*OFFICIAL* Critique Thread

[Flying_Dutchman13]

Ill start by saying I know about nothing when it comes to photography. To abide by the rules Ill attempt to critique Jpsum's pic. I like the B&W for the portrait and its focused well on the dog. Here's a pic I took today, I found a giant field of sunflowers so I decided to see how my cell phone would do, just an unedited close up.

[Chewy734]

I'll let someone else critique your photo for now... but I'm jealous you're in Vancouver.

[oneintheory]

Originally Posted by Flying_Dutchman13

Ill start by saying I know about nothing when it comes to photography. To abide by the rules Ill attempt to critique Jpsum's pic. I like the B&W for the portrait and its focused well on the dog. Here's a pic I took today, I found a giant field of sunflowers so I decided to see how my cell phone would do, just an unedited close up.

i don't mean to be rude, here, but i'll say it before someone else does. critiquing a the photographic principles and techniques in a cell phone picture is like giving a blind homeless man a ticket to a movie. sure, you got him inside for a little while, but there's no point aside from that. the only thing you do with a cell phone is composition. that's not photography, that's one part of it.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Flying_Dutchman13

Ill start by saying I know about nothing when it comes to photography. To abide by the rules Ill attempt to critique Jpsum's pic. I like the B&W for the portrait and its focused well on the dog. Here's a pic I took today, I found a giant field of sunflowers so I decided to see how my cell phone would do, just an unedited close up.

Actually, I've seen some wonderful iPhone shots. When my current iPhone gives out I'm looking forward to moving up to the latest with the much improved camera and start using it more.

This is NOT a great iPhone image. I looks like the lens wasn't even wiped clean, a common problem with many iPhone shots. There's an obvious blown out area to the upper left, but the yellows are blown out all over the image. The BG is simply ugly. To make this work with any camera, in this light, you probably needed a difuser and maybe some dark BG.

Keep trying.

[dcstep]

Here's mine:

Dillon Reservoir, Dillon, CO:


Dillon Reservoir, looking toward the dam by dcstep, on Flickr

[Flying_Dutchman13]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Actually, I've seen some wonderful iPhone shots. When my current iPhone gives out I'm looking forward to moving up to the latest with the much improved camera and start using it more.

This is NOT a great iPhone image. I looks like the lens wasn't even wiped clean, a common problem with many iPhone shots. There's an obvious blown out area to the upper left, but the yellows are blown out all over the image. The BG is simply ugly. To make this work with any camera, in this light, you probably needed a difuser and maybe some dark BG.

Keep trying.

Thx for the info the pic was taken on my Experia Arc. I thought it looked alright, but then again Im not good at this. Here's the camera info :

8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality

Features - Touch focus, image stabilization, geo-tagging, face and smile detection

Video - 720p@30fps, continuous autofocus, video light, check quality

[Flying_Dutchman13]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

I'll let someone else critique your photo for now... but I'm jealous you're in Vancouver.

Im actually in Winnipeg working for the summer, the weather here is a lot better than what Vancouver has been getting.

[Chewy734]

it's all relative I guess. I'd rather be in Vancouver in winter than Winnipeg.

[Mr Tonka]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Here's mine:

Dillon Reservoir, Dillon, CO:


Dillon Reservoir, looking toward the dam by dcstep, on Flickr

Love pics of mtns. Really like how the colors or what seems like saturation level fades from the closest to furthest. Colors look good to me. There are a three things i would have changed. Would have gotten rid of the tiny hair or what ever in the clouds upper right. Would have cloned out the dot in the water dead center near the bottom of the frame. I would have also cloned out the boat and it's wake. FOR ME... the boat and it's wake ruin an otherwise beautiful scene. Lastly and i think this may be a personal opinion, i tend to like to have the shoreline sitting about 1/3 the way up the frame.

I especially like that pic because it's the Keyston/Dillon area. Hard to beat that area for pretty mountainous scenes.


In fact, here is mine......

This was taken with my first DSLR, a Konica Minolta with the kit lens or a 28 - 300 tonkia lens. Can't remember. Either way now that i've been doing this a little while longer there are a few items about this image that i don't care for. Despite me thinking this was the best photo i'd ever taken at the time. haha just curious to see if my gripes are the same as others.

I took this while taking a day break from an 8 day snowboarding trip to the Keystone area.

[dcstep]

Thanks Joe.

