I'm excited!
This is my very first video against the tiny planet backdrop
and I thought what could be more fitting than making a video about tiny planets?
Two days ago I put a call out on Instagram Stories to email me your tiny planets for critique
and I got around 100 entries total. Holy moly!
So I had to cull it down to 10
and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to use this critique video
to show you guys 10 ways you can instantly up your tiny planet game.
The first photo is from @atx_360 and he sent me this tiny planet of him at a water bubbler.
And this is a really unique idea, I've got to hand it to him straight away.
This looks really, really cool.
It's the perfect blend of simplicity, uniqueness and it's pretty funny.
Where I think he could improve would be camera placement.
When you find such a unique idea like this
you need to take a whole bunch of photos.
Not just one - you need to take five, six or seven
to make sure you have the absolute best camera placement.
At the moment, the planet is a little bit lopsided and this can be helped tremendously
by exactly where you put the camera.
If you had have put it right at the bottom in the middle of the bubbler
then it would mean both his body and the bubbler show up against the sky
instead of competing with the trees on the side.
He could have even placed the camera on the drinking fountain, just to make sure it's right exactly in the middle.
When I approach a situation like this and I know I've got an amazing idea for a photo
I'll normally take at least six photos with the camera in six different spots.
So later on I've got the option to choose.
Does it look better in my hand closer to me?
Does it look better rested on the drinking fountain?
Does it look better up high? Does it look better down low?
You need to give yourself as many options as possible, because more often than not
there's just one photo that stands out head and shoulders above the others
as being the best composition.
On top of that, in the edit, I would rotate the planet
so it's more in the middle.
At the moment, it's touching the right-hand side of the frame
and you don't want that, you want space around the planet.
Symmetry can be achieved both when you're shooting
and when you're editing
so do your best to try and get it as good as you can in both places.
The next photo is from @mathieu_360 and the first thing that comes to my mind
is this photo is upside-down.
The flags are no question the most interesting part of this photo
which is why they need to be on the top.
You always want to put your most interesting details on top of the planet, not the bottom.
Things are just harder to look at upside-down.
If you think about upside-down text compared to the right way up
which one's easier to read?
I think he's actually got a really cool composition here
so with a simple 180-degree flip
it goes from a 7/10 to a 9/10.
Next photo is from @sa360tours and first up I got to say
this exposure is excellent, you've done a really good job at exposing your image.
With that cat butt-o-nator, I'm just gonna pretend I never saw that...
Otherwise, while I feel this photo is technically excellent
I feel like it's missing a personal touch
This is something I didn't realise until I was talking to one of my friends in Japan recently
and he said, "Ben, your images are so unique because they always feature you in them.
"You're always there in every shot doing something funny, doing something silly
"but they're not just tiny planets, they're tiny planets with you in them
"and with a story in them."
And with this image, while there is an interesting landscape
if you look at this without a caption, there isn't really a story there.
Stories have characters, they have faces and people relate to people
it's as simple as that.
And while library enthusiasts or anyone connected to the
John Igo Branch Library might find this interesting
other people on Instagram won't because they can't see what the story of this library is.
So the thing I would most change about this is I'd put a person in there.
I'm not saying that every single tiny planet has to have a story because it doesn't
but even just a face or someone doing something, say reading a book
creates something that the audience can connect to.
I would say there's an exception to that rule: if it's a drone tiny planet
sometimes they're just so stunning, they don't need people in them
and it would be really hard to get a person up that high.
But if the location is a common, everyday thing like a library
try your best to add life and faces to it.
Next photo is from @nachex28
and this is absolutely brilliant, well done, what a unique idea.
This inverted planet is really funny
it's simple and it's extremely unique.
You've done an excellent job.
The only small suggestion I'd make is trying it as a tiny planet as opposed to an inverted planet.
With the idea you have here, I feel like the comedy would work even better
if it was a dude's head buried in a massive sand ball.
