Lessons

Lesson Info

Image Critiques

I have put together images from student images these are not images however, they are hosted in my online gallery, so please forgive me for that. But instead of helping around from different galleries were gonna put them all here for the sake of just looking at them. Enter these. What you'll see on the left hand side are folders broken up into the photographer's. Name ashley barnett actually martin's brit morgan, michelle clement lang and mark can you pronounce your last name? I think that's all going again and mark so let's, we're going just cruise right through this. What we have is twenty minutes dedicated. We might not get to everybody. A summer was given this gallery immediately when it's complete she's familiar with images she's gonna go sit on let's, go through them, and then I'm gonna offer insight where this applicable. I highlighted few pictures that I want to get input on. They're just gonna cruise through heaven and all kind of let you know, great five minutes ago. So first...

off, I just want to show you at a glance I already feel like there's a lot of strong subject matter, so I was really excited to look into this one and see kind of find out some more, um, like the shot, one of the things just a really quick tip is teo I think do a little bit of research like stationary if you're like I just want to grow, grow, grow learn as much as I can look at how other stationary people shoot their own stationery and you can learn a lot of really tips about layouts of awesome stuff get some fun stationery and practice it at home just so that you're really comfortable on the day of so that you kind of know how to style it my favorite favorite person he sells their stationers so beautifully is megan from maybe paper she sells it so beautifully and so well so go check out her web site look at how it yourself people eh and a and p p e r e some megan from may may people dot com or you can just a new bulletin this fella little tilikum up so I think getting ideas from other stationary designers is a really great way tio you know we'll help your craft on one thing to you from the bottom for a second it looks like she actually shooting on a bench or on something and so I would make sure that the bench that you either align your body with the bench so that the bottom of the bench is straightening out you have you till instructed invite which I think is ok in this I think you could tell particular things with it as long as you're shooting it head on but we have the tilt of the invite and then that tilts slightly of the lens warm the bench so if you got one of those a little bit more straighter thinking extend a stronger man and this brings us into sometimes I do this and some photographers are uncomfortable with it and let me know and I will do it but if I was using this image I would actually crop it and probably like kind of pull it out a little bit just to kind of get rid of that if that was okay with the photographer so that's something that we kind of do to fix that kind of issue I like the shot way always love these shots and you go back sorry okay I never hesitate to step into and see hit the back of this tie oh it's fine it's my bad this time was protruding from in front of this type that small little tiny things step in six small little tiny thing we're going to get into show you really quickly I feel like we actually really lost the flowers on the shot even though we loved the white bright the other thing photographers tend to do is they like like to shoot down on the bouquet and they make the bright turn and I think it's just a lovely when it's just normal how she would comfortably hold it right around her hips I feel like it's awkward when they're too far out or like, oh, in the shot where she looks like she's peeking over where she'll say she's improving, I think where they make the bride slaughter issues like squatted in like enough like, oh, oh, anyway, s so we'll get into this a little bit because she wears later on a really cute little cardigan and I never saw a shot with the cardigan and the flowers because I feel like that was a really beautiful compliments when I start later on what I do is I was like, oh, is it going to be a shot of the kardashian with the flowers? And there wasn't so that's what I wanted to be but way asked the class to only give me thirty images, so ok, so that steps on the image selection. Ok, here's, another great one. Where? Ok, yes, in context this is cool. A couple things about I would have loved to see against straight on getting down on your knees and showing us that. But then the other thing, because I talking here a little bit about multiplying or detail shots. So yes, this is one detail shot, but what if this right here is it is pretty distracting as is the globe in the background so pulling it just a little bit aside and shooting it straight onto that's all it is but then pulling out one or two of the flags and laying and flat down and just shooting them right down there then we can see what it looks like by itself and how it was used and if there was more blue or more red in the wedding either one do those separately so that I could choose like, oh, I really feel like there's a much stronger blue element in this shoot I'm going to use the blue one so that would be like those were the kinds of things where you could multiply again looking down on it because it was that kind of observing where other than we're hitting that straight on inspected and this is a personal thing is you cut out the right portion of the globe and the lower portion of the camera which wouldn't have been an issue if there wasn't space on the upper portion and on the left portion yeah, with the whole thing in and tell that story and that would make the photo again same thing I think later on I see how this there was grass that wasn't in shape like this and so on and I don't know how bigger gigantic that was it would've been even if you would moved it over and shot it straight on with that tablecloth well, the tablecloths kind of makes it you don't want it to be two wives enemy white on white but a way we can get rid of all this kind of darkness in that image and that again shooting it straight on and because of the shape of this I think that would've been a really nice landscape horizontal