[rodi]

Welcome to the Official BimmerPost Photography Critique Thread.

The Rules of the thread are quite simple: Someone posts a photo in a reply, the person below must critique the photo in the post above (following the critique guidelines below) and then post a photo to be critiqued, thus starting a chain of constructive (albeit sometimes brutal) critiques. The purpose of this thread is the improvement of two areas: your own photos and your perception of viewing photographs in a way that helps elevate the art form.
Your critique does NOT need to praise, nor does it need to bash - but it must be critical and "reasonably" in depth. Tact is also encouraged.

Critique Guidelines (to be edited as necessary moving forward):

0. Please keep the images at or less than 1024 pixels wide and 800 pixels tall. (Composition is no fun when you have to scroll back and forth to see the whole image).

1. Do not say "I like it." Tell us WHY. What does it do for you?

2. Give reasons and back up your claims with references to objective principles of art or similar.

3. Do not take anything personally! Critiques are meant to help you improve and learn something. Is it opinion or objective and constructive criticism? Know the difference.

4. Although technical aspects are important overall, try to keep your points based on the principles of art/photography rather than technical imperfections like a small area that is a blown out highlight.


The Guidelines will be updated as the thread grows and discussions arise.

This should be fun.
I hope someone finds it beneficial.
Or maybe it's redundant since we always comment on each others' work in the other threads?

[ShopVac]

I wouldn't mind knowing if I'm going in the right direction with these night pictures.

[Mr Tonka]

^^ I would say you are headed in the right direction. The fist thing that jumped out at me was some of the overblown highlights. Most of the white lights are a tad blown. It seems highly saturated but not so much that i dislike it or think it's over done. White balance seems ok. In areas you think it's off and in other areas it seems to be right on. It would be nice to have some distinction between the ground and sky, but it is a night pic after all. A full moon would have probably helped you a lot. Not an easy pic to critique for me. I quite like it.


Let 'er rip.

[Mr Tonka]

Great thread Rodi! It's sure to be a great leaning tool for all of us.

[rodi]

the image is very left-heavy because of the hill and the wood in the foreground. the dead wood also pulls more (too much) attention than the more pleasing elements in the frame: the background mountains and the water (for me). and because of this choice in framing/subject, what is taking up most of your image is dead ugly foliage. so, if your subject was the dead wood, you could have either used a wider aperture to accentuate it at the same time as taking attention away from the foliage, or framed it differently. in the end i'm stuck trying to look at the water and those rocks peaking out of it.

[bluespeed117]

^ pretty good shot but I feel like that exit sign in the back and the light are a bit distracting. My eyes are always drawn to those two things. I love that you went with black and white for this image rather than color. His forehead is a little blown but its not as distracting as the exit sign at least for me.

[Chewy734]

rodi, maybe make the rules to say 800x800 px max. I hate scrolling left and right constantly.

[rodi]

too much for your 800x600 CRT monitor?

[The1]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

rodi, maybe make the rules to say 800x800 px max. I hate scrolling left and right constantly.

agreed.

and as for the baby picture, very cute, but you might want to re-compose a little to a different location so the childs head isn't in front of things so that something like the heating grate behind her head doesn't look like it's growing out of it.

try to use that clean bit of wall behind the front of her head and it will result in the ability to crop the image in different ways, as well as take distracting objects out.

even so, it's not far off...

[rodi]

updated.

[ShopVac]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

rodi, maybe make the rules to say 800x800 px max. I hate scrolling left and right constantly.

Originally Posted by rodi

too much for your 800x600 CRT monitor?

Tell me about it, wus can afford a BMW but can't plop down $170.00 for a 26" monitor

bluespeed117 - I'll let others comment, as I'm nowhere near as experienced as others here (plus I already submitted one today, and I can only handle so much rejection in one day). This is what I see...I like the lighting being strong on the left, gradually fading to the right. I think the subjects is well cropped for the picture (as in the location in the picture) and having the background faded like that really draws your eyes to the subject. I'm okay with the black and white shot...but with small children, usually the color of their eyes makes the picture and I wonder if your losing anything by choosing B/W. I'm also not a huge fan of noise in the faded background...but I think it works well with this picture.

rodi - for what it's worth, I agree with bluespeed117 in regards to the exit sign...it was the first thing that caught my eye in that picture. Being B/W, I think you could have taken it out easily. The partial shot of the guy in the background is also a bit distracting...I'd like to see him fuzzed out a tad. I'm okay with how the subject looks...as the light is shining right on him and IMO should be like that.

[Chewy734]

Originally Posted by rodi

too much for your 800x600 CRT monitor?

Originally Posted by ShopVac

Tell me about it, wus can afford a BMW but can't plop down $170.00 for a 26" monitor

easy there... I have a laptop and not some fancy 30" monitor hooked up to it. Some of us aren't pros who get paid wads of cash

[rodi]

Originally Posted by The1

agreed.

and as for the baby picture, very cute, but you might want to re-compose a little to a different location so the childs head isn't in front of things so that something like the heating grate behind her head doesn't look like it's growing out of it.

try to use that clean bit of wall behind the front of her head and it will result in the ability to crop the image in different ways, as well as take distracting objects out.

even so, it's not far off...

post your photo!

[The1]

Originally Posted by rodi

post your photo!

looking for one i want critiqued.

[rodi]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

easy there... I have a laptop and not some fancy 30" monitor hooked up to it. Some of us aren't pros who get paid wads of cash

all i have is a macbook. no external monitors.

now let's get back on track here.

[rodi]

Originally Posted by The1

looking for one i want critiqued.

oh ok, sorry. no need to yell.

[The1]

Mary and Kasey-33 by Reed Jackson, on Flickr

[The1]

Originally Posted by rodi

oh ok, sorry. no need to yell.

haha, did you have a really sugary milk shake with your hamburger for dinner? you seem super playful tonight

[rodi]

Originally Posted by The1

haha, did you have a really sugary milk shake with your hamburger for dinner? you seem super playful tonight

meow.

ha.



alright, Chewy, you're up.... get in there. lol

[The1]

Originally Posted by rodi

meow.

haha, that's what i say to the ladies when i text them.....

only it's more like


"me owwwww"

[rodi]

ha. seemed fitting since you called me playful.
anyway, no sugary milkshake. just a good day in terms of booking new clients. and the new BIRP playlist is pretty good this time.

[The1]

Originally Posted by rodi

ha. seemed fitting since you called me playful.
anyway, no sugary milkshake. just a good day in terms of booking new clients. and the new BIRP playlist is pretty good this time.

BIRP?