Okay, so last week I asked all of you which photos I should
select for my first ever photo contest and thank you so much
for all your answers. In this video,
I'm going to do a full critique of my six best pictures of
the last year, do an editing breakdown of each of them and
let you know which one I decided to eliminate in the end.
Let's roll the intro.
For those of you who are new to this channel, I'm Loïc Bellemare-Alford a young photographer
and filmmaker on a journey to
become better at this art. Before jumping into the photos,
I want to tell you why you should also participate in a photo
contest.
It's been years,
that people told me that I should participate in photo
contest, but I never felt that my pictures were « good enough ».
But what I realize is that going through my pictures with a
critical eye during the last year, really helped me learn
some things from those photos and this is the reason I think
you should join the contest or at least select your top five
pictures from the last year.
The photo contest
I'm joining is still open and it's organized by Nigel
Danson,
another YouTuber,
so I'm going to have a link in the description down below.
Another nice benefit of this contest is actually that all the
funds go to an environmental cause,
so this is pretty neat for landscape photographers and let's
jump right into the first picture here.
Before, criticizing this picture, I want to talk about what I'm
looking for, because there's some very important things to
look for when you're submitting a picture for photo contest.
So the first thing you want to look for are the basics, you
want to be sure that your horizon is level that a photo is
sharp,
that your exposure is correct and all these other basic
things inside of photography that are super important.
The second thing you want to look for is that it has a « wow »
factor and that's because it's going to be compared to so
many other good pictures that needs to be very quickly
distinguish itself from the others one. You can have a really
good picture but if it doesn't have the « wow » factor it might
not be as visible for the people that are looking at them very
quickly to touch them in the end.
The last thing I want to have is longevity and this is a
little bit harder thing to understand but instead of just
looking at a picture and understanding everything inside of
it within a second or two, you want to have a picture that
takes a little bit more time to analyze and go through all
the image.
That is what makes a better picture in the end.
All of these are inspired from tips from Nigel Danson.
So I'm going to link his video where he goes in more depth
about all of these in the description down below.
If you want to learn more about it.
Okay, so if we look at the image right here, we're
going to see
that to the pretty strong image to start with.
So all the basics are there and they're okay, but if you look
at here, what is really interesting is that we have very
strong leading lines right here.
So if you look at the dock right here, it points towards the
sunset which is the first thing you're going to see in the picture.
But also we also have the lines right here that are all
pointing towards the sunset in the back here.
So this is really strong and leading your eye through the image.
The second thing I want to talk about here is that it's
actually almost a duotone image.
We have a lot of bright colors inside of the sunset, but the
rest of the image is very desaturated in and this really
brings your eye to the center in the background.
It makes it pop a lot more compared to the rest here.
Then if we look at the longevity of this image, we're going to see that
we actually have a lot of things to look too.
So we start by looking at the sunset, then you realize
there's a dock then you realize that there's a kayak right here
and then you realize that there's maybe like more cottages
here and finally even realize ice on the water here.
So all of these things, make it much longer to look to and analyze.
I think that there's one really weak point about this image
and is that everything is actually located on the left side of the image.
So if we look at it here, we're going to see that we have
the dock here, then we have the sunset right on
the side but we
don't have much of anything on the other side of here and
this is a problem because you want to have a balance between
both sides of the image, and this is not the case in side of this picture
and because it's very symmetrical, this doesn't work as well.
Now, if we close this and we look at the edit here, we're
going to see that the original image didn't look at all as
the same thing.
So the first thing I did is come inside of here and just
adjust the light.
So, I brought down the highlights a lot, because you can se
on the original one
there was way too much highlights inside in the sky.
So I brought back all the detail, then brought up the
shadows a lot, just to bring some detail inside of the trees here.
Then if we look at the color, we actually see
I didn't touch them that much in the end.
So, I just brought up some vibrancy didn't touch the
saturation too much.
Then I went inside of color mix here and I did some small
adjustments, so I brought up the saturation of the reds and
brought down the hue of the reds and brought some orange up
and also the luminance of the orange.
