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August Critiques

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Critiques August Critiques
Critiques August Critiques

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In this month’s critiques we were looking at glow-ups, and students could submit either a normal photo for critique, or a glow-up where they either re-edited an old photo, or took a new photo at an old location. 

It was amazing to see your glow-ups, and I hope you’re all crazy proud of your progress so far! 

I split the critiques into two parts – I still don’t know how to do these things quickly.

As always, do watch other people’s critiques because there’s so much information in here to learn, across a huge range of topics!

Scroll down for the Top 3 of the Challenge!

Part 2

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@ashphotography_tirol

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@supermiaagility

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@allfourpaws_photography

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July Critiques

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Critiques July Critiques
Critiques July Critiques

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So many great and varied photos this month! This month also followed on from the Personality Challenge posted at the beginning of the month.

The critiques covered a range of topics from:

  • The eyes of the subject being in focus
  • White balance
  • Warmth/coolness matching the mood/feeling of the photo/expression of the subject
  • Overall exposure and not losing the dog in the dark. (See this lesson for more)
  • Fringing/chromatic aberration and some ways to fix it
  • Lots of cool curve shapes in the foregrounds of images
  • Choosing locations carefully to ensure there’s enough light on the subject
  • Checking camera/exposure settings
  • and probably more.

Below the video, I have posted my top 5 from the challenge, and the challenge winner! 

4th & 5th Places

I loved the warmth, light and happy expression of the corgi, but felt the photo wasn’t quite as sharp as it could have been due to a bit of motion blur. And the Aussie, I loved the openness of the space, the curve in the foreground, but just wanted it to feel warmer and brighter to match the happy expression.

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@torre.the.toller

The scene is beautiful, and Torre looks so serene, but also like he’s just out on another adventure – adventure is life. The pinks, blues and oranges all come together to match the serene, calm feeling.

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@livmoorewithavi

I just love Avi’s expression here. It’s simple, but you can read so much in the direction of his face and snout, the direction of his eyes, the way he’s holding his ears. He looks both cheeky, and sweet. Framed by the branches all reaching out toward him, not overly darkened to try and make the photo more serious, I loved this image a lot.

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@alice_ne

Maybe I’m a sucker for dogs emerging from the deep green leaves, but there is such a serious intensity in her gaze that matches the scene and the editing. The leaf that curls under her eye and goes along her snout, and the one that curls up over her head. In some ways I’m not sure if she’s going to eat me, or pounce on me – maybe there’s a hint of cheekiness there from her wet fur.

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June Critiques

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Critiques June Critiques
Critiques June Critiques

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May Critiques

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Critiques May Critiques
Critiques May Critiques

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Here’s the May Critiques!

As always heaps of great work and as this is the first critiques for our new members, lots and lots to learn.

This month’s critiques included:

  • Lots of looking at crop and composition
  • White balance
  • Camera settings & sharpness
  • Haze

As always:

  • please don’t take your critiques personally. I tried to get through them quickly(ish) so didn’t have a lot of time to gush over the good stuff. If I didn’t say something nice, it’s just because I was focusing on giving you the most useful information. 
  • remember that I’m critiquing without seeing the original, or knowing where your skill level is, or knowing what exactly you’ve done to the image. If I’ve missed the mark on my critique because I said: “it looks like the dog is glowing a bit” when the photo was just like that, then that’s what happens sometimes.
  • My brightness was turned quite the way down to begin with so a couple of the feedbacks are a little strange 😂
  • Please note that a few images didn’t come through as they had the camera settings written as the file name, so the file type changed to .8 (because they wrote the aperture at the end). Sorry but I don’t have time to chase up the creators of these photos. If I get a second I’ll try and change the file type and do a second video, I’m just not sure it will work. You do not have to include the settings anywhere. If you export using Lightroom and “include metadata” the settings are automatically attached to the photo. If exporting using Photoshop, use the “Save for web” function and make sure that: “Include Metadata” has “All” selected.
  • Are the CC/subtitles helpful? They’re autogenerated and sometimes they’re a bit off. It also means if I’ve said something then edited the video to cut parts out (sometimes I’m talking to Ana/the dogs, sometimes I change my mind about the feedback) then there are “left over” captions. Are they helpful? Should I keep them on? Turn them off? Please let me know.
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Peer Critiques

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Critiques Peer Critiques
Critiques Peer Critiques

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It’s time for something a bit different! 

This month, we will be doing a peer critique session. This is like a workshop-style live event, where you can receive feedback on an image not only from me, but from the others who are attending.

Here’s how it will go:

  • You choose an image that you would like to get feedback on, from the attendees. 
  • We’ll all meet on Zoom.
  • One at a time, you’ll share your chosen image for feedback. You don’t have to upload it anywhere, just share through screen sharing.
    • You don’t have to share, however, if nobody shares, or only a couple of people do, this isn’t going to work. I don’t like making things mandatory, but it’s also not that fair to the people who put themselves out there for critique if nobody else does.
  • Attendees are expected to participate in the critique and offer their thoughts and advice. This is about developing your critical eye too, as well as getting useful information.
    • This is not all about me giving feedback, it’s about all of us offering thoughts and advice.
  • Passive participation (eg., coming along, not sharing an image and not offering advice & suggestions) is highly discouraged. This kind of session will only work if you all get involved. If I notice you’ve been sitting quietly not offering any suggestions, I will call on you. I really, really hate calling on people but it’s just not fair otherwise.
  • Everyone will be expected to be courteous, constructive and kind. These critiques are obviously not going to be about attacking images, but about offering helpful and actionable suggestions for improvement. 
  • Participants will have a time limit to receive critique. This is to stop one person from getting a whole lot of feedback, while others get minimal feedback. 
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April Critiques

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Critiques April Critiques
Critiques April Critiques

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So much AMAZING work this month! I hope you’re all so proud of your progress & learning.

This month we look at:

  • Some difficult lighting conditions
  • How to export including metadata
  • Chromatic aberration/fringing
  • Small distractions
  • Thoughts on lighting & helping dogs stand out
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March Critiques

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Critiques March Critiques
Critiques March Critiques

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If you missed out on submitting a video for this month, make sure you get yours in for April! You can find all the info and the link to the google drive file here.

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February Critiques

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Critiques February Critiques
Critiques February Critiques

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Ohhhhh boy.

Here we are. Time for the very first critique, and I’m warning you all in advance that it’s a big ‘un. But in all honesty, there was so much good work, and so many important things to address, and if you know me by now, you’ll know that I like to explain a concept in 3 different ways to make sure you really understand it. Blame teaching very young children for that, I guess. 

Anyway. Here it is. Thank you for everyone who submitted images for February, and I’m really looking forward to next month’s critique – which I will try and make shorter (ha. Good luck to me.)

This critique features:

  • portrait or landscape orientation (blog post on this coming soon, too)
  • some discussion about white balance issues
  • lots of discussion about composition and framing choices
  • talk about lighting and editing (particularly in regards to backlight – there’s a backlight tutorial of my boys hugging on the way!)
  • checking camera settings
  • and some other bits and pieces that I forget already.

Enjoy! And don’t forget to submit for next month on the main Critiques page. 😊

 

Part One

Part Two

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