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Fine Art Critique Part 1

We are moving into fine art. I know a lot of you in the chat rooms have been excited about the segment, and I am too, so we're moving into fine art. Once again, I'd like to introduce our critique. Er's, this is bambi can trail and mr john cornyn cello. So we're going to first show you all of the images that were submitted for this category. And then these two will be critiquing twenty selected images. So why don't we go ahead and get started? So roll the slide show. All right, you guys, thank you so much for submitting all those wonderful photographs. I know that fine are definitely hits home with me. It's where I got my start in photography. So you guys did wonderful work. So I'm excited to hear what bambi and john have to say about these. So you guys are going to turn it over to you. Please, angela, after this morning, you know, in the amazing pictures we saw in land state and then the fabulous images we saw in editorial and advertising, what in the world are we gonna see today? So s...

ome really interesting things pop through there in that slide show, surprise us now, let's, sing no serious holy cow. This is the kind of image that belongs and fine art I love it I think it's very interesting and remember all these rules you've talked about hit the back of the hands not shit you know that you shouldn't show the back of the hands well in an image like this who cares right goes away yeah, it sure does john just the the overlay of the textures and I don't know if it's two images superimposed just the masking done to bring the face forward everything in this is working really well for me the jewelry the model they could make up um I'm only looking at is the style of the makeup and hair is kind of pin up he compared to the rest of the image but I don't know if anyone else would go to that but in my mind when I look at the actually hear makeup doesn't bother me because when I look at it I'm thinking it doesn't look as penn apy to me as it does old fashioned it looks like you know thirties or forties kind of style and when I look at the way the rest of the images has been treated it kind of is in that vein of something that was in the thirties forties maybe even fifties so I don't really have a problem with that I find it very intriguing and it makes me want to know the story of this image, you know, what does this really mean? And that to me is effective when you have images of an illustrative nature that to me makes it very, very effective? Um, so I like that very much with that said, I think probably for me, the only thing about this photograph that I find a little bit distracting and it's hard for me to say that it's distracting cause I know that we're in the illustrative category, but the pots to me are a bit too symmetrical. You know, when I see the pots on the left hand side of the face and those on the right, I feel a cz, though, that they compete to me with the face. Um, because they're a little bit too sharp and they to me, they start competing for me. The other thing that I find a little bit of a distraction with our these leaves right here, the ones have the bigger leaves right here and the ones on this part of her arm, I find them just a whisper distracting, but again, that's just matter personal taste, because when you are dealing with images that are oven illustrative nature, it really is, you know, whatever the the creator makes it's something that is very much of a personal thing. Yeah I agree that the three pots on the left side julie this four parts they over the three up top do draw my eye over to them if maybe one of those was missing or two of those were missing the right side and so I think there's just one pot and then whatever those tiles are back there it's not not so distracting but overall I think it's a thing turquoise tones against the skin tones everything works in really nicely in this one I love you I think this is such a hard category I really like this picture I find it very mysterious and very moody can I suggest the story but I still not sure what's going on here and it makes me want to know more about it and I can look around through here and try to pick up clues and it'll just take picked me a while to look through the whole image but everything keeps me in john how do you feel about the fact that like I mean I love these pieces I think they're really important but how do you feel about like is there do these affect that they cut through this area writers that bother you or you know would it be more interesting to have something up on this platform or again this is and this is all straight it's it's personal choice and it wasn't really bothering me um I see those the thing that looks like ottomans cushions are doing, they're probably pollsters in the ground there the one that's right next to this center, it seems out of place compared to the other ones. I may have tried to take that one out. There's probably one on the other side being blocked by a body. But I think that the bodies in the shadows being that they aren't crisp and they have that that motion to them it's not bothering me so much they are darker than that peace in the middle, whatever that is. So it doesn't bother me that there's no one on top of that, you know, I think that this is a great exercise for all of us in photography. Whether you are a portrait for our wedding photographer is to give yourself a personal project and take images and create some sort of story that is very illustrated the nature and that's, not a literal, you know, one less one is two. Not only does it really stretch you as a photographer, but it also, I think, helps you to think in an abstract way. And what happens is whenever you give yourself that personal assignment where it's kind of on the quirky side and it's but it's really fun to do. What happens is you'll be photographing something that you typically do maybe it's a wedding you'll be photographed in a wedding and will be something about that bride's veil or some sort of texture or something and you'll remember that experience when you did that editorial that illustrated image and it will draw you to a new creative thought and many people go well, I wish I was creative like sue prices and I wish I was this creative