shot and sent us on vertical actually really like this again it's all that darkness but I think that there is no way you could have move that too much but I would have loved to see if there was a different place you could have shot it with like less shading so that it just it felt a little bit brighter and also I think later on you shot those hearts by themselves and I kind of liked that we got to see that we want to see this's an element that we're seeing repeated so already instantly we know okay we have this travel thing how are we going to repeat this element so you know shooting the globe really clean shooting these really clean getting as many like matt fun details the stationary then all really starts to come together if the details are really strong and we know as a viewer not just you observed it like oh I shot it but you communicate to us is if you are what is going on here? So that means that you have to take these elements apart. You have to undo whatever it is like the stationary, so that we get it. That helps. These little guys are super cute again I think the idea of that background was really cool but I think in terms of all this dark below here and then kind of the door and the reason it was a little bit distracting for me I would have either left to see them over it was just the plain white just really clean up the shot and have them a little bit closer the background so there's not so much dark floor or just outside with really clean but you know what I thought about this one is that again I would love to see a closeup of those boom years and over the bow ties and all that kind of stuff because they're totally in the clothes a bit him holding the book whatever then but yes so those are the things multiplying the details and all of a sudden you taking these kids and you've turned this into three or four details for me when they do is I thought again and again is like the lens flare within that I like lynn slur but in this particular situation I feel like it's a distraction yeah so all you needed to do is have either your lenses or simply shoot with one hand and then use the other hand to cover wherever this okay oh yeah ok so definite and sometimes what I'll do is hunt output j d and a producer location so getting your third or second or third shooter, and then having him or her guard that area. So your freedom at leisure to move or awesome. Okay, I just feel like for this one in particular. Again, I think it was the idea. And again, probably the shade. And that was really helpful. All that, but it was just like I wouldn't. This wouldn't be kind of a selected one. Just there, sort of feel a little stuffed fella. Little crab it, bridesmaids love the blue. Ok, so we already see the blue. I would have used the blue flag. I would have maybe given a bridesmaid e a flag with her acute blue dress that she's holding show us that and she's, not really quick and cute. And then there I don't think I saw any great shots of the sprys made holding up. Okay, that would have been a really great obu here's the blue in the pink. And now I get the color scheme and it's all starting to make sense for me. But this doesn't communicate as clearly eras. Well again, it's, that color story that we talked about, I thought that was really pretty shot. Oh, here's, another really great one this shows us the back of the frame rather than, you know, just flipping it around and having that that little centerpiece in front of the frame now this particular wedding, I mean it's. Not like this overwhelming, amazed centerpiece and it's not it doesn't have to be overwhelming for us. The future sometimes it's just all that's a genius idea. So it's okay, if it's not like we may not, we may still feature the wedding and never show a centerpiece is what I'm trying to say so you can still get a wedding featured even if the centerpieces are amazing. But I would have loved to see also that hard, just like you already on that white table runner. Just get on up there, she's straight down on it and shows links and cute hearts, whatever that would've been really meet again. This is the one. This is why I was telling you, I feel like until you've actually styled station or it's a really kind of awkward, weird how do I how do I organize this? Like we love this liner underneath the envelope, but we don't really get to see. See that very much so usually turning it and letting the arrow kind of come out a little bit like that and it's okay to do an overlay of the tag and get him a little bit closer. All those things. So again, do some stationery and research, and that will help a lot just kind of practicing and getting more comfortable because it's, really awkward to style, has done it before. Ok again, multiplying details. I love this. I would have loved to see potentially a really nice close up shot of the cake topper as well and that's always, you know, sometimes we just need to see you. I call it zoom in and zoom out, so zoom in on the couple and then what? Zoom out wealth was going on on the cake table so that I could get some extra context, and I'm sure you shot that. But that's, if I was if this was always submission again, hear these details everything's kind of crowded. I'm so distracted by like the top left corner of what else is going on that I would love to see the a just by itself, because that would be so cute lined up next to all these other things and reinforces. The idea and whatever that was our those favors up there yeah ok so pulling this out I'm just traveling at one by itself and shooting it boom another detail so they're there for you I think that too is getting like one of those things you should eat by itself and then all of a sudden why don't you like I think that it was a weakness style on the table because we saw that the leg is all the way to the table if you were to take that out and take a shot a single shot of just the favors and then taking that I would love to see that camera up with a few favors sprinkled around and all of a sudden you told a different story about the same detail should provided style the different way and again this is why we like in our workshop why we actually take stuff like this and force you to move it and force you to get comfortable styling because until you've done that until you've really started to like feel the