Hi I'm Doug McKinlay and you're watching AdoramaTV. In today's video we'll be
critiquing some viewer's images and I'll even throw one of mine into the mix as well.
AdoramaTV presents 'Stay Focused' with Doug McKinlay.
This is part two of a two-part series on critiquing your images.
Hopefully with this exercise we
can visually show how a crit works and how it can help improve your pictures. OK, let's
get started by using the guidelines we mentioned in Part 1. First up we're going to look
at Alex Sarna's image. Thanks, Alex, for sending it in. So number one, how does the
technical quality stack up? Is the image in focus? From what I can see our
central subject in the center of the frame is sharp, well done.
How's the exposure? For me it's just slightly over exposed. I might have brought that down a
little bit. I can see they've been using fill in flash to fill up any kind of shadows and
holes. I might have backed the light off a little bit in the flash just to give it a little more texture.
What about the depth of field? Is it engaging? What I can see, and I'm only guessing
here, it looks like to me about F/5.6 for an aperture so the
background is a bit blurred but I still find it a little bit annoying. It's drawing
my eye to it so what I would probably do there is maybe go down to F/4 or F/2.8 just to
really wash that background out and really focus on your subject. Contrast. How's the
contrast? It's a bit flat so it's the fill flash again. It's flattening the image out.
I might have had a little more shadow detail. And how's the lighting? Again we're
using that flash. You've got to really start to control that flash. Too much and it
looks like it's washed out. Too little and you start getting shadows where you don't
want them. Just right and you get a nice image.
Colors look fine. There's not a lot of color in the image, but the colors that are
there look good. Now, what about the post-processing? Looks good. Nothing too
overly bad about this. I just think that maybe just bringing that light down just
a little bit might add a little
more to the picture. So number two. How's the composition? What's the framing like? Well it's
a reportage style picture so sometimes you get what you get in these kind of
images but the subject on the right, where we've got these disembodied hands
coming into the frame, I find that a little bit unusual. I'd rather see more of the
body of that person so I might have shifted my shooting position off to the
right a little bit to try and get more of that person in the frame. What is your eye
drawn to? What element holds the most visual weight. Well fortunately it's the central
figure. Now I think she's a very good subject, the only thing here I'd want to
see is, I want to see her looking at the camera. Now you want to see those big eyes
looking right at the lens. Now what you could do here is just make a little
noise, say hello, say hi ,just to get them look up then you take a picture. Number
three. How's the emotional appeal? Does it have any emotion? Well it's it looks like
a wedding to me so automatically you're thinking... you're thinking party, you're
thinking, you know, people are happy, you're thinking family so there is a certain
emotional development here and I want to see that continue with other pictures.
I want to see a whole series of these images. Does your subject look relaxed? Somewhat. Again
I'd want to see the subject engaging more with the photographer, meaning looking
into the camera. So the photographer's got to move around a little more to get a
different point of view. Is it telling a story?
Yes this is telling a story, a really good story. It's telling me that this woman
is getting ready for a wedding, I'm assuming, so I'm already thinking 'oh what's
the next picture going to look like?' You know I want to see a whole series of pictures.
I want to see the story laid out in front of me so Alex I think it's a really good
image. I think there's some very, very small things you might be able to improve here. Maybe
reposition yourself in
terms of where you're standing. Watch that light. It's a bit too heavy, I think.
Keep in mind your depth of field. Keep in mind those backgrounds because one thing I found
over the years is once you've got your foreground image, your subject, that's the
easy part. It's those backgrounds that can really throw a picture off so watch your backgrounds.
Next up were going to look at Maddy Field's image. Thanks Maddy.
Again, going back to the rules.
Number one. How does it technically stack up? Is the image in focus? It's a landscape
shot. It looks nicely focused from foreground to background. So our depth of
field. I would, I'm only guessing, but I'm thinking F/11 so it's a really nicely
sharp image from foreground to background. How's the contrast? Is it too muddy or
two contrasting? Now, this is a difficult shot because she's got light coming
through the trees. That dappled light is always really hard to get the contrast right. I
think she's done a good job here it's one of those tricky pictures that
sometimes you might have to take three or four or five shots just to try and get it right,
adjusting in-camera as you go. Light. How's the lighting handled? Again it's a tricky
shot with that dappled light coming from the side a little bit. I think she's done a
really good job here.
How's the post-production? Again, looks good.
I can't see any real big faults here. It's a tough one to do. It really is the kind of image
that you can really easily over process so I think it's done well.
How's the composition?
It's nice. It's a nicely framed image. You've got leading lines of the road pulling
you into the background of the frame, you've got these trees on either side of the
road, again, pulling the viewer into the shot. Now, are things in there that shouldn't
be there? Were things left out? What I'm seeing is the picture... the stuff that's
in the picture should be there but there's something missing, so what I'm
looking for the visual weight of the picture. What is the visual
weight here? I want something on that road, and that's what's missing. It's
looking a little lonely, that road.
