Lessons

Lesson Info

Image Critiques

what we're going to do now is we're going to spend the next few minutes and we're going to be doing some critiquing of some of the the work that that students from around the world sent us and you know we don't learn from the things that we do right we learned from our mistakes and so I hope that you'll take the critiques that I give you all in a real spirit of wanting to to improve in your craft and trust me I mean I've been critiqued by the best and I'm by no means perfect myself but I do know and I've judged for many many years so I know how to make your image is a bit better so let's look at this first image there were first of all I will tell you get an a plus for expression she's got a lovely expression on her face I love the look on her eyes I think that she looks approachable and I love that that you used a very shallow depth of field you were probably around two point eight or somewhere in that realm to capture this image because the background is very muted and it does not pu...

ll your eye away from the subject which is this young lady there are a couple of areas that I'd like to see you work on and the first thing is this you need to pay attention to where the catch lights are in that either the light in this picture is just a little bit too low and it doesn't look quite natural to say it's a little bit too low in the butt and it's almost a the bottom of the eye right there see it so I'd like to see you move your light source upper use your reflector and raise it up a bit to change that so that the catch lights from the little higher part of the it'll it'll make it a little bit better the second thing that I would do that was that really pulled me immediately away from her face was this dark line right there I'd go in and photo shop and get rid of that tree get rid of that heaviness because when you have this light light light light light light area all of that is in harmony except for that heavy boot that dark spot and because it's a long vertical line it cuts your picture right in half do that immediately and I'll tell you right now you're already gonna have a much better portrait than you did before so I think you're on your way you're doing a great job and I commend you for being willing to share one of your pictures with us well oh this one I remember this picture first of all I love this picture I think it's very interesting it's very editorial now it has some areas you can see it's got some funky light on it I mean it's the maker has chose to light both sides of the face and then you know create this very very strong look on the front of the eyes are the face with the light coming in from both sides the good thing about the way that he's left this picture is I love the fact that it really highlights this man's cheekbones and makes him look very strong the pose because he's got him kind of hunched forward makes him look a bit bulk you're and this is not necessarily a bad thing for a guy guys can we can make them look bigger if there were a smaller man you want to make them look like they've got that there bigger arm or strong and they have more strength you can have them pull their shoulders and lean forward the area that I was that really pulled me away though we're a couple of things number one that right there growing right out of his head be really careful about your backgrounds because you can have ah great expression but if the background is distracting or if you something that's right deads behind the back of the head then it's going to pull your eye away and it cuts your picture in half and it's just it's very much a distraction um and that's especially important differences when you're photographing weddings is pay attention when you especially photographing like brides walking down the aisle you know you know people you know walking around in such pay attention to not only what's in front of your lens but also said well what's behind them is there something that's a distraction and if it's something that's real heavy that's a straight line there's a couple of things you could do first of all move your camera positions so it's not growing right out of their head or do a camera till this is a time when camera till can work for you when you have strong vertical lines because it breaks them and they aren't rule heavy because vertical lines are very masculine and if you have vertical lines in a photograph of a woman it's it's competitive and it looks hard and it's on pleasing but if you tilt the camera a bit this is one of those times one camera till can bennett that you on because it'll break those vertical lines and they won't look so hard I would also not cut off his arms don't cut off his arms or his hands and I know this could have been an ad for a magazine maybe to show off the clothes on def issue did a really good job because you look you've let the clothing quite nicely to show that the texture and such as well um I loved the expression on this young woman space it is however it seems to be quite over exposed um you want to really pay attention to the way that your that your exposure and so that you don't overexpose the faces however I loved the expression on her face I think that's so strong it pulls me it says okay it's acceptable and it makes me forgive her or the maker whoever the maker is because it's a bit over exposed the background is a bit is much darker than the faces are if they were all in the same key you can actually doing over exposure on a photograph and make it look great if they're all in the same key in other words what that key means is otherwords they're all in the same tonality so if you've got it this light face if the background was really light then you could really make her lips pop by over exposing it a bit you know increase the contrast a bit to make those lips really show up and you could actually haven't even I think in my opinion a more interesting photograph but you have to it all has to be in the same key you know make it all in harmony and it'll it'll look more like it was supposed to be that way instead of that it was a happy accident um I brought this photograph in for a couple of reasons first of all you get an absolute a plus for expression I love the fact that you've even got expression on the baby um I think that's just adorable mother and daddy look great and look at that kid he just looks just absolutely cute as pie a wonderful very sellable