Photo Critique #108

Photo Critique #108

on Oct 28th 2011 with 13 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!

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 Details & Inspiration

  • Canon 1D-S Mark III
  • 50mm
  • 1/320
  • f/5
  • ISO 200
  • Auto exposure

I took this photo in a nearby construction site near my home. I approached this friendly worker when he’s taking a break and asked for his permission. We didn’t talk much, but I felt his smile and body language can tell his story.

Photographer: Kasi ZX Xie

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!

Tags: critique
 
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Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

I was raised in the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. After high school, I left for Western Kentucky University where I obtained degrees in photojournalism and cultural anthropology. I am currently employed by CityBeat, an arts and entertainment weekly in Cincinnati. The work I am doing here is very rewarding and I suspect it will continue to be. I am available for freelance work in all areas of photography.  

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  • http://www.acstanley.com Aaron Stanley

    Personally, I like this portrait. I think the thing I probably like the most is the combinations of textures in the photograph. The workers face, as you mentioned, seems as though it has a story to tell. It makes the photograph interesting to look at and makes me wonder how well this would translate to a black and white image. Focus, on the subject, also looks pretty sharp. Nicely done.

    The only issues I can see that detract from the photograph:
    1.The water bottle (or lantern? hard to tell) with the yellow top to the right side of the frame keeps drawing my eye away from your subject. I personally would have cropped that out. It’s the brightest part of the photo and the eye is instantly drawn to it.
    2. It looks like you have “burned” the edges of the photograph with some heavy vignetting. I do not think the vignetting is needed at all. I would remove it.

    • http://www.redbubble.com/people/taotaokk Kasi

      Thank you for your advice Aaron!

      Firstly, about the yellow water bottle. I left it in the frame deliberately, wanted to add some interesting colour to the photo. BUT, you are right. It became the brightest part after adding the vignette layer, and then was TOO INTERESTING to keep eyes concentrating on the main subject. Less is more. I agree.

      About the vignette layer. As dj said, I tried to emphasize the stucco texture of the wall, but obviousely, it doesn’t work as well as I thought. It’s a bit too bold(or too heavy), so lots of people feel it distracting. I would keep the layer but reduce the transparency a bit.

      • http://www.acstanley.com Aaron Stanley

        None-the-less, this is still a fantastic portrait. I have a hardtime shooting portraits, so I commend you for your ability to do so.

  • http://sripalindia.blogspot.com/ Sripal

    LIKE Aaron said the irregular burn effect on the side are distracting . I would have used a circular vignette .

    but the shot is great!

    the face looks a bit dark.

  • http://www.vijayforvictory.com Vijay

    I like the portrait very much. The tone of blue colour gives the best effect, as always. His expression adds value.

  • Salda

    First thing I noticed also was the vignetting, I’m a fan of adding a vignette, but in this case, it’s a little too heavy, back off on it a bit. Looks like there are a couple of tools at the bottom of the frame, I might’ve moved those a bit closer to him to help add a bit more character to the subject. Overall, though, great shot.

    • http://www.redbubble.com/people/taotaokk Kasi

      You are right Salda. The vignette layer is too heavy, especially the upper right corner is totally solid black.

      And the handle of a hammer on the ground… to be honest, I didn’t even notice it until you mentioned. FAIL! -_-#

  • dj

    Interesting photo mostly very well done; however, as you wanted critique, here’s what I see. Subject, composition color all really good. There has obviously been a lot of photoshopping. Either the darks weren’t light enough or the lights not dark enough, so something was done to make the very interesting subject “pop” with color and/or the uniform light background not just merely bleed through the edge without definition. If this were hanging on a wall, the edge contrast could have been done with a nice frame and mat – this works too.

    I see a mason, with a trowel (obviously in cement) and obviously resting from doing SOME kind of work (probably laying the brick that he’s sitting on). And, the thing that others have commented on, the very obvious irregular coloration around the edges — If I sit and contemplate it, and squint real hard, I might convince myself that they were deliberately chosen to look like stucco work, something that a mason would naturally be doing, and possibly be resting from.

    I don’t know if it was the photographers deliberate intent or merely a happenstance of choosing “fuzzy borders” on an adjustment layer mask. I could be able to convince myself, by taking the time to look at it; obviously, other commenters could not. Perhaps, if it was intentional, the effect could be even more well defined so as not to require so much thought from the viewers. (In actuality, I like it either way)

    • http://www.redbubble.com/people/taotaokk Kasi

      dj, I’m VERY GLAD that you notice the stacco work and what I wanted to do. But obviousely, it doesn’t work that well. Maybe reduce the transparency of the layer could be better, or just emphasize the dark and bright parts of the wall. What do you think?

  • Ernst Gouws

    Everything were done very nice. Except for the heavy vignette. It throws of the balance of the picture. And the framing: if the model’s head was just a bit higher in the frame, the balance would have been better. But baring in mind the circumstances under which such a picture was taken, I really do like it.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/gigamix/ Blis

    Beautiful photos, excellent tonal adjustment and then you watch, excellent example of street photography.
    The idea of ​​using a vignette was good, but you had to put one more suited to the picture. Finally, I would cut off that object in the lower right is rec … because overall it is still a nice picture

  • Stan

    I didn’t care for the vignetting, would rather see a simple b/w border around the photo. The only other thing you might do differently is crop the photo a little tighter, maybe removing some of the right side and some of the top. This would focus more attention on the worker.

  • https://www.facebook.com/pages/Johnson-Photography/257789137634990 Matt

    The dirt leads you away from the subject and water is a distraction However, it is a great picture.