PhotoClass2017 : Assignment 01

This post forms part of my PhotoClass2017 series.

This assignment asked us to critique photos submitted to the “It starts here” thread.

I should point out that while I’m offering my best critique, I’m by no means qualified to do such, and so should be taken with a pinch of salt by any readers.

u/iwritedoyoucopy

Original post can be found here.

I love evening shots of boats and water.  While there are many boats, I find that I’m either drawn to the single boat at the centre bottom, or the two boats above it to the right.  Were there a single focal point, it could enhance the image.  I don’t know if you did any post processing, but if there was enough to lift some detail from the single boat, it may make it stand out a little, and offer that focal point.  the only other negative is the light on the horizon toward the right.  At full resolution, it can be distracting.

I find this image very compelling.  It’s the sort of image I struggle taking, so am really impressed.  Your ability to focus on one formation, whilst retaining background for context and scale is great.  This is the second image, so if it’s the one you’re not happy with, well, I would be.  I guess the only thing I could suggest to improve it would be to pick a different time of day when the colours are a little less washed out.  Judging by the shadows, I’m guessing this was at most a couple of hours each side of midday.  Composition is spot on though in my books.

u/bamc113

Original post can be found here.

Wow!  As someone who struggles with composition, this impresses me so much.  The leading lines of the river, the row of buildings with the shadows that almost accentuate the higglediepiggldy roof line.  The reflections and crisp white boats.  The lovely warm golden tones sandwiched between the blue sky and river.  What isn’t to love?  When looking at it at full resolution, it makes me think of those children’s books where there’s a lot of detail on each page.  There’s so much to look at and explore.  Simply magnificent!

The fire is spectacular.  Sadly the rest of the image is pretty distracting, the red object toward the left as well as the tree with the lit up trunk..  The image is also fairly noisy, so I’m assuming you used a high ISO to freeze the spark trails, rather than end up with a bug orange glow.  I also find the composition awkward, with the fire too far over on the right.  On the bright side however, the fire truly is spectacular.  Be sure to try and catch it again.

Oddly enough I recently watched a YouTube video all about bird photography, so will offer some thoughts with a bit of theory added in.  The bird gets lost in the detail of the image.  A shallow depth of field may have helped isolate it from the background.  I also find the composition a little awkward, with the bird looking out of the frame.  Perhaps if it was facing the other way, of you had composed is so that the bird was closer to the left of frame.  The only other criticism which I’m a little reluctant to offer is based on the sharpness of the bird.  There looks to be plenty of detail there, but it just doesn’t appear to be sharp to my eyes.

In contrast to the above shot, I love this one.  The isolation with the shallow depth of field works well.  On it’s own, the background may be considered to busy, but together with the rest of your “urban” photos, it forms part of a story nicely.  Even the fact that the bird is fairly small in the frame, is OK, as it’s well positioned and stands out nicely.  If anything the smallness of the type of bird is nicely emphasised by the space in the composition.

This is a tough one.  The sky, clouds, horizon and water are spectacular.  The timber poles and structures are just too busy for my liking though.  To be honest, living on the coast, we have lots of this type of scenery, and I always struggle making it into a nice image.  The photo’s I have seen that work well for me are when they are able to frame the image to reduce the amount of structure, so that what is in the image becomes the primary feature, and the focal point, or used as a leading line.

u/thehulk0560

Original post can be found here.

I have lots of these types of photos, where as a piece of art, it really doesn’t do much, but as an emotional tag to a memory, they are great.  From a technical perspective, I like the framing, the only two suggestions would be to rotate to the right a little, so more of your wife’s face is in view, and use a narrower depth of field, to remove some of the background distraction.

I really like this photo.  Apart form the bench(?) on the left, the whole background is monocrome.  My main trick to isolate a subject is to use a narrow depth of field.  You have however managed to isolate the Jeep well whilst keeping the rest of the image in focus, which is great considering you wanted to show the frozen lake.  I’d be interested to hear what others consider could be improved with this image. I’d be proud to have taken it.

For me the key to make these sorts of images be striking is to have pin sharp eyes.  It looks like you’ve got a bit of camera shake, when looking at the hair strands, which unfortunately hurts the sharpness.  Otherwise, what a cutie!

Cool idea.  While it’s a interesting perspective, something about it just seems underwhelming.  Perhaps the background to subject ratio is too much?  I don’t know.

I LOVE this image.  I’d have a big print of this on my wall without any hesitation.  I never actually noticed the reflection until I read your comment about planning it.  Also while I would have chosen to focus on the “576”, the whole image is sharp enough that it’s not immediately obvious that the focus point is wrong.  Perhaps when blown up to full size it will be a little more obvious., but as is, it’s fantastic!

u/SylvainrG

Original post can be found here.

Pretty colours, and a spectacular scene.  Unfortunately it lacks a single focal point or line of interest.  Perhaps if you’d captured it a little earlier when the ferry was a little closer to the camera, and could have been a focal point.  The birds in the foreground are also a bit distracting,   I like the exposure however.

This is a pretty scene, well composed.  The top left corner, coming down part of the left frame looks a bit washed out.  I wonder if it’s sun hitting the lens directly?  I’ve started leaving my lens hood on and wonder if this is the sort of issue it’s supposed to help with.  It would be interesting to see what a polarising filter would have done to this shot too, as it may have given the sky a little more definition, and taken the reflection off the water.

Pretty colours, and an interesting skyline.  For some reason the composition ins’t working for me though.  Perhaps a tighter crop, with just the two cloud formations on the left, and a little more land would help?  Composition isn’t my strong point, so I’m just stabbing in the dark with suggestions.

Great sky and subject silhouettes.   For me however there’s nothing to capture my interest, because there’s too much trying to capture my interest.  I think had you been able to get only one dominant bird in the frame it would have helped create a key subject.

These are the sorts of compositions I really struggle with.   Sometimes the size of the scene is what makes it spectacular, but then on camera everything just looks too small and it looses impact.  I have no idea what the solution is.  I wish I did.  The reflections almost look more real than the land and sky.  I wonder what it would look like if you inverted it.  Would people notice?