family portrait on dh my critiques are for from a professional standpoint but that doesn't mean that they're not sellable images and I will tell you hands down right away I'm sure that you made a nice chunk of change and selling that your client because it's a very nicely exposed image that has expression and at the end of the day that's what's all about the areas that are making me a little bit that pulled me back is that it looks a little too over photoshopped there's a little bit all this smoky stuff the obvious blur is a little bit too too obvious be really careful when you do photo shop work because you want to pull back and so that's not so obvious it's not not a bad thing to have a bit of something from a bit of a softness around the edges but just be careful where you you know how much of your photoshopping work that you do but still absolutely really cute as pie image and I love expressions and you did a nice job this image I'm putting cause I absolutely loved it and the reason that I like it is that everything works together I mean the pose the expression on the face fits the subject my eyes pulled a little bit away by that window on the left hand side because it's almost as bright as her hair kind of pulls my eye away but it's and I'd also like to see a bit more room I feel that it's a little bit it's cropped a little bit too much I'd love to see a bit more headroom I just feel like it's just it's just too it's a little bit too squished in the in the in the way that you've composed the picture but still I loved the expression on her face because it works really well with the style of the pose and I think that's one of the things that you really want to think about is that at the end of the day that you can have this amazing vogue pose but if it's on somebody that doesn't suit their dress or their personality than it looks dumb it's like having a mom you know here photographing this mom with her beautiful children in these confusing these little cute pictures and then she's getting all vogue and then these cute kids were in the little cute all hi mom you're kind of happy looks so think about what the subject is when you consider the way that you're going to pose do have questions so far just jump in there if you have questions okay um okay so I love the exposure you did a really nice job now this one has been treated as well it looks like it's got a little bit of hdr on it but it doesn't bother me because it's in keeping with the style of the picture and it has not it's it's on the verge of being crossing over to the dark side but it's not that it's it's still very nice okay now this photograph I want you for to shut your eyes for a minute and I want you you folks that are in online to shut your eyes and now I want you to barely open them just squint and look at that picture and what do you see all I see is that flash that's the first thing I see the second thing you see is her dress and finally the last thing I see are their faces so you want to think about what is this romantic moment about see this this moment is about the two of them what is the rest of this scenery have to do with that and you remember we were talking about strong vertical lines well this is exactly the y brought that up because you want to be cautious when you have this beautiful romantic moment and then those strong vertical lines because those strong lines of the sarah case are masculine on and then you have this all this beautiful soft moment and their contradictory elements so take that along with the fact that the flash in the background it's overpowering the subjects this is a photograph that would have done much better had the photographer taken their flash and bounced it off a wall it looks like the tone of the walls in this environment are light colored so what I would have done is I would have bounced the flash instead of flashing right into them I would have bounced it off this wall over here so that it would light the mask of her face which is the front of her face right here right in here like this part of her face and then it would fall off the light would fall off in here does that make sense to you you see all of this it's so bright right here on and it's so sharp it pulls me right away from here and yet the magic moment it is right in here so I think you're on the right track I like I'll tell you what I do like about this picture I love how tender the way he's holding her hand I think that makes me feel believe it's believable to me and I also like the way that he's smiling as he kisses her that feels real to me and so I think that you get a very good a gold star for your for the idea and for the way that you've communicated with your subjects because it does feel believable but I want you to finesse it a little bit better and let's back off a little bit on your flash and not make it so flat lit this is an example when you don't want a flat light because it kills the mood you know you don't mean butt out you see that's one of the greatest things about shadows and light shadows create mood and and tonality in the color temperature of light creates mood one of my favorite movies of all times is the movie pride and prejudice the new one with keira knightley and I love that movie I think it's a beautiful story but mohr importantly I adore the cinematography in that movie and this is what I want you to notice I want you to rent that movie and I want you to pay attention to the color temperature the color of the light especially when when the one of the lead characters is walking across the moors in the early morning fog the color temperature it's very cold the light is very cold and the whole mood of the film in that in that area feels very cold and you can feel the coldness yourself it's interpreted to you and that's when you look at pictures like this that's why you want to think about the light that you're going to use is that the right light for that moment that's what we said earlier it's not always the right light for every moment ah video light would have been awesome here because you could have really spotlight the front of her face and dropped down your you're dark and your background a bit and you know had this beautiful soft moody experience like you just stole a moment from this couple yes they may just want to say that protect your home for you was the person from the first image bambi just talked about my first photo are about his photo I feel so