Brutally Honest Critiques

mr.doom

Member
Ok, I'll bite. What do you think about this one?

cat_zpsa17d03cf.jpg
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Gotta get some critique on the one I posted on the last page before we can critique yours.

I envision this thread working as a first come first serve basis. So if I posted up a photo, that photo would have to have some critique before the next photo can be posted.
 

mr.doom

Member

Pull's Ferry By Twilight by JasonBrown2013, on Flickr

What do you think? Long exposure shot.

Ok. Not much to improve, apart from that this shot could use some small HDR. It seems there is a big difference between heavily overexposed branches by the light (to the right, and the right side of the building suffers too) and then you have almost no details in the shadows to the left. Apart from that, everything is nicely framed and composed. I especially like the water. I love the "frozen" reflections.
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Thanks but I never seem to be able to get my HDRs to look any good. They always look horrible so I never bother with it.
 
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spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Looks alright but I personally think this would have looked better in colour. Unless you have one very obvious subject in your photo (for example a tree in the centre of the image) with no distractions in the background, snowy scenes tend to look better in colour I find.
 

Geoff

VIP Member
IMO it lacks anything that draws my attention, it seems more like a snapshot that anyone would take.
 

Geoff

VIP Member
Haha, understood

I do find that if you really want to take a unique and intriguing photo, you should do things most people won't be able to do, or generally don't do. Such as in sports most people take photos from the stands or sidelines standing up, I kneel or sit down to get an upward perspective of the players which makes all the difference. For landscapes and so forth, most people don't have UWA lenses, so shooting in UWA or using a low aperture for pleasing bokeh make all the difference :)

Just for comparisons sake, here is a photo a parent took from the stands, and is pretty common to see:



To one that I took of the same team:

Untitled by Geoff Johnson., on Flickr
 
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Geoff

VIP Member
The color tint seems to be heavily biased towards green, and I would have used a narrower aperture such as f/8-f/11. The contrast also seems to be a bit much.

I'm not sure if it's the dock or the horizon, but it appears to be slightly tilted to the left. Again though, you don't need a 1/1250 shutter speed for a photo like this, use a much narrower aperture, f/5 is not ideal for photos like this. The contrast is also too high IMO.

What was the reason for using a f/3.8 aperture with a ISO of 400? What were you trying to focus on? It appears to be in between the eye and ear. The photo is also crooked.
 

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member

Geoff

VIP Member
You guys must have good monitors... Because I don't see any of it...
The tilted horizons and the dog in the background have nothing to do with your monitor. Remember, you are the one who heavily criticized Jason's work for areas being a bit soft, contrast, color, etc.

What monitor do you have?
 
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