Photo Critique #141
tuts workshop

Photo Critique #141

on Jun 15th 2012 with 5 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 EOS Rebel T3
  • 33mm
  • f/4.5
  • 1/60
  • ISO 1000

Taken at Lesotho border with South Africa. She was collecting wood for cooking is an old tradition and thought it would be a nice idea to show in an “old” format.

Photographer: Vicki Stevenson

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!

 
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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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  • casey

    This is an interesting photo. For me, this image could be a plant from an alien world or even an alien and I could easily tell a story about it.

    Becasue the photographer used f4.5 aperture, the entire image is in focus. I would have like to see just the main “alien’ in focuse while making the background a soft blur. Doing this would bring the viewer’s attention to the main subject of the brassily leaf with water drops.

  • http://artistxcritic.com ArtistxCritic

    Vicki’s photo of a plant was taken at Lesotho border with South Africa. That said, it is likely that this is a plant native to that area of Africa, namely a succulent of sorts. While this plan is native to her area, they are still common world wide and I believe enough people have seen a succulent plant at some point in their life.

    As I view this piece, my eyes are immediately drawn towards the middle of the photograph which is in focus, however I do not differentiate between the leaf and the water droplets. The amount of time I spent focusing my eyes in that area was negligible. The photograph features a constant color pallet which makes it hard to focus on any one point of the picture for too long; while this might be considered a success, I would argue that the inability to create strong focus on ‘one thing’ weakens the photo overall and could be improved.

    The problem might lie in that the focus on the leaf has leaves in the background making it hard for the focal point to stand out. Taking the picture at a different angle, perhaps upwards facing the sky, would give the leaf a dramatically different background which would enhance what our eyes focus on.

    All work should be taken in context and after reviewing Vicki’s flickr profile I can safely say the same critique applies to a lot of her photography. Contrast is typically lacking and the use of dynamic angles is missing entirely. This should not be discouraging, but rather the photographer should not be afraid to get in weird positions to take angles she might not have considered previously. How would an ant view your subject? How would a giant view your subject? Putting yourself in different perspectives all that seems to be missing in the artist’s skillset.

  • http://yashmatunited.blogspot.com Tom

    Great shot. I think the depth of field looks pretty good to me, but maybe just a bit more shallow. IDK if you have one of those zooms that is pretty slow or if you just happened to pick F4.5. I would have done a bit more saturation to show off all that red too, but I love high saturation.

  • Jason

    Every week I am amazed at how well the photos are cropped for the thumbnail – truly skilled work! For me the photo in the thumbnail is the best photo and I am going to revisit my abstract work to find the best crops for my shots. To the photographer, congratulations on seeing the subject, colour and texture of your original, I love it’s abstract qualities – that really punch with the crop.

    • http://ckpj.com Cameron Knight
      Author

      I suppose cropping for the thumbnail images is my job. Thanks so much for the compliment. It made my day!