special especially when this was my first photo shoot so thanks bambi and that was tom from julian which one was illinois the very first one one of the girl yes boy I'll tell you what if you worked your picture ever whoa that's great so thank you awesome that's good okay I love this picture I love the treatment and I think it's fun you know this is actually looks a lot like one of having a boat is vintage delish lightning presets I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't one of hiss I'll tell you what I like about this picture first of all I loved the expression she has a beautiful look on her face she's young and she's hip you have to be really careful of treatments on photographs in the way that you treat them and using like those those you know those presets and photoshopped actions because if it's not done on the right kind of image it looks like what what were you thinking you know and this is an example she's young and she's hip and she's kind of happening and she's kind of a young girl you can tell she's wearing your shit this whole pink top on so that tells me immediately that she is you know kind of a young little hip girl but she's a little bit traditional should wearing pearls on her ears and she's wearing a little pink heart that tells me she's a little bit girly so I love I think that you did a nice job in treating it the only thing that I would probably have done is the highlight that's on her cheek is just a little bit pulls me away esso I would want to see you go I'll tell you the best thing to do in this this looks like you shot this outside of course use the use the five in one reflector hey uncle john can you hand me the scrim side of that reflector this is the easiest dumbest fix in the world because you can knock down this this bright spot in the hair and on that cheek with one one easy fix this is why I love the five in one reflector this is the sheer side it's immunity translucent so if you take this panel right here and you put it between your subject and the son you're going to soften that light up tremendously and you would get rid of and you wouldn't get rid of the boat you soften this highlight right here and you'd knock it down substantially and it would look absolutely amazing so this is a really easy thing the five and one reflected who makes this one uh this one is a photo flex yeah sort of flex I have the photo flex and I like this one very very much I don't travel anywhere without my without my five and one reflector my second favorite side is that this one have the black side this one doesn't have a black okay the one that I have has the translucent it has a gold and it has a silver and it has a black side I love the black side because the black side guests would you could put it on this on this someone's face and give him a shower side of the face thank you very ok driving questions okay all right um let's critique this together first of all I'll tell you what I'm liking about it I love the fact that you photographed them on the shadow side of the face but what are we noticing do you notice how you could draw a straight line from the top of the head through the torso so the subject is either sitting straight up just straight or their standing flat footed that's one of the most bills or two of the most important things that you really need to learn to do is to is that remember that if you're seated we don't want him sitting flat on their duke's don'ts have him sit flat on their backside now there are a few exceptions to that rule but by and large you want to roll that hip away you want to create an s curve even if their seats see how I'm like rolling this way see how it creates it just in long gates your subject the second thing is this the photographer is photographing straight into the shoulder of this young lady now the good thing is is that most of that shoulder is in shadow so it's okay it's not going to be a horrible thing but the shoulder and this part of the arm is closer to my the lens of the camera then the faces so it's it's just it's becomes larger and it starts competing for attention um okay now in this particular photograph I like the idea but I'm not crazy about the follow through first of all okay which is closer to the lens of the camera we just talked about this a minute ago you see how that shoulder and the shoulder has as much light on it as the face does that's number one so you want to turn her body one where the other c when she pull you pull that shoulder up you put weight and that's got that pressure on that shoulder it's going to really draw attention to it and then because it's closer to the lens and it's going to of course be a bit of a distraction but the rial area that's really bothering me here is the flat light and the sharp crisp depth of field it looks like it was photographed about f ate so everything is in focus the leaves aeryn focus and she's and focus in the backgrounds and focus there's so many things and focus they draw my eye away from the subject what I would recommend doing is taking your flash off your camera bringing it to the side and using that that's that speed line if you're going to use the speed light and it looks like it's a tiny light source to you know see the little catch likes in the ice how tiny they are so that means it's going to be very hard light source so if they move that speed light off camera and brought it about forty five degrees so that it crossed her body it would definitely give a more of a direction of light which would be a bit more flattering the other thing that that that bothers me is that with all of these leaves right here right in her face because they're not soft they compete and they're so sharp they compete for attention so I'd love to see the maker you know let's have you do redo this kind of an image and I want you to take your next subject out into the similar environment use a smaller aperture like like like f two point eight or left our two point oh and focusing on the eyes change your direction of light make it a soft light source not a small hard light source and then let's see what they say if you don't like it better okay um I love the idea of this picture the follow through leaves me a little bit weak one of the things you have to be really careful is of hands coming out of nowhere now this actually this photograph probably would have looked much better and would be something that would be very appealing to us if we