Could you critique me?

[KarenAylwood]

I've been taking a photography class for a few weeks now and we've finished two portfolios. I've done well with the grading, but the teacher doesn't really critique every photo we take. She picks 1 of each category we were supposed to shoot for and then she and the class critiques it, but we don't do them all.

I'm very amateur and want some real criticism on my photos. I also know the teacher is very nice and wouldn't always pick apart each one.

If you're interested, check out http://dgcrystal.smugmug.com/

There are two portfolios:

Portfolio 1: Landscapes, Still Lifes & Portraits- ISO 100 required, manual settings, editing in photoshop consisted of: levels/curves/contrast and use of dodge/burn tools.

Portfolio 2: Motion (Panning, Blurred and Stop Motion)- ISO 200 required, could use Shutter priority but I used manual, editing in photoshop consisted of the same as before with the addition of clone stamp, healing brush, spot brush.

Let me know what you think! I promise to put on a brave face

 

[bob100]

they're all in B&W, was that one of the requirements?

I liked them, you followed the "rule of thirds", good contrast (for B&W), good composition, etc. but then I'm not a real critic (just play one on forums) and I'm prejudiced since I worked in Smithfield and love the place (except those hog plants!)

if you want some real criticism on Canon pics post your links on
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/

 

[KarenAylwood]

they're all in B&W, was that one of the requirements?

I liked them, you followed the "rule of thirds", good contrast (for B&W), good composition, etc. but then I'm not a real critic (just play one on forums) and I'm prejudiced since I worked in Smithfield and love the place (except those hog plants!)

if you want some real criticism on Canon pics post your links on
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/

Oh yeah, forgot to add- black & white was a requirement. We're just starting color on our third portfolio

Thanks! Yeah I should post there... figured I'd post among "friends" first

 

[orchjoe]

I like how you framed the forklift operator.
I'll give you some feedback to what I would do if the image "EnjoyLife" was mine.

I linked this image from your smugmug:


1. Rule of Thirds: I would like to see the wine glass a little bit more to the left.

2. Crop: I would try to get the full bottom of the wine glass in the frame. I usually try to shoot a little wider and then crop once I process the image.

3. Focus: If you open the picture to the original size it is a little blurry.
Your EXIF Data: Manual ISO 100 f/5.0 1/3s 44mm No Flash

Let's say you were hand-holding the camera. At 1/3s it is hard to keep the camera steady. At f/5 and with this shutter speed you would probably need to steady the camera using a tripod and take the image using a remote shutter release. Or you could stabilize the camera and shoot with a timer release to eliminate camera shake.

Typical one-third-stop f-number scale
f/# 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.5 2.8 3.3 3.5 4 4.5 5.0 5.6 6.3 7.1 8 9 10 11 13 14 16 18 20 22


You shot at a f/5 so you could decrease your aperture to f/3.5 which is 3/3 or 1 full stop down. Your shutter speed would have increased to 1/60s (someone please double-check my info because I am still trying to learn the relationships). It would result in darker image.

Since you needed to shoot at ISO 100 you would either need faster glass to hand-hold to somehow stabilize the camera to get a good focus.

Needless to say you are well on your way to taking some great pictures. I am no expert and I frequently make mistakes but I was drawn to this image and these are some of the things I would try to improve it to my particular taste. Great Job

 

[thomas998]

Okay.. but first I'll add the caveat that I wont bother to tell you what I like or what I think is good because for me when I get a critique I want to know what was wrong not what was right...

Brandi2... a little too dark for my taste beyond brandi... if you had used a faster lens then that area might have been blurred enough that I wouldn't notice it but its so clear I find myself trying to see what there but its underexposed... on the flip side the area with the light is blown out.... it makes me wonder if the camera is capable of the dynamic range you needed for that shot to work without using lights.

Artist... why am I seeing the switch on the wall... also the angle of the table top side against the wall isn't perfectly horizontal.. not that that bad... but its close enough that it might have been better to make keep it horizontal instead of having it just look a little off.

Chemistry... I'm bothered by the closest bottle being out of focus.... I think you could have pulled it in focus and then gotten the background even more blurred.

Liz... the pool line is not horizontal... I don't know but for me seeing lines that are close to perfect but not drives me batty.... unlike the picture of Gran that doesn't bother me because the lines are off enough that I don't mind.

Gran... the lighting draws me into the left side of the table, because that's where it is properly exposed... I think it would have been better to have the lighting perfect on Gran since I assume you wanted the viewer to focus in on her.

Tankfarm, looking out and sunlight... I think your just trying to capture scenes with too much dynamic range... on the side of the tank I see blow-out... through the back of hte window I see blow-out... with the sunshine, I see blowout...


That's my quick take for what its worth.