And this is just to make the adjustment to make really the
colors in the sky pop but not modify the rest of the image to
leave the rest
pretty desaturated in the end. Then if you look at the other types
here, if you look at the effects tab, I didn't touch anything
so I don't use effects that much in the end.
If we look at details here, I applied some little noise reduction.
Just to be sure that the trees here are pretty nice and sharp
because if we remove the noise reduction or going to see
that, there's some color noise inside of the trees here.
So I just wanted to make sure that I didn't have that.
Another important thing is was
actually to make sure that my horizon was level so I really
played with it a lot because it's kind of tricking is seen to see if it's leveled or not but
this is super important.
So I Pass a lot of time, just bringing it up apd down a
little bit until I was satisfied with this.
I also cropped it a little bit to remove trees on the side
here that were some distraction, just to make it a little bit
cleaner, and make sure that my dock was perfectly centered
inside of the image,
Okay, so if I look at the second picture here, I
think that there's
an absolute wow factor to this picture right away because of
the very nice and bright colors of the sky.
What I really liked inside of this picture is that the colors
are not really over saturating to just kind of pastel.
And really nice tones that are like a graduated colors
growing from one to the other.
There's also a nice reflection from the sky inside of the
bottom water here.
So this is a pretty great image.
Overall, one thing that's good to know is that this picture
was taken at 200 millimeters.
That means I was pretty zoomed in and this is a trick that I
use to take sunsets because most of the time, the sunset is
not nice everywhere in the sky.
So by focusing in some parts of the image, you really able to
capture the best parts of the sunset.
I think there's one small weak point inside of this image.
It's actually, I think it's missing some little details
inside of it, for it to have a better longevity.
So if I had like some birds at the top here or had maybe
let's say like a boat like right here, something like that,
it could make the picture even better.
And more interesting to look at because right now it's just a
sunset and there's not much else to this picture in the end,
but that's really just a small detail about this image.
So now, let's delete the screenshot and go inside of the
editing here.
So if we look at the light here again it's pretty standard.
So I bring
the highlights, bring down the shadows, but it wasn't as extreme
in this picture.
When pretty big difference here is actually that I brought
down the blacks quite a lot to a lot more contrast inside of
the trees here to really make the sunset pop and separate
them from the foreground.
Then if we go on the colors here, we're going to see that I
brought up the vibrance but that's pretty much all I did to
the image.
I did play a little bit with the hue and saturation of the
red and orange, but that's all I did to this picture because
the colors were all already pretty good looking at the beginning.
Now, if you go into the effects this is one thing that I use
is adding some texture.
So I usually don't add texture to this picture but just to
make sure that the trees were really sharp and detailed here,
I added some texture because I also added if we come on the
next tab here quite a lot of noise reduction and if you're
adding lots of noise reduction you actually have to compensate
usually by adding a bit more sharpening or texture inside of
the picture, but be careful when using texture because it
can make your image of worse
pretty quickly if you use it too much.
Now if we look at the original one, we're going to see here
it's very grey and not very pleasing but that's a RAW
picture. It's normal that it comes out like that.
We have all the information after that to
edit it and bring back all the colors as you wish in the end.
This next picture is one that most people tend to really like
but it's not the best picture for fun contest because
astrophotography is a very specific sub genre and in terms of
for astrophotography, this is not the best picture that there
is out there.
Look at this picture, there's still a lot of things that are
good about this first is that the basics are on point.
It can be pretty hard taking pictures of the stars that have
videos on that if you want to learn more
but the basics here are on point. Everything is sharp,
the stars are looking nice and crisp,
so that's not a problem at all.
What I think is very interesting inside of this picture is
that we have a foreground here that actually add some detail
to the picture.
In just makes it more interesting to look at because if we
didn't have the foreground here with the water, reflection,
with the light and everything, it'd just be a black
foreground and that it wouldn't be interesting at all inside
of the picture.
We also have a lot of details here.
the Milky Way reaches make it a little bit better, but now if
you look at the edit, if we look at the original one, we
actually see we don't see the stars that much and that's the
reality we want your outside and look at the stars, you
actually see something a bit more like that.
