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UER Mobile > UE Photo Critiques > Looking For Advanced Critiques (Viewed 2372 times)

post by IceBurgess

Looking For Advanced Critiques
< on 1/13/2015 3:56 AM >

This past weekend, I took a trip downtown in search of pure art photography. I shoot with a Cannon rebel t5i + kit lens, and this was my first time using it as it's an upgrade.

These are the best shots I got, and I'm looking to improve. Any comments or criticism would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1.

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post by context

Re: Looking For Advanced Critiques
<Reply # 1 on 1/13/2015 4:13 AM >

loved some of those shots, man. The one thing I noticed was that could be improved upon is your depth of field; in the grapevine picture it seems a little bit close to the camera. Experiment with different apertures (larger aperture number = bigger depth of field) Other than that, stick with basic guidelines of composition and you'll keep on killin it.

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post by skatchkins

Re: Looking For Advanced Critiques
<Reply # 2 on 1/16/2015 12:04 AM >

I saw your bump on this.

Everything is subjective. Critical feedback can be hard because of that.
My one cent:

#1 Nice DOF. The problem is the background. Too much going on, busy, to keep my interest on the cool snow edge capture. Good lighting on the edge too.

#2 Background is blurred out better, more appealing, but the DOF may be too narrow. I'd like to have seen a little more progression into that nice wintery blur.

#3 Composed well. Lines straight. But nothing of interest to draw me in.

#4 This has potential. Getting back to the subjective, I'd like to see this as a portrait shot. For me, it would isolate your area of interest better. The subject would be clear. Diagonal line to draw me in and nice red brick in the background. Even if you just cropped out the stairway on the left, I'd approve.

#5 Intriguing. The angles are cool, the blue V, the spiral stairwell, it keeps me looking around at the other things and finding them where I wouldn't have before like the chimney and the conduit pole, on to the wires, back to the V.

#6 Same as the other shallow DOF advice. Portrait it, reducing the overall image, or give me more focal range to look at.

#7 A hard shot. One I always see in other places and say cool, but the camera can't see it the same way and it frustrates me.

#8 Good representation of the surroundings, straight lines. Tough to shoot with a bright sky.

Good job getting out there, good job trying new things and settings, and good job trying to isolate subjects. Good job trying to find good light. If you are processing these in a program, I'd like to see you bring the colors out a bit more.

No matter what, they are your images- you saw them, represented them the way you saw fit, and no one else can see them exactly the same way. Don't ever throw old work away either. Use it to compare later and see if you have evolved for the better and to celebrate your progression into your passion.

[last edit 1/16/2015 12:08 AM by skatchkins - edited 2 times]

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post by tofutiger

Re: Looking For Advanced Critiques
<Reply # 3 on 1/20/2015 6:57 PM >

I get the feeling that the main issue with these pictures is a fundamental one: it's your approach. (I know, who am I to say you have fundamental issues with your photography? Take what I say - and what everyone says, really - with a grain of salt. All critiques have value depending on how you look at them, even if that value is simply the realization that X person is full of shit - in that case, you're learning to tell bad critiques apart from good ones and you're getting closer to the truth).
To begin, I want to draw attention to something you said "I took a trip downtown in search of pure art photography." When I started off taking pictures, I took pictures mainly for documentation purposes, like, "I was here, this is what I saw, oh, and look here how cool!" I look back on these pictures every now and then and think, "hey, they're not half bad!" Then there was another phase in my life where I did maybe what you did and tried to take "artsy photos." These were atrocious.
Here's an example of one:

IMG_4685 by kjcantens, on Flickr[/img]

wtf was I thinking?

I speak for myself here: When I went about trying to take artsy pictures, I had this vague notion of what artsy pictures looked like even though I really didn't know what truly differentiated them from non-artsy pictures, and I tried to replicate in my pictures that fuzzy notion in my head.
Perhaps this applies to you; perhaps it doesn't. If it does, here's what I suggest: read this book http://www.amazon....tion/dp/0192804634
Familiarize yourself with what it truly means to be "artsy".