creative is john or you know, whoever and sometimes we get frustrated because maybe we can't think off the top of our head quickly, like some of these other artists do but then doesn't come by osmosis it's because they expose themselves to a great deal of stimulate mental stimuli in pictures they're not afraid to make mistakes or maybe if they are afraid they don't show it that's yeah that's important a thing there I know when flick your first came out everyone through every picture they ever took on there, you know? And people say, well, your pictures are so much better than everyone else know their business betters everyone else, but I don't put those online yeah, there you go once they throw away, you know, I don't show you my mistakes I mean that's sort of the difference between an advanced and an amateur not in the same professional but advance person knows what what to edit and what to throw away and in fact for me I never ever let a client see unedited work ever so if I'm shooting a wedding if I'm doing a portrait session they're never going to see a picture that has not had my finger on it when it has not been retouched absolutely never and the reason is I want them to see the photographs that I take I want them to see me is perfect and whenever you show people images if they're unretouched that guess what? They start equating the craft with your abilities and photo shot and I don't want that I don't want them to think that way I want them to see me as I'm perfect and even though I'm not but I want them to to think that way and so when it comes to illustrated imagery this is something that is so interpretive and so personal I think that it's a great exercise in helping you to develop and understand balance and a composition and color tone ality so it's a really good personality and this is just wonderful deep turk weiss is really love that and the tones to me worked beautifully in this because they follow through on the mood they're not they're not that bright orange or something so they kind of follow through that mysterious kind of look this is really interesting this is a very interesting photograph I have to stop and think, look, I know I know it has some of the strong colors that we've seen in other images, but it works here better than some of the other images we've seen. Um, I personally I'd like to see a little more room at the top and maybe come up a little from the bottom dropped the whole down, make it a little heavier in the image and more room for the papers to fly away in the top. The one thing that is bothering me in this photograph is that that dark strip through the middle, I feel it's so heavy right there that it kind of makes me it's starting to pull me away from what the story is, I feel so this artist and I think that people who work in this said they're definitely to be artists or just working with a different tool in its that's a, a tablet and a photo shop in the computer instead of a paintbrush. But as I look at this photograph because that back area is so dark s so heavy e find that instead of me enjoying the entire picture I start seeing it is two halves of the photograph, two halves of the picture and being right through the center, it just increases that that's when the reasons why I've saying if we drop everything down you know our crop up, they'd move lower in the frame and then give more room in the top for air and very good. I love parts of this. Yeah, the motion is great. Hair flowing back, the hands coming back into the address, the need going back, the pointing of the tow. Those were all working really nicely for me. Yeah. So what is it that when you look at this, is there anything that bothers you that you feel there's? Another way to approach it? I'm not sure about the starburst behind her. I don't know. It's a little simp a simpler simplicity and the upper part of the image. And then maybe lightening up the bottom image. Your foot isn't so lost into their, um, balancing the tones a little bit may help for me. What are you looking at? I love this picture there's so many things. I like that very much. I love the tone ality. I love the way the light is falling across her. I love the way that this that she got the model to jump in this picture. It looks very graceful. What I feel is is holding me back. Is that there's not enough space. I almost feel as though she's jumping out of the photograph and I want to see I feel like the bottom half the picture just go so heavy in dark that I would I think I would enjoy it I think I would enjoy the whole experience of this image more if a lower camera angles luke was used so that it didn't cut through right to the center of her body there's it just has so much it makes me the top part of the picture just makes me because I just really find it very scrumptious and very and very illustrative, but the bottom half to me just kind of goes dirty and muddy yangon the horizons right in the middle and the horizons where your cameras you know, it's try moving up and down and see where you can place that horizon move, get up and move around a bit more. Yeah, in fact see, I don't mind the starburst I think that kind of pulls me right into the scene. I don't have a problem with that if the maker is is here with us, I'd really love to see you go go this route again, I really like where you're going with this and I think that you are steps away from something incredibly magical one of the thing I'd like you to do is to work on the way that this model her arms were posed, her arms are very straight, so you know her the bottom half of her body looks very graceful, but her arms to me look very static and a bit too stiff. So I'd love to see you work on having those those elbows bent. It turned out a little bit or something. There was a little bending a little turn to them. Yes. Question from gina roller photo. This is kind of a general question, but at what point with post processing would you say that image is no longer a photograph? And I know that that is a difficult question, but you may be a good time to discuss train's final. Yeah, well, that's that's the twenty four million dollars. What do you guys think? You haven't you have I don't have a point. I mean, if it if it does look totally over processed I mean, I've judged many things where people just