Then when you have the final edited image for this, we're
going to see that
the light here is pretty basic the colors adjustments, I
just brought up the color temperature, because if we look back
to the original one, we see
it was a little bit too blue for my taste. Then didn't touch the
colors here too much at all.
Didn't apply any effects, but i applied just a
little bit of noise reduction.
This can be important because most of the edits are
happening inside of the masks right here
and the huge thing for stars is actually to apply a mask on
a top part of your image on your sky and then go in effects
and apply some clarity.
This is really going to bring out all the stars inside of
the sky.
So if we bring this down, I'm going to see
it makes a huge effect on the stars.
Then if you go on the light here, I just brought up a
little bit to highlight just to bring back the white inside
of the stars.
Then if we go on the mask here on the Milky Way, actually
brought up a lot more contrast highlights and whites in the
Milky Way to really make it pop a lot more.
Then I went inside of the colors here and brought up the
saturation on the Milky, Way really to bring back the colors
from the Milky Way inside of this photo.
This next image is another pretty nice one, and it actually has
a pretty nice, wow factor because of the fall colors
and also all of the fog inside of the image.
And you can see that the next three images are all from the
same morning and sometimes the conditions are just right to
get better pictures.
So that's why you always need to go out as much as possible
and take the most pictures to really get the conditions that
are going to make better pictures here.
So, if you look at this one, I actually like it quite a lot
because you have like the island right here, but they have
nice separation after that between the mountains here.
But you also have all the fog that is kind of hiding away or the
cottages at the bottom.
So, if I zoom, Zoom in inside of here
and we look at this, we're going to see that there's actually
a cottage right here, but you cannot see it as much because
of the fact that is hiding everything.
The fog also creates multiple layers of this helps for the
longevity of the image.
But I do feel that one of the problems inside of this image,
right here is actually that it's a little bit empty on this
side.
So there's not much to look for instead of the picture, but
the mist still compensates and creates bit more longevity
because there is definitely some
mystery about this image,
we're not sure what is behind all of this mist.
Now, if you look at the edit right here, we're going to see.
I think it's a pretty basic edit at the beginning, so I'm
bringing down the highlights again,
bring up the shadows and if you go on the colors here, again,
I bring up this vibrance, not too much of the saturation juste
a little bit here to bring out the colors inside of
the trees.
But then, if you look at here, i actually don't play at all
with the other colors here, I just leave them natural,
so these were pretty much the colors I
actually saw when I was taking this picture.
Then if we go on effects, we have
no effects here under the other than a bit of dehaze and that's just
because there was so much haze
I want to see the trees just a little bit better.
So if we remove it here, you could see it.
just helps like really bring out some contrast inside of the
trees.
If we look at the biggest edit inside of the picture, it is
actually that I applied a mask on the top part here.
So it was completely white and almost overblown.
So I actually had to apply a mask here and bring down the
whites
to make it more little bit more blue because you could see
the blue and the bottom part of this image, but you also want
to see the blues inside of the sky to reflect what is
happening in the water.
So that's one thing and I had to apply just to bring back
out that color.
I actually didn't apply much else inside of your color
here other than bringing up the saturation, really to make
the colors come out inside of the sky, but that's pretty much
all I did on this picture.
So a pretty basic at it again, but it's just because a scene
was already pretty nice.
Now, if you move to the next image, here it is.
Bring my favorite one, but this is a type of picture that
probably doesn't work too well on social medias, because he
really needs to be blown out and a big format.
So you can see the detail, especially the loon right in the
center of this image right here.
So, it's really a picture that I would like to print in a
bigger format to put on a wall or something like that, but if
you look at this picture, one of the things that isn't great
about it is that you're missing some of that wow factor
because you don't see that much inside of picture right away.
So it really looks like a blank canvas but it takes time to
look at the picture and understand what is happening inside
of it.
This is great for longevity piece.
Just take time to realize that this is a loon right here.
So if we look at this, there's a looming right here.
Then you might realize that these are trees in the background
and it's leaning away to the background here.
