Friday Photo Critique #39
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!
Quick Ground Rules
- Play nice! We’ve deliberately chosen photographs that aren’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
- Feel free to offer any type of advice – composition, lighting, post-processing etc.
- 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
Photographer: Chris Day
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. Interested in submitting your own photo? You can do so here!
Enjoyed this Post?
Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!
By David Appleyard
How to Take Great Photos
Whether you've got a simple point-and-shoot, or a professional camera, you'll learn the basics of what every photographer needs to know to make their shots count!
Join our newsletter!
U-Design WordPress Theme only $35.00 
Modernize - Flexibility of W ... only $35.00 
Tinkerbell portrait retouching - More
Photo Basix
Just getting started? Start with our basix tutorials on the fundamentals. View All Basix Tutorials
Create a Tutorial, Get Paid!
Have something to teach the world? Want to earn money doing it? Tutorials, screencasts, and articles published here on Phototuts+ are largely contributed by readers just like you! We'll pay you great money for good content. Find Out More
Looks gorgeous!
But the eye-part is a bit too smooth, I personally would’ve focused more on the eyes.
Still awesome, though!
Very nice image, maybe a little too much blur on the necklace, would be nice to see a little more of it. In fact, a little too much blur all together. The little bit of hair to left of cheek should be more visible.
A crisp focus on eyes does always help. Also you can play selectively with the hue and shadows to create more depth.
Great image! When I first saw the image, all I could see was her face. After looking at the rest of the picture, I’m not sure the necklace and top of her dress adds to it at all. Might consider cropping in tighter, or just below the necklace. Nice shot!
I was going to comment the same, some cropping could be considered.
The only distracting thing to me is the top of her shirt. I think if you cropped that out it would be good. She’s a little washed out but I think that’s just the lighting of that day you can warm it up. On her end she could soften her eyeshadow or use more pinks to match her hair Greens to match the background and soften her eyebrows a bit.
This is great! I like the softness of the image. It reminds me of old movies and how they would shot close-ups of women out of focus to give them a glow. I’d kind like to see it as a black and white but then you would lose the great color between her hair and the background.
I really like the picture. I don’t see anything wrong with it.
Although… After looking at it for a while now I have to agree with previous comments. My eye was wandering down to the dress and necklace too. I did find them to be distracting as well.
I was going to say that those guys were being too critical but I had to change my comments and agree with them.
Still! It’s a really nice photo and with a couple of changes you would have an even better one.
Nice work!
would of been a lot better if the eyes were in focus. I find that is ALWAYS key in a portrait. If her eyes were not in included in this shot, then it’d be a different story. Beautiful model though
There have been several comments regarding the focus of this photo.
Although I am not absolutely certain, yet my guess is that the photographer focused on the far eye, instead of on the near eye.
Focusing on the far eye with such a short depth of focus, causes the part of the face which is closer to the camera to be blurry.
I think if the photographer bracketed the focus (just a few millimeters either side), he/she could have gotten the necklace also in focus. The three colors (skin color, green background and the red hair) are already bright enough to grab the viewer’s attention and so the blue element in the photo looks a bit odd. plus, the blue is there just for 5 to 10% of the photo region anyway. because of the extremely shallow depth of the field, i think there’s a bit too much ringing effect in the photo..may be some of that could be corrected with a few post-processing touches. Awesome take otherwise – the portrait effect is glowing and a great expression by the subject as well.
I think this is a really nice photo. I like the composition in that the subject is not right in the middle of the frame. I dont find the dress or the necklace distracting at all. As far as the focus, I think it works. The thing I think would help the most is to boost the contrast or saturation of the colors a little. I know this is my personal taste, but I like punchy colors that jump out at me. The subject also looks a little pale to me. Perhaps a little warming of the skin would make it just a little better. Of course, the artists intention could be for a more dream-like shot, and if that is the case, it works. The subject is well lit and the skin is soft and smooth. This is not a bad photo by any means, but I think with a couple of minor tweaks it could really be sharp.
i think that brightening the face up could help allot.
Both eyes do not always have to be in focus. It is good practice though to have the eye closest to the camera in focus. In the case of the Fibonacci Spiral the main focus of the image would be her cheek, nose and lip piercing. A minor change in composition would have made the focus more on her eyes and would have kept the viewers eyes from wandering down the dress (as mentioned above).
Other than that, I really like the photo.
Keep up the good work!
a bit of sharpening and contrast….. pretty sweet shot really.
just a bit of fine tuning
I’d given it slightly more DOF (higher aperture), the depth of field is great enough to keep the background nicely blurred, however the model would jump out more. Adjust focus so that both eyes are in equal focus.
Also, a slightly different camera position to prevent the line in her chin look like a continuation of her shoulder line, which distracts slightly from her beautiful eyes (or, ‘shop it out
).
Adjust white balance to give the skin a slightly more natural look.
Great photo, most of my comments are more a matter of taste than tech remarks.