 

[KarenAylwood]

Okay.. but first I'll add the caveat that I wont bother to tell you what I like or what I think is good because for me when I get a critique I want to know what was wrong not what was right...

Brandi2... a little too dark for my taste beyond brandi... if you had used a faster lens then that area might have been blurred enough that I wouldn't notice it but its so clear I find myself trying to see what there but its underexposed... on the flip side the area with the light is blown out.... it makes me wonder if the camera is capable of the dynamic range you needed for that shot to work without using lights.

Artist... why am I seeing the switch on the wall... also the angle of the table top side against the wall isn't perfectly horizontal.. not that that bad... but its close enough that it might have been better to make keep it horizontal instead of having it just look a little off.

Chemistry... I'm bothered by the closest bottle being out of focus.... I think you could have pulled it in focus and then gotten the background even more blurred.

Liz... the pool line is not horizontal... I don't know but for me seeing lines that are close to perfect but not drives me batty.... unlike the picture of Gran that doesn't bother me because the lines are off enough that I don't mind.

Gran... the lighting draws me into the left side of the table, because that's where it is properly exposed... I think it would have been better to have the lighting perfect on Gran since I assume you wanted the viewer to focus in on her.

Tankfarm, looking out and sunlight... I think your just trying to capture scenes with too much dynamic range... on the side of the tank I see blow-out... through the back of hte window I see blow-out... with the sunshine, I see blowout...


That's my quick take for what its worth.

I would like to know the high points of what I did well too, since I'm pretty clueless now and short of the rule of thirds, I don't know an incredible amount

I love what you said about everything. I went back and looked and agree with the points you made. I should have lightened Gran a little more- her face was definitely too dark. I didn't realize that the pool line was off until I actually put a piece up paper up to my screen and measured the difference from the top of the pic to the pool edge. Yeah, it's off. I noticed everything else that you pointed out right off except that!

Brandi- I fully agree and the darkness bothered me from the beginning.

Artist- if we could have used the clone stamp at that point I would have gotten rid of the switch I had to choose between having the edge of the TV or having the light switch there. Was working in too close quarters!

orchjoe~ I totally agree about the wine glass. I was desperate and it was the last still life I needed. I love that picture based on the subject, but it's bothered me that I didn't put it a little more to the left ever since I took it. Grr. I also was rushed so I did it handheld and looking back I should have used a tripod. I liked the picture so much I might just try to recreate it and make it a bit clearer that way. One of my friends really wants a copy for her kitchen wall!

Thanks for taking the time to tell me what you think everyone. Reading criticism isn't as hard as I thought it'd be

 

[orchjoe]

One of my friends really wants a copy for her kitchen wall!

If you do recreate it I would like to see a color version too.

 

[thomas998]

I would like to know the high points of what I did well too, since I'm pretty clueless now and short of the rule of thirds, I don't know an incredible amount

I love what you said about everything. I went back and looked and agree with the points you made. I should have lightened Gran a little more- her face was definitely too dark. I didn't realize that the pool line was off until I actually put a piece up paper up to my screen and measured the difference from the top of the pic to the pool edge. Yeah, it's off. I noticed everything else that you pointed out right off except that!

Brandi- I fully agree and the darkness bothered me from the beginning.

Artist- if we could have used the clone stamp at that point I would have gotten rid of the switch I had to choose between having the edge of the TV or having the light switch there. Was working in too close quarters!

orchjoe~ I totally agree about the wine glass. I was desperate and it was the last still life I needed. I love that picture based on the subject, but it's bothered me that I didn't put it a little more to the left ever since I took it. Grr. I also was rushed so I did it handheld and looking back I should have used a tripod. I liked the picture so much I might just try to recreate it and make it a bit clearer that way. One of my friends really wants a copy for her kitchen wall!

Thanks for taking the time to tell me what you think everyone. Reading criticism isn't as hard as I thought it'd be

I'm not a huge fan of black and whites unless its portraits and rarely think a photo looks better in black in white than it could in color... so out of the box its hard for me to see things that pop out at me... though I did like the bunny hop... and it may be one of the photos that looks better in the black and white than it would in color... and looking out was a nice idea... it just suffers from the blowout from the outside light...

I'm wondering did you take these photo in raw... If you did then you might be able to make them a little better with some HDR software like photomatix pro... It could do a pseudo enhancement with only a raw image, but wouldn't work if you saved the images as jpegs.

I think a lot of the work is nice but is suffering because your trying to get more from your equipment than is possible given your constraints... the kit lens is likely too slow for some of you indoor shots... I didn't notice until I opened Brandi full size that her hand on the table is actually suffering form motion blur... I'm not sure what setting you were using but suspect that without some supplementary lighting you couldn't have gotten a spot on shot with that lens... I don't know how much indoor non-flash photography you plan on doing, but if you see yourself shooting more with available light you will probably have to give strong consideration to a very fast prime lens... I'm not familiar with what your using but I'm guessing its a 3.5 or something like that... You've managed to frame most of the shots pretty well... though a few could use a little cropping... such as the persons lab coat that is in brandi on the right of the image.