apply some random photoshopped filters, they didn't remember what they did, and it just looks like a photo shop filter effect and you've lost the picture but mostly minutes all about subtlety and working it in there's some images that may have a hundred hours of photo shop working and you don't see it, you just you see a beautiful image, I mean, others start without even start from a photograph, if you you know, if you just start with a blank canvas and photoshopped, then obviously it's not a photograph, but I don't know if that's in anything that we can really answer. Yeah, I don't know that we can answer that either, but I will say that if you notice the treatment, if your first impression is the treatment and not the experience, then to me that that tells me that then the treatment is overdone. One of my favorite photographers to I think, is a good example of using a variety of images is jennifer hudson. I am nuts about her style because she knows how to take elements in a variety of different kinds of elements put them together in a single image to create a composite that is believable, that looks photographic, but it looks beyond photographic. It is very much fine art and very much illustrated imagery, and I think that that's kind of the key is to is when is when the overall feeling of the photograph has that jaw dropping appeal to you, then it has been done correctly, and if you notice what you could take someone jury you'll zeman has been doing this for fifty years, maybe no way before of computers and photo shop I mean, there were photographs I mean there's, a lot of darkroom work this sandwiching then things there's dodging and burning and combining out elements from different images and all but it's so it's it's not new to the to the digital world I mean there's people have been doing really wonderful work for a long time that's a really good point I look he's one of my favorites too and of course now I have ignited incredible conversation yeah but you have that's going to create controversy for sure what makes a photograph but I'll take the heat off of us is that yeah you know I really understand that controversy though because and to be part of the controversy that happens is that if you as the maker as the photographer if you're the one who that is applying the photographic treatments like jennifer hudson does to me then it is beautiful artistry that is of a photographic nature as fabulous but then the other side of the coin is somebody who basically takes a crappy pincher sends it to a digital artist to have them clean it up and make it a beautiful image then is that your work or is that somebody else is? Well, quite honestly, I I think that is I think you're plagiarizing on somebody else's artistry and you know, but even if you do the photo shop work yourself you know if you start out with a with a crappy image and just do a lot of work on it and just so you see, is the work. The image is gone, you know, if it starts with a good image, you can do a lot of post production work, and it still stays a good image. But if you start with the bad one thing, you just notice the the work that was done. And who cares about the image that sternest when it starts with a great invention, works its way through and says, does this one I'm nuts about this picture? I'll tell you right now, I am absolutely in love with this photograph, I think it's just lovely it's. Amazing it's. Interesting. Um, there's. So many things I like about it. I love the expression on the young lady's face and it's not to meet. Technically, you know, from just a strictly photographic way. It's. Not necessarily technically perfect, but it reminds me of an artist. I can't rember what his name is. Uh huh. That's exactly what it reminds me of, clint. And because of that, I mean, you just gave me goose bumps and s o I think this is just magnificent. I think the maker did a really nice time tying this one back to an image earlier today of the woman in the cream colored whether vest where we said that the background was just too harsh the bark of the tree where it's this here is it still it looks like a tree behind her or something or she's laying on the grass but it's been pulled back or textured over soda it doesn't compete with her she just fits right into the whole image here really nicely done yeah it's beautifully framed and you know, the great thing about these kinds of photographs is that this is a portrait sort of but the great thing about it is that when a client when somebody comes to you as an artist as a photographer and they see images like this they don't look at you as a photographer anymore they look at you as an artist and when you are an artist you have arrived and that means that people will pay a heck of a lot more money to retain you and your services then they were ill will other john q public so I applaud this maker brilliantly for creating something so tasteful and harmonious and and under normal circumstances I wouldn't like the texture because it's on her arms and everything but what I like is that she was whoever made this image was very masterful and they kind of kept it off the face of it it's not it doesn't make the skin on the face look modeled and kind of icky and it was done in such a way that now it's got beautiful harmony throughout the entire image. This was a great category. Can I just say, for the record, this is all I can. T it's really beautiful. Look at yeah, the colors in this, the purples to the yellows, to the oranges, the blues everything comes together really well in here that the horse has got a good separation from everything around it. It's in a nice spot in the frame. I don't know that we need so much foreground, but it still works. I mean, I could see making a nice wall print of this. Yeah, this is beautiful. And there are a number of things I personally like about this picture. The first thing I will I love the fact that there's this cute little pony right there. But I love how this piece right here frames and this piece frames that entity. And so you have this wonderful vortex right here that leads you right to that beautiful little pony. And I also like the fact that that if this if this horse wasn't really here and the maker put that horse there, they did a really good job because it looks. It looks