weight to the left. Maybe that makes it more distracting?

Thanks for the crit Rob. I will make a new version based on your crits!

[Rhynome]

That point about the colour counterweight seems really interesting; it would make sense, though there were obviously other factors pushing the cabinet out of the way [the fact that the red at the front of the table is just very prominent, that the table is large itself, that it's weighted more towards the Buddha (especially considering the V shape of it), etc.]

Maybe it's something we should test?

[Morbid]

Yes, the table looks very big. By cropping away the edge it will be less prominent. But I want to keep as much of the surface as possible, beacuse it helps with the perspective and gives some of the wide-angle lens feeling.

I decided to keep some of the red mat. I have also darkened the cabinet a little and I give it a slightly warmer whitebalance.

[Morbid]

It's hard to choose one of you, you both gave valuable critique, but I think I'll choose Purplerose this time, because she gave critique that Rob built upon.

[Rhynome]

Oh, playing us off against each other is it, eh? Divide and conquer is it? I see!

And yes, I just read Jerrica's and adapted it to my own personal tastes; a bit like a translation into Robzish.

[Morbid]

Originally Posted by Rhynome

Oh, playing us off against each other is it, eh? Divide and conquer is it? I see!

And yes, I just read Jerrica's and adapted it to my own personal tastes; a bit like a translation into Robzish.

...

But really it was a toss up between you.

[purplerose]

lol Rob.

Hmmm.... Here's a photo that I really liked, just couldn't figure out a reasonable crop. I may have to retake it.. any input would be really helpful. I have done a square format on it, but I felt it was missing something, however I could be wrong.



Here's the square format crop:



No real aim for this, just a typical still-life macro.