You need something, a human element, an animal, a person. Something there to draw
the viewer into the center of that frame because at the moment all I am looking at is an
empty road. I think the composition's really well done, the lighting is really
well done, it's just a lacking something, and the what it's lacking is
something in on that road. In my mind's eye I'm seeing two people walking down that
road, or a farmer and horse and cart, something like that. Something that's going to
give me an idea of where this image is. So at the moment it lacks just a little
bit of emotional appeal but it's easily fixed so think about this stuff. Now there's no
people in the shot so we're not going to worry too much about that. Does it
tell a story? It tells a story in a sense that it looks like it's in the country but
because we're lacking that central figure in the middle, the
story gets lost. Thanks for sending it in.
So our third image is from Justin Ray. Thanks, Justin, for sending it in.
Again we're going to look at the image, stacking it up with our three
rules. So number one. How does it technically stack up? Is the image in
focus? Yes it looks to me like he's used a fairly small aperture here. I'm guessing
about f/11. So I’m seeing focus from foreground to background, from the little
pebbles in the front to the mountains and clouds in the back. What about the control of
depth of field. Well as I just said we've got this great depth of field, because he used a
small, small aperture giving us that great landscape kind of feel. Contrast?
Is the contrast too muddy? Or
too much contrast? Definitely too much contrast here. Now I think it's a product
of shooting at the wrong time of day. I think that this picture really calls out
for an early morning timeframe or a later afternoon timeframe. Midday with
landscape pictures are always tough. Colors, colors are a little bit heavy.
Now this comes to the last point of this this this rule, the
post-processing. It's too much. It's got a really heavy hand in the post
here. You need to really back that off. It looks to me that with the sky and white
clouds either you've used your polarizer too much or you tried to polariser in the
computer. If that's the case don't do it in the computer. It's better to actually have
the filter on your lens. There is just much more control in it. Next up number 2,
hows the composition? Overall it's pretty good. I do like the clouds
and the horizon line on the lake, maybe a bit too much in the middle of the frame.
Could have pushed that up a little bit or brought it down. Probably pushed it up a
little bit. But the one thing that's really sort of catching my eye is that the
visual weight, the main sort of focus of your image are the canoes. Now I see that the one on the
right has been cut off. I want to see them all. So right away my eye has been
drawn to that last canoes that's cut off. Every time I look at the picture I want to
look over the right. Easily fixed, take a few steps to your right,
make sure all the elements of your canoes are in the shot. Re compose a little bit, push your horizon
line up a little bit and take the picture but it's a time of day thing. I really
think that shooting midday
landscapes are tough. Really really difficult .So I would think about trying
to get this image or similar images in the morning or the afternoon.
Number three. Is the is there an emotional appeal? Now to me there is,
because I absolutely love mountains, I grew up in the mountains so when I see
pictures of mountains I'm automatically thinking wow. So I want to see this picture
work. You know and I think that that over processing and not getting your
canoe in the shot is really detracting from the emotion of the picture. I want
to see the emotion really stand out. So just reconfigure your
positioning and think of those times of day. There is no people in this shot so we don't to
worry about that too much. Does it tell a story? It almost tells a story, now the
story would be better if we got the whole canoe in the shot but it is telling
me summer time, outdoors, fitness, the great outdoors. It’s fantastic. Just think
about your framing, think about over processing, think of the times of day.
I like to picture, it just needs a little bit of work. Finally let's look at one of
my pictures. I'm not above being critiqued. Again, we will go through the rules. So number one.
How does it stack up technically? Is the image in focus? It is in focused because I made
sure it was in focus. How’s the depth of field?
Well it's a very overcast day, a bit of snow happening here but I managed to get an
,f/8 ish out of the lens. So I'm pretty sharp from foreground to background. Next up
how's the contrast? It's a bit subdued because of the weather, snowy overcast day.
A little bit difficult to try and get this right, so there's a little bit of playing
around with it on the computer. How do the colors look? Well it's slightly blue, because there is a lot of blue
light. So I had to back that off a little bit on the computer. Now is there a heavy-hand in
post-processing? I like to think not.
It took me a little while to get this picture right, the colors right, to get the
exposure right in the computer. Next up, hows the composition? What's the framing
like? Well frankly I think it's a little off. I look at the picture and I seen in the top
left hand corner, sort of a big open area. Maybe I should have swung the camera a little
to the right and taking that right out. Whats your eye drawn to? Where is the
visual weight? For me it's the ice. This is St. Lawrence River in Canada and is
breaking up in the springtime its giving me this really great mosaic pattern. It really
draws my eye to it. I think it works really well.
So number 3. How is the emotional appeal. Now as a guy who grew up in Canada in wintry
conditions it means alot to me this picture. I like it. I like that the way it
makes me want to be there. It's got this sense of drawing me into the shot. It
reminds me of why I was there. Now there is no people in this shot, so we don’t have to worry
about that. Does it tell a story? It does, it tells me a story of a natural
happening every spring with the St. Lawrence Seaway, one of the biggest
seaways in the world. It gets frozen over in the winter time and it breaks up every
spring. It tells me what's happening in this area the world.
Thanks until next time you have been watching AdoramaTV and I'm Doug MacKinlay. I want
to thank everyone for sending in their pictures, it’s a very brave thing to do.
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