freedom to like move things around it feels awkward and like I don't know how to what am I doing what we're different from each other doing yeah because you know you can always move it back yeah but I will say in our workshops we've had a week were like empower you to move but then they forget to like move back so you know, when you're leaving it, make sure like, oh, geez, nice might he follows me actually I take off and I shoot and then I move on and he puts things back if that pattern you fall into with your second shooter know that that's the pattern be okay with it ok, so again, this one so cute I would have loved to see I'm sure this was a folded car, so we have been hard to shoot flat, but I just a cleaner shot of this would have been really nice and then I would have loved to see obviously not those that circulars I get what they are but again, all this up here is so distracting that it was a little bit like I would have loved to see those little spark sparklers kind of laying in front of it around this side or whatever or and then also kind of shot by themselves if you could get that little guy to cooperate and lay flat with the spark was over it super cute so again we're creating context okay baby, you're a firework but like what's the context of that what were they trying to say and they obviously did it on the table but he was a photographer have to say it too for them so that's how you have to tell that story for us so we have this here again, I think it's just there were so many separate elements, and we want to pick and choose our favorite. So maybe the pignon. I think the pinata maybe was it's, like the world's kind of guy was around is one. Her husband is finished. Yes. So she actually create a pinata for him. He'll try to tie that in a little bit. Yeah. You want you can you know that you would have rolled that image, right? But I think again, where these air, all these kind of separate elements that I think it separated. We can use much better and more efficiently in a post rather than kind of all like that. Because they don't all really correlate perfectly. And I think again, we want to see it's. Just it feels a little there's so much so I would have loved to see it more like we said pulled out. We kind of already. I love that. I think that was a really great fun shot. Okay, so this is something I tend to see. Tables are hard to shoot long tables because it's either going straight up in the middle and it's. Kind of awkward and distracting or it's you know, shooting angle I think it's a little bit okay to kind of shoot it from the side a little bit, but you still want to see some of that length there, so I think just be careful when you're shooting long tables not to let that table go straight at the center of your image because then it's in terms of proportion it's just not it's not good in particular photo if I if I had the opportunity I would take just at first frame and turn it towards me so that wasn't true in the back of the frame and then in post if I was going to submit this photo would go back and clean out the leaves in the background because I felt like that was just a student visa, a small scale things I think this is a beautiful wedding I think it's so cute he did a great job just when you have the opportunity to look at it from a different perspective, these are things that you wouldn't even move forward might be able to get through one more, but we can get one more wedding yes, you know, I think we're gonna move away because I wanted just goes through many photographers as possible given the time frame before we get into q and a so this one I actually you know you usually have enough time for one more after this one. Why did we go to that one? Okay, this morning I really wanted to talk about this wedding because I felt like my favorite part about this wedding was totally I didn't have enough images up, so the best part in this particular photo I would have you don't have to show you I would. I prefer to crop in camera so I don't have to worry about it in post, but in this region voted the highlight in the background. You can crop it in post and just cut it out so that you're not seeing so much that this is the edge of the table, and so you just change that perspective is a quick change. I also would have loved to see just a straight on again. You can hear me saying straight on level, like your looking at it rather than looking down on it again, because now when you're looking down, I know that the photographers there, if you're looking ad it and focus on the detail. She did both ways, because sometimes a bride wants it one way remember you're shooting for yourself, the bright and an invisible, excited so this is good again, but still, I would have loved to just see one clean shot with nice in britain that but I want to get to the main point of what I loved about this wedding wass this year, your photo I absolutely love but that that space on the right side shows to me that you have the opportunity to shift your camera over left and get more of that piece of would so any time there's negative space not used in the proper way, it's something that I have a conversation with j t all the time, so shifted just a tiny bit and have the base of the wood or pull out more so that you have space on both sides of the pieces of what, um, lots of the and we see this consistent it's not like a shocker that there's a lot of the looking down rather than, you know, gay in this particular photo I loved those pencils would take that pen and out because the pen betrayed um again, we want to see a little bit more of a straight on like street on eye level. Always for editors is exactly exactly straight on high level. Get down. But there is a part of this wedding that I felt I really loved, which was for dress and we're working our way getting to it, getting to it, we kind of see it there a little bit and that's a really cute shot. These are really great. I think I feel like the moss was a little distracting. I would have loved to see these just these pulled out in a really beautiful, clean shot thing. Background straight on high level. Um which it is pretty much their super cute again, I would have loved to see straight on eye level and maybe not even with the wood. If you can't fit in the frame because then we can show the double. We