Friday Photo Critique #26

Friday Photo Critique #26

on Apr 2nd 2010 with 15 comments

Friday Photo Critique is our weekly community project, where we publish a photograph submitted by one of our wonderful readers, then ask you all to offer constructive feedback on the image.

It’s a great way to learn more about photography, express your viewpoint, and have your own image critiqued. Your response will also be displayed with a link to your website or portfolio, so be sure to enter it correctly when submitting a comment!

Quick Ground Rules

  1. Play nice! We’ve deliberately chosen photographs that aren’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
  2. Feel free to offer any type of advice – composition, lighting, post-processing etc.
  3. You can also link to photographs that you feel offer a great example of this type of image shot exceptionally well.

Without further ado, here is this week’s candidate for Friday Photo Critique!

The Photograph

Photo Critique

Photographer: Steve Klir

Please let us know what you think in the comments – how would you have approached the scene or taken the photo differently? A massive thank you to everyone who commented last week.

The most constructive and helpful comments will be featured on the site, and you’ll also be given priority to feature your own work in a future Friday Photo Critique!.

David Appleyard is davidappleyard on Themeforest
 
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David Appleyard is a designer and writer based in the UK. He manages Tuts+, along with having founded several design websites including Design Shack and PixelsDaily.  

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  • Aaron

    Personally, I really like this photograph. It has an artistic style to it which I appreciate. It first thought it felt like it was a little unbalanced with the stairs at the top, but the subtle blues at the bottom help it to balance pretty well. I don’t really see any changes that I can suggest to it.

  • http://designbigdreams.com Anthony

    I really like it, great perspective. I love how abstract it is. I think it has a great balance between the light and dark areas. It also has a nice splash of color to draw your eye into the image. However, and this is just to quench my curiosity, what is it?

    My modest opinion.

    -Anthony

  • earthrokk

    Good Capture. Like the composition. My largest critique is that if you could not avoid the noise/pixelation, Convert to Monotone a apply color effects/duotones to control color. This allows you to treat the High ISO noise as grain and not improper color. I like the color a lot, but it seems as if the High ISO and lighting was not ideal for the best capture. Try a soft fill in flash next time to balance. Also, crop down to a square. You do not need the extra space and the burnt blue on the bottom right is distracting. Lastly, rotate 90 degrees Counterclockwise for balance. Start the object in the top left corner for greater appeal.

    Keep up the good work.

  • http://dianaeftaiha.wordpress.com/ Diana Eftaiha

    my only comment is i dont know what it is =S

    • Michele

      Me neither. xD

      • LM

        never seen some stairs?

  • http://www.nowheremanphotos.com Mike Wilson

    Awesome. I even like the grain. Maybe my only crit would be I’d like to see the “bullseye” be off-center.

  • ale

    too much noise, it’s the only thing i have to say

    • http://flavors.me/atomiclemon Jake Vallante

      Oh yea, towards the center. I didnt even notice it originally. Still a great pic though.

  • http://www.scottlawphotography.com Scott

    This is a very nice photo and obviously the concentric circles draw your eye into it. Beautiful warm colors and nice use of the rule of thirds with the black hole slightly toward the bottom third.

    There are a couple of distracting factors. I found myself trying to figure out why there was a stark white beginning at the top with a line down from it that, even though it is slightly curved, didn’t really tie into the circular shape of the rest and even cuts off part of the banister. The crisp edges combined with lack of verigation looks to me like it was put there intentionally to mask something.

    Also, It could have added significant interest if there was some kind of subject or POI at the bottom instead of just a black hole. The POI at the bottom would not have to be major, or even brightly lit, just something to give you a reason to follow the spiral staircase down.

    Some of the reflections on the banister are blown out although that is partially hidden by the stark white mask.

    When you find something like this it is hard not to get a shot of it. I’d love to find it and take along some lights and a model and some props and give it a try myself. That would be fun but I don’t know if I’d do any better. Thanks for sharing.

  • chad

    I liked the photo,but how it’s pieced together and with the bright colors I find it a little distracting.Having it in black and white I think it would be much more interesting.

  • Anarian

    That is a certainly interesting image, I showed it around to a couple of people and they all think that it is truly unique. I presume that it is an image of a staircase from the top-down (and it is interesting how you stuck your camera at such an angle!) The noise gives a very vintage look, but it is a little overpowering at the uppermost steps. The gentle blue in the corner balances the image from the bright oranges. You could try cropping the image to make it thinner to remove some of the white. The large amount of white on the side is very distracting from the dark bottom. Other than those quirks, it is very unique in the fact that the ground is so dark like a black hole!

  • http://www.henryalva.com henry

    I think cropping out some of the white space to move the dark part of the spiral off center would make it a little more interesting.

  • http://phillipjacobsphotography.com Phillip Jacobs

    I think it is GREAT! I would like to see the before pic to know what you were working with. VERY COOL!

  • http://? Philip Meagher

    I like the photo and (im not sure) but i think its a normal, straight set of stairs. hes just used a photoshop filter called the droste effect to automatically turn it into a spiralling staircase.