like it's supposed to be there. It looks like it's there even down to the shadow where the little hooves are so it's it's quite nicely done. Yeah, I too don't know that that all of this bottom area is essential but it's so beautiful all the way around and treated it's just so clean and so simple that I think it's really quite nicely done. The other thing I love is I love that this line right here with ease the light pictures that lead you right to that honey, you know, fleeting lines were really nice here in this I mean, that would make a beautiful piece of fine art for your home or for a gallery, you know, and just talking about that there is some amazing things that you could do with images like this. Let me give you some ideas just in a general general way we I participate in at least thirty or forty auctions a year, easy jew elementary school auctions, junior high school auctions and then senior high school auctions I love auctions that's a great part of our business, but even images like this could do very well and in auction for for large gallas where they have, you know, you know, like black and white balls, things of that nature where they're trying to raise money for lots of different charities. This would be a fantastic kind of image to put in a gap in that kind of an auction because it's going toe really elevate you as an artist, I gotta showing up in a bank or someplace that some that caters to that kind of thing is just gorgeous. This petty okay, you're going to do that? How do you submit it to something like that? And the question I mean is, do you mounted? Do you frame it? What is the best way to submit to an auction to have your image displayed? I think it depends on the auction and depends on the kind of thing you're doing. If you're doing a live auction that I would want to see a completed picture, I would want to see completed piece. In other words, I would want it framed, I'd want it hand signed, I would want it to be a completely finished piece of artwork so that you know that it would showcase well, when I do an auction, I like to show up at the auction. I want to be there. I want people to see me as the artist, I want to say, have them meet me and for us to be able to communicate one on one because I know if they if we meet, I got him. And it's also see on ly a certain number of people will one person will win the bid on an auction piece that you do but that doesn't mean that that's the only person that you impact you could impact hundreds of people but again I go back to the fact that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. So whatever you're doing even if you're going to donate a small print list maybe say it's an eight by eight print and it doesn't have to be a big print maybe it's a three by three print on under eleven by fourteen mount board maybe the little tiny picture um on an eleven by fourteen double matt on eight climat yeah look amazing so it can look very beautiful and it's a great way provoked the centam submitted with a certificate of authenticity I told you a little earlier was telling you about using it in bossier by the way, if you go to bambi control dot net and go to my blawg, you'll see some you'll see examples of what I'm talking about with my blind in bossier and also the line of greeting cards that I did so it's just like this would be great so make sure that you send a certificate of authenticity with it and then in boss it you know have a blind in boston so that it looks very official and elegant yes do you sign everything that you donate yes I d'oh in fact we for every portrait that we do in our studio we mount every single print that goes out of our studio on eight ply acid free eight by eleven by fourteen mats they're hinged we buy our mats from ready matt and so they're hinge max so that they're glued on one end we can slide the photograph it amounted and then the man lays over and it's an eight climax that's a really high quality mat and then I hand signed those prints because I charge a lot for a small for a print of my eight by ten's in my four by six is are the same price because it's what's on the paper that counts it's not the paper that's what you're paying for so because of them I want them to see that what they're going to get is not something that they can buy costco I'm sick to death of people ask me if I'm stupid digital files so we don't sell digital files a digital file comes with every print that you get so that they know if they want that digital file they're going to pay a nice premium for it because you know I make a living creating images and creating you know photographs for people ok yeah that now this image is very interesting first it looks like it's probably upside down because this ripley reflection at the top, but then if we turn it upside down should be standing on her head. So how is this done? I mean, that's, the first thing that hits me is the technical side of things, but even as an artistic side, I'm I'm drawn into it. The way is she out there? What's going on? What are those ripples up there? What is what's causing that reflection? Yeah, this photograph I want to love, but I find the reflection of distraction in just a personal opinion the upper part of the photograph to me because she's looking in the camera, she this is an example to me of where it's pulled us back into reality and I don't really know why because the other girl that we saw laying in the little flowers that was looking in the camera was looking in the camera, and yet we were all over that, but I love the bottom half of this photograph so much that I find that heavy white piece on top of her, I feel like it competes and it doesn't I can't seem to get past that. Yeah, the lower half of the image stands on its own it's so beautiful I mean, dad gum it that is really pretty I mean, I love the composition of this piece down here and even if it were just this piece up here, you know, I think this right. I love the water coloring, kind of the feeling that is just scrumptious and this right here, the what, the composition of the way they posed it. I mean, look at that, it's. Just this just works beautifully with the flowers and such, but I feel that it's too much of a good thing. Beautiful image. I just wonder where she did. This thing already did. This is gorgeous.