can show straight on eye level of the top part and then next to it I can show the full shot right there. So that's. One thing again, remember that mosaic part? That was a good idea, but the rings like that was cute, but oh, my gosh, such a cute dress and sure it's fluffy but it's, not something we see all the time her boat came looks so cute with the dress I want to see ten or fifteen more shots in different ways of this dress that I can pick out my favorite so this is one area where I felt like I remember we talked about capitalizing on the best part of a wedding and the details this to me was like oh, so cute I wanted to see that really solid clean and you should always have of that, okay? You know her just right there and then mohr of that dress and those shoes once addresses on we're just so great that it's a particular it's just a thing for me that I always talk with jd about is you have all this space above their heads and just a tiny bit of their feet omitted shows to me that you could have brought the camera down just a tiny bit to get issues with their feet but especially when she's wearing those adorable shoes those were adorable when we couldn't see them. I think this one I obviously it's super cute we get what's going on and the emotion behind it. I think what this picture does is bull miny brings up to me when I see photographers tending to shoot not that they do a ton but when you're shooting from angle looking up ninety nine percent of the time it's just kind of unflattering angle to shoot from and I usually like to make a bright look and feel pretty when I'm posting, at least in about post so we love the concept of what's going on here I would have actually love to see it from the side and also kind of a chairlift e I would have actually shot it from behind I did, I got behind them, but the sun was they had their wedding away twelve rainy afternoon, you're so it was already only we have to get it where yeah, they weren't you know, it could have been cute maybe once they landed, I leveling off and then I think shooting a chair by itself, just that we got the content or the a kind of landscape shot of the whole situation like as you're looking down, if it even if they're all empty just to give us the idea, we get it, you know, rather than you know, this one where we sort of have to guess kind of I think one really great solid shot of the whole thing makes it more clear makes it more obvious it looks like there were a lot of really awesome elements here, so we would have just on and I think again, you were limited to the number of images that you said, but, you know, seeing all of those elements, I see a ton of florals for me, I think florals especially they're really great can be a instant way to get something published so you want to make sure that you're getting a lot of those really solid floral shots? And so if there are few arranges like I see this starburst flour over here but that's the only kind of shot I ever saw of it so I would have loved to see a few more like uh that's a really awesome floor it looks really great with the whole thing and so I would want to see more of that kind of element again capitalizing on the awesome stuff and really zooming in and getting extra of the really great ideas and details. So that was the main point I wanted to make on this one was getting that bride. She we needed tons more shots of that right? Because she was just so thank you and her little else they have five minutes, so if you want, we can get into mork urinate or we can dive into another submission. Was there a commission that you wanted? Tio? What? Do you guys want? More submissions? Hey, great e I just wanna make sure that it's reflecting what? Okay? Online. Okay, great. Okay, so this morning I felt like it was probably a little bit more of a challenge because there were as many like inherent details throughout the day, but they think that there were some elements that on that we could that could have been a little bit more capitalize on here. Is that really great example? We talked about the hotel carpet. I know, right? S o I would have loved to see that she shot outside or somewhere really cute on where, even if she's in the dress where they're kind of peeking out to me, the shoes were a really big part of this wedding and they really made it pop, so it definitely, obviously who's probably challenge to, like, find as many details as you could in the day so that's one that you really want tio you know, if you're working on capitalize on this, is those kind of get ready shots that we never you know, he's, this isn't something that we would like normally feature it's cute photographic perspective for this light show. I think it works, works, works, works yes, not for submission, but I love exact in and of itself, and that shows the difference between what you do for your writing but you should for your bride and then what you do for us again, see how we have so you have the carpet, but then you have that, like checkers on the wall next to it, yeah, this photo would have been perfect if you'd taken outside and guessing it was cold I'm sure it was very cold, it was february, I'm sure and what I say, like two brides in cold weather when I should say is if you give me five minutes, I promise you'll never second guess it for the rest of your life how could somebody saying, oh, yeah, I definitely exactly again, you know, the same thing we've already said a cleaner because where it was shot matters just as much as what you're shooting, you know? But I like the idea I like that you're using red as the common theme to tie everything together, which is what we talked about creating a color story in the beginning. I know that you had mentioned this was your first wedding, correct, so this is your first wedding so that I know, right? So in that respect, I already see that potential of you wanting to get there, and I think that we're tearing this apart, but you're I think that for your next e o okay, all right, so what is scary way? See that peak there? We want to see it so close, thea other thing teo, I feel is way have some inherent site details that we don't get to see I would have loved just a stunning shot of that window right there, really beautifully exposed, nice and bright and also that bright, even if you just felt like a really