Lessons

Lesson Info

Environmental Portraits Image Critique

So we have, nice one, I'm gonna start with this one first, Blake. Wow. That's crazy. I don't know what this guy is welding, but it's crazy, it's like a lion, tiger. It's cool image. He's using like strobes we can see to the right of the subject. So I'm seeing Blake went through some effort to get this photo. Like he worked for it. So I'm wondering why, my first question is what is happening here? Again, a few sparks. But, you know, they're not adding too much. I wouldn't be too mad if this photo was a square or a portrait. 'Cause he worked well on the light. That's nice. It looks like he darkened this in post. I don't know exactly what, oh no, the strobe probably did it. Yeah, I would have just had this photo be a portrait again or a square. You know, he worked on the light, the subject looks pretty cool, like steampunk glasses, so I like that. But just like cropped differently, shoot it portrait. Here's Dave. This looks like, wow, nice place again. So. I mean, I'm wondering why the su...

bject's feet is cut, is my first thing, it's like little technical things, but, if you can just like make sure that that doesn't happen, otherwise Dave could have shot this a little lower so the head here of the subject could have just stood out behind this mountain ridge. That could have been nice, like a nice way to detach our subject from the background. Otherwise, the light's getting good. I would have waited maybe an hour or two more before shooting here, before getting shooting. But otherwise, nice locations, Dave, always. Bea. This is really cool. I like this. See we were talking earlier with the footprints in the beach, these guys worked on that, and I like the way that they're leading to the cabin. The sky could have been a little more alive. Maybe a little stale, but sometimes it's a gray night and you can't do much about it. But I would still, you know, give this, maybe just hit a little radial filter on it, on this sky. Just to give, invert filter, ah yes, all right. Yeah, just, my big thing with skies is like during the day I don't want them to be blue, but at night, I want them to be blue, because they're just, I don't know, for me the sky comes alive at night or in cloudy conditions. So, I'm just, you know, just like, see the difference with just like a quick little thing up there, how it gives more presence to this cabin. It kind of forces your eye down to the cabin. Really quick, real simple, just little things, but otherwise, good exposure, like, I can still see inside the cabin, which is cool. This is a big light source here, again, I don't know if this is this monitor or the edit, but the inside looks a little copper just like the fire. So I would probably want to make the inside look a little warmer. See if I can just do it quickly. There it is, just like a little radial filter in this zone, you don't have to be too precise. Invert. And probably go with, I mean it's a JPEG, but, just a little purple. You know, just like 30 seconds I think can go a long way in making this image, like it's, I like to look at the subjects, and it's really like, this image is like, not real life, like it's a fantasy, like nobody stands on their door like this, but it's okay, I do photos like this sometimes. It's your own world, it's your camera, do what you want. So I'm like, he's making this world, this perfect world where these two lovers meet at this cabin. Why not just go a little bit more deeper into this idea of warm and cold outside? I would just say that, like go 100% with the concept till the end with the edit. Anthony. I mean, the first thing is the vignette. Um, natural vignette is great with the camera lens. When you're shooting at a big aperture with your camera, 1.4 or 2.8, I like having this natural vignette that comes out. But here, it's clearly added (chuckles) and not a big fan of that. So I would just probably crop out of it. It's good to have some vignette, but here's it's a little crazy. There. And then make sure this line, this white line is aligned. Cutting this horn here, we don't want to do that. And I feel like this image, I mean, the action is really unique. There's a nice duality between, like they're both looking at different sides of the image, so it shows well the duel between the animal and they guy, but yeah, this is the vignette, and I mean, I can see some crazy editing happened right here with this glow behind this person's head. So I would say like the capture was good, like the persons are sharp, good shutter speed, like you froze the action really well, like even the legs here, amazing. And you can only shoot this with a long lens, you can't really be in there shooting with something else, too close, so he did what he could, but just comes down to the edit, Anthony. Sarit. This is cool. I mean. He's trying to force us to look at this subject with the edit again, like we can see here, he's clearly been, I mean look at this shirt here how bright it is and here how dark it gets. So that's not like natural life, it doesn't happen like this, it's just being added. So the edit gets me. I feel like I want to see a bit more color. Like this red pillar is really