 

[jann1033]

I've been taking a photography class for a few weeks now and we've finished two portfolios. I've done well with the grading, but the teacher doesn't really critique every photo we take. She picks 1 of each category we were supposed to shoot for and then she and the class critiques it, but we don't do them all.

I'm very amateur and want some real criticism on my photos. I also know the teacher is very nice and wouldn't always pick apart each one.

If you're interested, check out http://dgcrystal.smugmug.com/

There are two portfolios:

Portfolio 1: Landscapes, Still Lifes & Portraits- ISO 100 required, manual settings, editing in photoshop consisted of: levels/curves/contrast and use of dodge/burn tools.

Portfolio 2: Motion (Panning, Blurred and Stop Motion)- ISO 200 required, could use Shutter priority but I used manual, editing in photoshop consisted of the same as before with the addition of clone stamp, healing brush, spot brush.

Let me know what you think! I promise to put on a brave face

the panning/motion folder
i like jp better than forklift...i think in forklift,the motion is a little boring and could use some interesting cropping or maybe cropped on an angle to add a little more interest, the barrels are blurry, so maybe removing most of them and using the interesting textures on the wall would help as well as well as cropping to get a little less static photo of what is supposed to show movement in Jp the forklift is a little blurry as well.
i like experiment a lot, maybe a little wider since i would like to see a little more of the liquid slopping over onto the tabletop and would like the back two vessels a tiny bit more blurred, particularity the one with the lid, it is just sharp enough to draw my eye a little to much but i really like the overall comp
pop corn i like the idea, especially the blur of the corn from the bag and where it looks like the kernel might have bounced on the table but the bowl of popcorn is blurred slightly so nothing is sharp enough to really hit the ideal contrast between static and motion blur...i think you need a tack sharp bowl to offset the blurred part
take flight i like but i think the pole needs a little more texture. something is lacking in it but i can't really put my finger on it...maybe a high contrast sky would help. i think maybe it's just not enough contrast to really hit the mark of interest since the clouds are nice but maybe a little overexposed looking and the sky itself just not contrasty enough...lots of "gray" but not enough "black" maybe
fountain i think to much is going on and distracts from the freeze of the fountain. the fence running through the background and intersecting the fountain, the large leaved plant and many leaves all in focus just don't let the fountain take center stage...maybe a closer crop of the fountain or blurred in front and behind?
this is a critique so i pointed stuff out but overall though i think the shots are good. i love black and white anyway but i think you are on your way to some great shots

 

[Michele]

Artist- if we could have used the clone stamp at that point I would have gotten rid of the switch I had to choose between having the edge of the TV or having the light switch there. Was working in too close quarters!

But were you allowed to crop? Couldn't this one be cropped a bit smaller to cut out the switch and the sliver at the top of something on the wall?

And I agree with thomas998 that cropping the lab coat to the right of Brandi would be good too.

Personally, I would crop Chemistry in closer to get rid of the clutter on the top left behind the bottles.


Maybe I crop too much?

Overall I think these are great, I really like LookingOut and BunnyHop. Nothing against Gran in her picture, but this porch setting is very nice and I love the angle, I would like to see it without Gran, just the table with the cat sleeping peacefully on it and all the 'stuff'. Or maybe with Gran sitting in a rocker beside the table, gazing off the porch.

 

[KarenAylwood]

But were you allowed to crop? Couldn't this one be cropped a bit smaller to cut out the switch and the sliver at the top of something on the wall?

And I agree with thomas998 that cropping the lab coat to the right of Brandi would be good too.

Personally, I would crop Chemistry in closer to get rid of the clutter on the top left behind the bottles.


Maybe I crop too much?

Overall I think these are great, I really like LookingOut and BunnyHop. Nothing against Gran in her picture, but this porch setting is very nice and I love the angle, I would like to see it without Gran, just the table with the cat sleeping peacefully on it and all the 'stuff'. Or maybe with Gran sitting in a rocker beside the table, gazing off the porch.

Nope, no cropping or anything. I actually asked my roommate for her opinion on some of them since she's a graphic designer. She clone stamped the lab coat in Brandi's picture and it looked SO much better. Then I realized that was against the rules (oops!) so I had to put it back in.

We were strictly told dodge, burn and change brightness/contrast- that was it. No cropping or clone stamping out or anything on the first portfolio. We're gradually learning more and more for each so we're allowed to do a little more in Photoshop each time.

Essentially for that first portfolio I had bought the camera and a week later was out taking pictures based on how she taught us to shoot in manual the first class. I missed a few in the beginning because I went to Disney in early September.