great close above the texture of the book, even if it's just for your own practice and I don't feature those are the kinds of things the steeple, all this area in the background by itself would have been really great and really beautiful. One thing, too, is if you haven't shifted over just a tiny bit and got directly in front of the bride and had the bride hold her bouquet down, you would have the least show change of perspective that this is a bouquet shot because we're not sure if this is a location or a shoe shop, like, what shot is this? So when you clearly define what it is, then you know, ok, this doesn't work from occasional or it doesn't work for a shoe shop, but either way, it doesn't work for any of them in this particular photo and again, I think the perspective here is I mean, because we're so distracted by that right there, you know, it's like finding those clean spaces for you, too, move the details to remove the shot to, like, oh, I haven't seen too much of shenanigans if we just moved right back here and we pulled back a little bit, you know, I feel like this shot would have been a lot more a lot stronger and a lot cleaner well, you could have done for the for the rings to is you could have pulled a red book if you were allowed to get those books pull the red book to tie in more of that red theme because we clearly know that this is your first wanting to clearly no, those were outside and we couldn't know there weren't a lot of details to begin with, so creating the details given what you're given would always be a good thing or if somebody was like drinking like a shirley temple, I would shoot the shirley temple as a way to tie in the red thing do I think it would get cemented? Probably not, but if me later on trying to tell a story from my perspective, it might work to create the story from beginning to middle and I mean, I think that's the thing too is when you are submitting and obviously, you know, this is a different scenario, but being careful, I think about which submissions you choose to submit and what you're sending you know you're kind of creating a brand not just, you know, on your block, but but to us like our perspective you're sending us these images you want to make sure you're not smith spam submitting way sometimes we'll get like the same photographer that will send us like ten submissions every time I go into too bright lights and so becomes like, well, I haven't featured any yet and but if there had been one stand out, it would have a way better chance than setting me thirty does that make sense? So again, I think being careful about what you submit tio or which ones that you're going to submit and rather than being like, well, I'm just gonna throw everything at the wall and see what sticks and then you become known as that for talking like, if you've done that twice before and then you want to do it a third time and you really do have a standard wedding in her mind, he's like, oh no it's this person again, so she's not going to spend as much time one at a time and we'll talk more about that tomorrow. Yes, ok, so this one here, I think I realize we're shooting stuart weitzman, but I think if we're going to do that it's so much better when it's just the shoe and pulling these out, you don't have to be together. I love like that you're trying to get artistic and do something different, but I think that that that bracelet would have been just as beautifully shot on her wrist holding herb ok, as you know, rather than kind of china my phrase is th trying too hard, and I think this is kind of the t eight shot right here, your life you're getting hard, see your trying, but I feel like I just did it white make it so again, like I think that there is this pressure, like get it all in one shot and I rather you see breaking apart because we will get it all in when we do our feature, we will put the bracelet next to the shoes and that's a much better way to do it. We'll move remove, remove palpable, clean, clean, clean that's actually, being simple and doing the right is so much harder than being cluttering and just throwing everything on the table. But from a for tom, your first perspective, we have to understand when the bride is actually cheesing the images to go into your album, she might not want to pick one picture of the bracelet. One picture of that. So we have to understand that we need to shoot it for the invisible editor for ourselves and artistic perspective and for the bright right might like this photo and you might be a total winner in that perspective, however, one thing to just photographically we don't know what the focal point is in this picture so if the focal point was a start wise and you need to square your body towards that use your body as a shadow so that the gold of the store wiseman is muted and that's what you see forfeits if it is the hearings you needed took your body towards the hearings and shoot it from that angle so that just understanding what the focal point is within the picture and I think you know this red in the background you know, there was an opportunity to really use that and capitalize on it so I think that was one way that again, like she was saying like scoring up your body from a different perspective, I might have moved them a little bit so that you could shoot it with that really nice pop of red in the background. So putting the shoes at the edge of that circle ottoman, which I think is what you were shooting on moving into the edge of the ottoman and then just using the red as the background and the issues so that you don't have to compete with the orange ottoman and in the red chair in the bathroom and then that's your whites and really pop and I would have shot the jewelry made I don't know what the red thing is is that a shell for a culture that's a chair? I believe the world's mrs wait, I have talked about this before in a shooting star. I am a part time maid on a wedding day. If I don't like with that back, curtis, I either need to not shoot the background or need to clean anything. Yeah, we're moving, we're moving, move it. So this is another one where I feel like there is not really strong subs. Yeah, you know, what the subject is, is that, you know, and so we want to see a shot, just clean straight on. I mean, you're getting up idea right straight on my level.