I evidently got a hair on my sensor and then it got shaken off when I cycled the camera (isn't that incredible!!). Still, I've got a handful of pix that I need to fix.

I would normally follow your guideline for placing the shoreline, but I was looking at the reflection of the mountains at the lower right. Do you think that was a mistake?

Love yours, but I leave it to someone else to critque. The mountain light is incredible.

Dave

[Mr Tonka]

After another look I don't think so. I like that aspect of the image but I think I didn't notice it because my eyes kept going to the boat.

[johnnymu]

^Above I like the view in the background. I like story idea of beginning( tree) middle(water) and end(mountain) but for this example I feel like I wanna move the trees out of the way. Perhaps, a little more coloring in the sky would brighten the mood.

[bluespeed117]

Originally Posted by johnnymu

^Above I like the view in the background. I like story idea of beginning( tree) middle(water) and end(mountain) but for this example I feel like I wanna move the trees out of the way. Perhaps, a little more coloring in the sky would brighten the mood.

awesome picture, reminds me of this picture I took a couple of years ago. I love how the light makes the sign almost glow. The shallow DoF is also great really focusing your eye to the subject of the image.

[sk8board511]

^ I'm no expert on photos at all but one thing I'd like to see is getting both mail boxes in focus and possibly a simpler background. Now here is a shot I took a little while back. It hasn't been edited I just found it and I'd like to make it into prints so let me know what I can do with it. I wanted to capture the cliffs and the lighthouse but it made the photo heavy on the right

[johnnymu]

^nice view. I would to like to concentrate more on the sky, water and lighthouse more than the cliff. I would crop out most of the cliff and trees.

[rollinstone157]

Originally Posted by johnnymu

^nice view. I would to like to concentrate more on the sky, water and lighthouse more than the cliff. I would crop out most of the cliff and trees.

Excellent shot! I like "strength" of the B&W, and it's wonderfully sharp as well. If I were you, I might consider cropping out the dude walking by the fountain on the left side of the shot. It's hard to say he's taking away from the picture, but he's certainly not adding anything to it.


Losing My Religion. by RobStone, on Flickr
So this was shot in RAW on my P&S, and then I converted it to an HDR image. I tried to avoid making it seem overdone (the color of the church is accurately reflected, and the sky was pretty cloudy), but do you think it was?

[Kgolf31]

Originally Posted by rollinstone157

Excellent shot! I like "strength" of the B&W, and it's wonderfully sharp as well. If I were you, I might consider cropping out the dude walking by the fountain on the left side of the shot. It's hard to say he's taking away from the picture, but he's certainly not adding anything to it.


Losing My Religion. by RobStone, on Flickr
So this was shot in RAW on my P&S, and then I converted it to an HDR image. I tried to avoid making it seem overdone (the color of the church is accurately reflected, and the sky was pretty cloudy), but do you think it was?

Looking at the background shows some blue in the sky (or it appears in my eyes) and then looking directly over the house it's a dark cloud...doesn't seem to flow when you look at the sky.

The leaves on the left side covering some of the house is a bit distracting as well, I think of they didn't overlay the roof it'd be perfectly fine.

The House itself is very vivid and nice colors, it's one of the few HDR images I like, not overly done.

Here is mine:

Shot in Hilton Head, alittle PP; still new to the photo game

[johnnymu]

Hey, where in Ohio? I'm in cincy
Change white balance to shade, you'll get a more golden color for sunset shots. I would underexpose it a little more.

[Mr Tonka]

Originally Posted by Kgolf31

Here is mine:

Shot in Hilton Head, alittle PP; still new to the photo game

Nice image! Like how the color of the sky transitions from blue to orange. Horizon is nice and level. There is a dot in the water on the left that i would have cloned out. But the largest issue for me is the composition. I think that the silhouettes and the shoreline in the foreground detract from the photo. I feel that if the image were cropped just above the silhouettes, or if the bottom of the frame was just above the shore (without the silhouettes) it would be a more balanced composition.

Keep shooting and posting!!

[Kgolf31]

Originally Posted by johnnymu

Hey, where in Ohio? I'm in cincy
Change white balance to shade, you'll get a more golden color for sunset shots. I would underexpose it a little more.

Dayton. Thank you both for the comments. I'll take both into consideration next time

[Andrew@ET]

[Mr Tonka]

^^ Gotta give to get Andrew.

May want to review the rules in the OP.