interesting here. There's like a lot of textures in the streets and nice moment he got, like, this guy is here, you can see him, doesn't seem to happy, but, there is, it's a nice street scene. I don't know why he had a good photo and then the edit kind of just took down the quality of it, I feel. So, and these kind of photos, you've gotta take a lot of them. You've got to walk all day to get these photos. They don't happen just like once. When I see this I think of the work of Steve McCurry and he spends days walking around these markets to get one photo, so, this feels like, yes, you got a photo, but you can do way better. So just keep going there. Portrait. I also set the lights from here in this CreativeLive studio just so it's white, it's usually black in the Lightroom so I like to have it on white. If you guys get folks wondering why it's white, it's because I like to have it white instead of black, feel like it's more pure and you can see contrast better. So a nice portrait. This is like a nice environmental portrait. It doesn't look, too staged. It's nice, the subject's looking on the leading edge of the tree there's this invisible line here that I like a lot. It just goes from here to here and it's following the subject's eyes, so that's great. There's not much to say, I mean, it's nicely done. The shadows look a little too crazy, like maybe a little too many shadows, you know where the jacket is, and, so again, quick radial filters could fix this. There's like this one here that, probably want to, I just like having even light when I can. And then another one here. I feel like, like this big mass of trees to the right, they really draw the eye a little too much. Just like quick little radial filters can do. I know that our subject's head is the most important part, that's where we look, or that's what we look at, but I feel like this part here is really dark, so it's just a post processing thing. Otherwise, nicely done. Rakesh. Beautiful place, I mean, I can see, it's a very airy image in the way that's it's very, lot of compression from the zoom lens, the back is really, I mean, that's really, yeah, really airy, but I feel like the subject is really locked like a little too rigid compared to this like fairytale place, so maybe it's something Rakesh wanted, in this case, nothing to say. Everything looks to be, appears to be in focus. If you were to get into like wardrobe, I wonder why, 'cause we're playing with textures here, like there's a lot of nice green patterns, I'm just wondering why this flowery dress here, maybe like just a plain color would have been better for the image, 'cause like this seems a little busy compared to the rest. But, maybe that's also a decision he wanted to do and that's what he wants to do. Yeah, so that's my two things, but otherwise nicely done, nicely executed, well-framed between the trees. And nice depth of field. Adam. I like these candid portraits. It's really candid and like they really show happiness and like they want, makes you want to go outside when you see this. Black and white, which it's again a decision, you're making a statement about color by not using any color. Like we're saying before with the dirt bike photo, at least here like we can see where the subject's looking, like there is nice distance between the eyes and the edge of the image. So, that feels comfortable and great. I'm always looking for comfort in my photos. Like is this photo comforting? And I feel like this is comforting, like it works, it's stable. I just don't know why, what the camera is doing exactly there, but I think like she's trying, she's doing something, so I'm just wondering what the moment is exactly. But it could just be a candid outside. But then why is she looking up? So just a few questions that arise, otherwise nicely executed. I think like the shadow's a little bit crazy in here again. Could also be this monitor, but, maybe too dark here, like it really draws your eyes in so I would just say the shadows. Next up, last one, Raphaelle, monvoisin. Wow, it's a beautiful place, he picked the timing really well. I mean, don't you guys think? It's like, almost like how it's snow, really good atmosphere, the subject is centered in the middle of this road, so it's really well-executed. It's a very dreamy image. I'm just, again, I would have maybe saved some of the shadows here 'cause it's, like I feel like this image kind of leans to the left just because of the shadows here, so that's what I would probably clean up, just bring the shadows a little out a little more with another radial filter. Otherwise, the, really nicely executed. I wish, I'd like to know where this place is. It's pretty cool. (laughs) The colors, you know, I don't know if trees are this color. I feel like a lot of green was taken out of the image which makes it feel a little surreal and almost monochrome, or infrared. I probably wouldn't have gone for these colors, I would have just stayed as close as I could to the original, you know, because it's proper just because it would just feel a bit just more natural. But, cool image, I mean. There's really nice framing, like the trees here are very well-balanced. Yeah, so it's just well done.