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May 2022 Critiques

In this month’s critiques we discuss:

  • composition
  • light & distractions
  • when mood & editing don’t fit
  • making your dog the star of the photo & not making the photo so dark that they get lost
  • depth & layers
  • white balance

December Critiques

Quick note: When I got to the 2nd last image to critique my computer had a melt down- or at least, the screen did. I had to critique the last 2 images on an airbnb TV screen so I’m really sorry if I got everything wrong or made comments that make no sense when looking at the image on normal screens, but my computer’s screen is totally dead and I was afraid there would be no critique at all. 

October Critiques

Here comes the October critiques! As always, a great selection of image, thank you to everyone for being brave enough to put your work up for feedback! I really hope you learn a lot not only from your own critique, but others’ too.

Remember, as I said last month, that I don’t know the full story behind your images. I always get messages after a critique saying: “yeah but…” or “oh it was like this because…”

Remember that in the “real world”, whether that’s with clients, your audience on Instagram, or whatever it happens to be, they won’t get that back story either. If you are making a statement, then make it. If I’m interpreting the image “wrong”, then that is my interpretation – art, photography, is subjective. Someone else might see it exactly how you intended. 

If I say something like: “Maybe there was some noise here and you used denoise?” and you didn’t, that’s ok! But then maybe it’s worth looking into why the fur looks how it does, or what’s led me to wondering about your image. 🙂

Instructions for Submitting & Upload Link

Use the link below to submit an image for the monthly critique session! Every month, I will collect the submitted images and provide feedback on them. Your image will not be shared anywhere without your permission, and the feedback video will only be shared amongst members of the site on the secure vimeo channel. 

Video instructions on how to upload are below.

Instructions:

  • Upload one high-resolution jpeg of the image per month
    • I recommend uploading fully edited images. Either the on you think is your “best image ever” (just don’t be too sad when I critique it) or one that drove you so crazy that you just gave up on it and you can’t figure out why it was so difficult. Those are the kinds of images we will learn the most from.
    • Please do not submit images that I have critiqued already in Inspawration Connect/the Learning Community. I’ve usually already given a lot of information there, so it’s hard to think of anything new or helpful when it comes up again.
    • Upload as .jpeg. Do not upload other file formats (docx etc). I will not be chasing people up if you’ve uploaded the wrong file type. 
    • You do NOT need to include the settings in the file name. This often changes the file format (because it reads the aperture number as the file format, so tries to make it a .8 file type) so it cannot be imported into Lightroom. I will not be chasing people up if their file cannot be imported to Lightroom or mucking around trying to fix this problem.
    • sometimes people change the file name to something they want help with in the photo. I can choose to ignore this plea for help at my discretion. 
  • Make sure EXIF data is included (this tells me the camera and lens that was used, and the settings of the photo). Lightroom (and PS I suspect) includes this by default when exporting unless you’ve changed some settings.
    • I repeat, you do not need to attach the data anywhere additionally. Click here to see what the LR Export settings look like. If you leave it on “All Metadata”, my LR will be able to read the settings of your image.
    • When exporting using Photoshop, go to File > Export > Save for Web, and make sure that in the “Include Metadata” section, “All” is selected. 
    • If you are using a different software, either do a quick google search for “how to export with metadata using (your software)”, or tell me the software you use and I will do a google search. 
  • Remove all watermarks, I want this to be anonymous
  • Lastly, make sure you’re logged in to a google account, or the Google Drive will not let you upload. Unfortunately as it’s google I don’t have too many options here, but it’s the best solution for uploading that I have at the moment!

September Critiques

Once again, this month is split into two parts – sorry! I just don’t feel like one piece of information is enough, but then the recording ends up super long. I figure that you would all rather get more useful and in-depth feedback than shorter feedback and a shorter video right? Please let me know in the comments.

Part 1

Part 2