Since I have nothing better to do, I'll give my short opinion on this. Artistic photography should be contrasted with photography that merely seeks to represent an object in reality. It does so by literally seeing and interacting with the world differently -- i.e. via a lens vs. the human eye. An artistic photographer tries to see the world through the perspective of his lens. A plain old photographer has his lens see the world through the perspective of his eyes. When you begin to see and interact with the world through the perspective of the lens, you become able to capture and play around with this new perspective in your images. And when people see this new perspective in your images, theoretically, they would see something in a totally new way. A chair seen by a lens is not the same as a chair seen by a human. Van Gough for instance, saw the world through his brush and paint, and when he depicted an otherwise ordinary scene (a starry night for instance) through this different perspective, he revealed to us another layer of reality and beauty we never thought existed.

That being said, I like some of your pictures. Some of them show that you truly are starting to see things from a different perspective. What you need now is more control and familiarity and intentionality within this new perspective. Number two, for instance, seems to play around with negative and positive space, lines and angles, and perspectives -- and I like that. There is too much, though, that distracts me from the above-mentioned qualities -- the staircase for instance, which really serves no purpose.
In a lot of these pictures, you seem attracted to lines that move your eyes across the image. That's a totally legitimate pursuit. Work on your framing though. These lines that go across the image interact meaningfully with ALL the space in that image, whether you want it to or not. In 5 for instance, the lines aren't placed in a meaningful location in relation to the rest of the space in that image. The whole top part is just... nothing.

3 and 4, I regret to say, are bad images. I cannot discern what it is you're trying to say with them. There is no element that seems intentionally isolated for us locate and muse over. Is it repetition? Is it lines? And what about lines? Perspective? etc.

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[last edit 1/20/2015 7:18 PM by tofutiger - edited 2 times]

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post by Ganesha

Former Moderator

Re: Looking For Advanced Critiques
<Reply # 4 on 1/20/2015 8:41 PM >

#2 intriguing spiral stairs. Dramatic division of the field with sky.

#6 an interesting texture. But due to the edgy point of view, doomed to be mostly out of focus. I would try a straight-on shot.

#8, quite an enterprising vine overtaking the structure.

On artistic photography, I draw a similar distinction between journalistic photos, "I saw this," and photos that play with the composition and the light to create something new, "Look what I made!"

For me, the artistic approach is a conscious rendering of a 3D slice of life into a 2D abstract. Lines and blocks of light or color that form a classic or interesting pattern can simultaneously be chunks of reality, perhaps surprising or emotionally-loaded ones. Doing all that in semi- or total darkness without using lights, annoying your partner or getting your camera wet or broken makes artistic UE photography a special challenge.

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post by randomesquephoto

Re: Looking For Advanced Critiques
<Reply # 5 on 1/24/2015 5:00 PM >

Pure art!

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post by DJ Craig

Moderator

Re: Looking For Advanced Critiques
<Reply # 6 on 2/23/2015 7:58 AM >

Ice: These are pretty decent! I would focus on filling your entire space, and avoiding burned out or blacked out areas. Also: "Rule of thirds". Never put your main focus dead center. Thanks for sharing!

Posted by tofutiger
I get the feeling that the main issue with these pictures is...

WOW... One of the best photo critiques I've seen in a long time! Very fascinating perspective on the OPs photos.

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post by dashrsp

Re: Looking For Advanced Critiques
<Reply # 7 on 2/25/2015 6:09 AM >

You've gotten some awesome responses! Some of these comments give better critiques than some of my art classes. I'd like to reiterate the distracting backgrounds with narrow dof. I particularly like 1, 5, & 6 for the great aesthetic quality of the in-focus portions. The images that don't use dof are a little boring; they seem to lack purpose.

Frankly, after shooting a lot of urbex shots, I've found they're not my best work. Mostly because they lack purpose and thought. My recommendation would be to come up with a concept before you go shooting, an idea. Think about what you want to convey with the image, what you want people to feel when they look at it. And then, try to capture that as you explore or do whatever.

Keep in mind the concept and the objects don't have to be literally connected.

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