And look, that's not to say it doesn't work, as it does now, because it absolutely does work
but every time you edit a tiny planet, you need to try out a few different positions
to see exactly which the best one is.
Next photo is from @edeggbound and ooh...
that's creepy...
and cool...
but creepy.
I do think this is a really unique photo and will almost certainly grab peoples' attention
What I think could be improved is his expression
because it's such a serious subject matter with all those skulls there on the shelves.
It's really important that the expression on his face complements that.
At the moment, he's a little bit too serious.
This could actually be a really funny photo if his expression was like...
But at the moment, he's kind of like...
Which makes me think, is he the undertaker looking for his next victim?
Expressions are a much underrated element of tiny planets.
Every single time I go out and take a photo
I always think through what's my expression going to be like
and how's it going to enhance the overall photo.
Because again, you're a character in the story and the more you can tell
without the viewer having to go down to the caption underneath
the better the photo will be.
Next photo is from @acby11
and this one was shot in New Zealand.
Shout out to my brothers in New Zealand.
New Zealand is such an epic place for photography
with vast landscapes, rivers, it has it all.
With this photo, I think the water and the boat look excellent
but the mountains are cut off.
I can see why he might have done that, because it looks like it was a hazy day
and maybe some of the details might have been lost in the haze
but there's a charm to that.
If he had have zoomed out about 50%, so we see the mountain tops and even the sky around
it would look so cool seeing the mountain tops lost in the fog on the tiny planet.
With every tiny planet I shoot outdoors,
I always make sure the sky acts as a border around the tiny planet
and in this example, there's no sky.
It just has a cut-off feel like we're missing a lot of the landscape
and you would never see that if you saw a conventional photo of this landscape.
You're not gonna see the mountains cut-off half way.
You'll see the entire landscape, so you need to try and do that with your tiny planets.
Show the entire landscape.
And always remember that the sky acts as really good negative space around the planet
which actually, in turn, draws attention in to the middle.
Kinda like a painting on the wall
they need white walls around them so people look
that way...
not that way...
Next photo is from @nieo_27
and I think he's really nailed it with this location.
This looks amazing as a tiny planet.
Excellent job!
It's the right blend of simplicity, colours and patterns
and the yellow, it really pops.
How I'd say he could improve this image would be focusing on contrast.
When he shot this, it was an overcast day and as a result
the skies were grey and the photo is a little bit grey.
So the first thing I'd do is replace the entire background with white.
Just white.
That's it.
White.
That's going to give it the contrast it needs to make it pop even more
and draw more attention to the yellow and the two people in the scene.
Also, I'd bring up the brightness on both peoples' faces.
You can do this quite easily in Snapseed.
All you do is use the selective function, choose your area and up that brightness.
Going back to what I was talking about before with the need to have a face in your photos
what you need even more than a face is a visible face.
And this is something I do with every single one of my tiny planet photos.
If I feel like my face is too much in shadow
it's too dark compared to the rest of the landscape,
I'll isolate it in Snapsneed and bring up that brightness.
It's essentially like adding lighting later on and makes you look even better.
You're welcome.
Next photo is from @justkevytp
a fellow Aussie
and he's got an awesome photo right here
that he told me is doing really well on Instagram already
but he wants to know how he can improve it.
Firstly I got to say I love this composition
it's always really funny when you can get your body to look all weird
and mutated and disformed.
And again this is such a simple idea that turned into such an epic photo.
This is what I love about tiny planet photography
is it's actually relatively easy to create extremely unique photos like this one.
So while I don't have anything to add about composition
what I would say is he needs to make it a little bit more square-friendly.
And that's not to say that he couldn't keep it as a rectangle
but what he would need to do is zoom out a little bit more
so on an Instagram grid, it still shows up perfectly as a square
then when people tap on it, they get the rectangle.