One thing
that is important side of this picture is I wanted to have the
loon really sharp inside of it.
So if you look at the edit, I'm not going to go through
everything because it's very similar to the previous image on
how I did it.
But if we come inside of here, we can see.
I brought out the vibrance quite a lot.
That's because if we remove it here, we're going to see
There's not much inside of the trees here, not much color.
So I've just brought up a lot of the vibrance to make them
pop a little bit more.
What is very important inside of this picture was,
first of all, applying a couple of masks.
So first of all, here we have a mask on the loon and this was
very important to bring it out and make it pop a little bit more.
So I brought up the contrast, brought up the effects here to
bring up the texture, and also brought up some sharpness.
So all of this just makes it a little bit more sharp and make
it pop.
Compared to everything else inside of the image.
Then there's what there was a weird artifact here.
So if I remove it here you can see
it's a bit like yellow in the background.
So I just brought a mask here and remove the saturation just
to make sure that this wasn't as distracting because it kind
of look like there was a problem inside of the image, then
here on the top part of the image, if I go in the light, I
just bring down the whites a little bit, just to make sure
that we don't have pure white inside of the picture because
don't want to have things where the whites are completely
clipped.
So this is important to apply a mask just to
make sure that everything is just a little bit grey, but not
total white.
Now, let's move on to the last picture.
I didn't talk about the basics in the previous images, but
that's because they were all pretty much right.
And so, I made sure that they were sharp, that the horizon was
leveled and everything like that.
So, these are all things I do on any pictures right away when
I started eating them.
But now, if you look at here at this picture, I think it's a
pretty nice one because actually have like a little cottage
here, this is all surrounded by fog around it.
So it really brings up the cottage here, you can kind of have trees
here that have a little bit of the color from the fall colors,
but I think there's a big probelm inside of this one is that
there's not much longevity to this picture
because when you look at it, there's a lot of things
happening on this side right here.
So you have the cottage, you have the trees and everything,
but on this side there's nothing at all.
It's almost a blank canvas and there's not much to look at,
so it's really quick to look at this picture
and it really shows that longevity is important because you
look at this picture and you understand pretty much right away.
So everything that happened inside of this picture.
Now, if we close it here, and we look at the edit again, it's
very, very similar to what I did for the other ones here.
So I'm not going to go into the details of this one because
it's again, pretty much just the basic that I did for the
other shots again.
I apply just a little bit of dehaze, always want to have a
lot of haze like that.
i just apply dehaze to bring a bit more contrast on the
parts of the image
that should be clear.
So now the big question, which one did I decide to eliminate?
And it's actually the last one here without a big surprise.
It's by far, the one that got voted the most on Instagram to
eliminate.
And I think a big promblem when I posted it on Instagram is
actually that Instagram crushed, all the whites and made
everything very white,
so that was a pretty big problem.
But more than that, I think it's just a picture that like I
said, is missing a lot of longevity.
So I think to make this picture better, what I would need is
actually, if we come here, I would need like some loon or
something like that
on the bottom here.
Maybe birds on top here or
something like that,
just to add a little bit more interest to the picture
and have a better balance on the both sides.
So if you look at this side, it's really charged on this side
but there's not much on this one.
So that's one thing that
I think that it's very important to make this picture better
is have a little bit more balance and something to keep
inside of your head.
It's also just at this side is very empty as so, it just
looks like it's white
so it's not as interesting.
And there's not as much of this, wow factor inside of the
pictures because we don't see as much the colors inside of
the trees or anything like that, even though was taken the
same day as a two previous ones where we see, much more the
colors inside of the trees.
So, this is the one I removed. The five
other ones are submitted for the contest.
And I still think that all of my pictures are pretty good.
Some people thought I was little bit too harsh on myself when
talking about my pictures but I think it's very important to
be critical of your own pictures to understand what is good
or not inside of them.
I hope you enjoyed this little video about the critique of my
photos and how I edited them.
So please let me know if you enjoyed it by hitting the like
button below
and also consider subscribing to the channel for more content
of photography and filmmaking, see you in the next one.
Bye. Bye.