Not making excuses... (ok well maybe I am ) but I was just explaining why there was a little less understanding of manual settings and cropping/etc in the first portfolio.

Now I wish I had taken a pic of just the cat on the table! I agree that would have made a great pic

 

[thomas998]

I'm curious... did you set the camera to b/w or did you take normal photos and then use photoshop to turn them into b/w... I only ask because if you are going to do b/w you can help things quite a bit by using colored filters when shooting with film... or in the digital age just applying those filter effects in photoshop... but you would only be able to if you captured the picture in color and used photoshop to turn it b/w

 

[YesDear]

Karen for someone who is only several weeks into photography class and has only owned a camera for a short time, you are doing great. All the technical things mentioned are good advise, but overall you are doing great.

The motion pictures are your weakest, but also the hardest to create, so they will get better with practice.

I have a general creative comment about your still lifes. Many new photographers forget that you want to create emotion when you look at a picture. I did not feel a lot of emotion in your pictures. I know you were trying to get the assignment done and try to do something visually appealing.

All of you pictures with people in them do not evoke any emotion to me.

I once again think you are doing a great job at your level. Any time you take a picture try to tell a story with that picture. Make the viewer know what is going on or want to know what is going on.

Thanks for asking for our opinion and keep shooting!

 

[jann1033]

sorry Karen i didn't realize you couldn't crop
if you don't have filters ( although guessing you wouldn't be allowed to use them anyway) harry's filters has some for free ( digital naturally)

 

[KarenAylwood]

I'm curious... did you set the camera to b/w or did you take normal photos and then use photoshop to turn them into b/w... I only ask because if you are going to do b/w you can help things quite a bit by using colored filters when shooting with film... or in the digital age just applying those filter effects in photoshop... but you would only be able to if you captured the picture in color and used photoshop to turn it b/w

Colored filters? You mean like sepia?

We had to shoot in black and white. She wanted us to get an understanding of the fact that some photos look great in color and not in black and white so we had to shoot with b&w in mind. We all set our cameras to monochrome so we could see it in b&w on the LCD screen.

Things are getting gradually "less strict" when it comes to what we can and cannot do in photoshop and how we can shoot (ISO level wise).

Thanks for all the opinions guys! I really do appreciate it. The more I can learn (and get out of this class) the better.

 

[jann1033]

Colored filters? You mean like sepia?

We had to shoot in black and white. She wanted us to get an understanding of the fact that some photos look great in color and not in black and white so we had to shoot with b&w in mind. We all set our cameras to monochrome so we could see it in b&w on the LCD screen.

Things are getting gradually "less strict" when it comes to what we can and cannot do in photoshop and how we can shoot (ISO level wise).

Thanks for all the opinions guys! I really do appreciate it. The more I can learn (and get out of this class) the better.

you can use color filters for b&w that do things like darken the sky, ( yellows,) ups the contrast etc...the ones from harry's are for that. you can either use them on camera (with film not sure if they work with digital or not) or digital ones Opanda has a great set that you buy that includes tons of digital filters that mimic hoya, cokin etc. if you have to shoot in black and white mode your camera may have preset filters like orange etc that will take the photo with that effect if that wouldn't be considered cheating

 

[thomas998]

Colored filters? You mean like sepia?

We had to shoot in black and white. She wanted us to get an understanding of the fact that some photos look great in color and not in black and white so we had to shoot with b&w in mind. We all set our cameras to monochrome so we could see it in b&w on the LCD screen.

Things are getting gradually "less strict" when it comes to what we can and cannot do in photoshop and how we can shoot (ISO level wise).

Thanks for all the opinions guys! I really do appreciate it. The more I can learn (and get out of this class) the better.

Actually in the old days when you shoot b/w film you could change the mood quite a bit by shooting through a color filter... there were as I recall the main colors used were blue, red, orange, yellow and green...

a red filter would make clouds stand out against a blue sky by making the blue sky very dark... very hard contrast

Orange was similar to red but not as harsh or pronounced..

yellow would make things more contrasty but not really jack the colors up like the red and orange.

green worked with landscapes to make the different shades of green stand out better..

blue was sort of an anti contrast and reduced the contrast of the scene.

You can use those filters on a digital camera, but now days you can also use filters in photoshop and it works better... when you put on on a digital camera your stuck with that effect on the image... when you take a color photo with your digital camera you can then apply any filter you want and aren't locked into a particular look.

If you want to see what the impact is take a color photo you have in photoshop... put a layer on top of it and fill the layer with red... now change the opacity of that layer to 50%... merge the layers and then go to adjust hue/saturation slide the staturation to zero... that would be what a red filter would have done to the image.. try it with the same photo and different colors and you'll get a feeling for what the color filters would do... or there are b/w plugins for photo shop that do the same thing in one step...