Having a good-looking Instagram grid is really important
because when people discover your profile for the first time
they're going to go through your account
they're going to look at every photo you've ever taken
and the ones that look really good in the thumbnail
they'll probably view in full-screen
which is why you need to give every photo the best chance possible
because every viewer is different and different things will pop out to them
so you need to give them all the best chance you can.
I just had a quick look at his account and it's not actually as bad as I thought.
However I did notice that basically all of his photos are rectangular
and while with a lot of them it's not an issue
there are quite a few here that are getting cut off by the Instagram grid.
So it's just something to be mindful of.
Next photo is from @_stefish_
and while I think she's found a good location here
I think she hasn't found the exact best angle of this location.
Whenever I find a cool new location to shoot
I will look around carefully and I'll make sure I find the absolute best angle of it.
And if I'm not sure, I will take photos in every spot that I think there could be a cool shot.
With this photo, I feel like there was a missed opportunity
because there's so many amazingly colourful flowers there.
I think the money shot would have been incorporating those flowers more
so maybe putting your tripod or selfie stick into the flower bush
or holding your camera against it and inverting it into an inverted flower planet.
I've done this before and they've always done crazy good on Instagram
so it always pays to look around and find the absolute best angle of your location
because sometimes you just get the money shot
and it's going to end up as a photo that you're proud of forever.
This is a feeling you also develop with time once you've taken enough photos
and taken enough bad photos
you kind of know where the money shot's gonna be.
So it's something you'll just need to practice and eventually you'll just have a sixth sense for it
you'll just be able to say, "bam, there it is, there's the money shot right there"
before you even take out your camera.
The final shot's from @starboy.512
and this is excellent, what a good location for 360 he's found.
This electrical tower looks absolutely stunning, so well done on finding such a good location
and thinking to put your camera where you put it.
While I think your symmetry is good
where you need to improve is getting absolute perfect symmetry.
Once you have a really good feeling for symmetry
you need to take your symmetry game to the next level.
I can tell straight away that you're not exactly in-between the two feet of that tower
you just need to take one step to your left
and your symmetry would be that much better.
By the way, I can see your phone, so next time use the soft timer.
The next thing to do to get perfect symmetry is you need to measure left, right, top and bottom
and see how far the sky is
from the bottom of frame on each side.
It needs to be exact.
I'm not even talking to the millimetre
I'm talking to the 1,000th of a millimetre.
I will always do that.
I'll zoom in as close as I can with every photo
and make sure the symmetry of the ground around the inverted planet
is exact on each side.
At the moment, there's way more ground at the bottom
and slightly more ground on the right-hand side than the left-hand side.
Not everyone is as obsessive as me
but if you're really, if you're at that level where
you're already feeling good and you know you can take excellent photos with your 360 camera
You need to become obsessive with symmetry
because that's what's going to take your game from a 9/10 to a 10/10.
Especially with a shot like this
this could easily be a 10/10 but at the moment
I feel like it's a nine because of that reason.
Alright, well that's a wrap on my very first tiny planet critique video.
Hope you learned something.
Thanks everyone so much for sending in your photos
And for the people that sent in and didn't get featured
it's probably because your photo was too good to be featured.
I needed to find photos where there were things to improve
and these were the best 10 to teach the things that I wanted to teach.
In case you didn't know, I have an eBook about tiny planet photography
that teaches basically everything I know
and you can read it in a few hours and get everything that's in here
into your brain.
I also have a killer discount on my website if you want to buy that alongside my 360 video course
so click the link in the description to find out more.
As usual, you can find me on Instagram @benclaremont
and in case you didn't know, I have a @lifein360 Instagram as well
which is dedicated to sharing the best tiny planets across the whole of Instagram.
So all you need to do is #lifein360
on Instagram and you have the chance to be featured.
So that was the first video against the tiny planet background.
I think it went pretty well.
Don't forget to hit our subscribe button if you want to see future videos
against the tiny planet background
and I will see you next time!