saw where it came from but because it's just stand it's right there like that cuts off right here in the a larger part of the forearm right here itjust is coming out of nowhere now the one thing I do like that the maker did is the fact that they have lit the subject from the back side so that the hand that we don't see the light's not on the backside of the hand and that's really a good thing so I liked the idea of where you're going I'd also like to see if you had I feel like the subject is standing a bit static it's like they're standing or they're sitting like this however if you had her leaning like that you see how creed there's energy flowing in this direction and because they've got all of this direction out here on the right hand side you feel like I feel like I want to see this subject kind of like I want to feel like they're engaged as it is I just feel it's a bit static but still a good attempt nice looks like there's nice detail on the highlights and in the shadows so I can't beat that okay um shut your eyes for again for a second and squint what's the first thing you see okay and what's the second thing you see how about her thigh is that the flattering part of the leg no so I like the idea of the photograph I like where you're coming from but I think your camera angle was not flattering first of all this is this really shows the importance of really paying attention to the angle that you're at because the photographer is shooting lower who's there down lower and the main lights coming in from over here they're highlighting this part of the leg is what I see first and it's it makes that part of her leg look much larger than this like I mean that leg looked at bigger the optical illusion is this leg looks ginormous compared to this one so it doesn't it looks and that's one of that's what's really bothering me is that this leg looks so much larger because it's in the light it's absolutely lit this way and because of the camera angle that the fish are the photograph from it's making that leg look even bigger so I would change my camera position I just tell you what I do like is this young lady has great abs and has a great shape I like the way that you have that you've you photographed in such a way that you have you see that definition and heard her her muscles in her stomach right there but her face is way too small see how tiny her head looks in comparison to her bust and her waist right here and so the camera angle is what's really tearing me it would dock me in this particular photograph so you want to really think about before you snap that shutter before you press the shutter and take a picture I want you to squint for a minute when you do that make it a habit to just go like this and look because the reason you squint by the way is because when you squint you don't see the literal thing you see just a shape and that will tell you immediately where your your flaws are and where your areas of weakness are okay and if you do that you'd immediately we see from this camera angle that that fyi he's got way too much light on it way too much light on it okay okay first of all I love the context of this picture and I put this in for a very specific reason and that's that sometimes there are photographs that come along that that because they are quirky um they kind of defy the rules and I think this is one of them one of the things I liked about this picture was the random nature of these guys and yet there are pyramid shapes pyramid shape here pyramid shape here and pyramids are very very pleasing to us we like them they make us feel secure if you go shopping in any department store you see threes you see perfume bottles in triangular shape you say makeup and triangular shape lots of elements in our daily life are are put together in threes it's it's complete it just feels right and so depose in the triangular shape composition works and it feels balanced however on and the thing I also like as I love that guy the top who's stretching across because he kind of completes that that feeling right there in the area that's making me that is pulling me away there are two areas that bother me number one I'd want to tone down these these bright spots right here because they absolutely command your attention there they are absolutely what the subject is about cause they grabbed my attention the second area that that bothers me is this right here this tree just kind of is just messy right where it is at and sometimes you don't have a choice so yuk I would go in and get rid of that tree I'll just get rid of it in photo shop and by the way that is an absolute dumb easy trick to get rid of if you use if you go into photo shop make a layer of your of your of your pictures so that you're not working on the original then go to the clone stamp tool and in the lighten mode light and mod go in and what happens when you use the light mode on ly the dark pixels are affected so that means you can go on in the light mode and you could just basically a race is very very fast very very fast it's easy peasy two d'oh okay but I like the I think the photographs interesting and I find it you know I like the I think it's got interest okay um I pulled this one for a very good reason look at how strong how awkward those shoulders air looking there's no base to the neck there's no neck there's just like the head is on the shoulders so it looks a bit awkward it's also a very very small light source so this is actually this is outdoors too so you could easily do some great things outside a zoo I mentioned before used the scrim you can use that outside you can use the the white side of the reflector and bring it in closer so that you can have you can fill in that face and you can drop down that background a little bit um the other thing that you can do is if you turn her body a little bit more towards the camera this way I would feel more comfortable seeing just a tad maura I just felt a little awkward but I do like the expression on her face I think she looks very sexy and I like the tone ality of the background in the foreground and it looks very pretty for her and shows her eyes beautifully okay um where is the subject where's the subject okay if you squint and shut your eyes the real picture is the fur you see because there's too much light on the fur there's so much light on the for that it's it's pulling my eye away from her head and because her arm there's no gap between her arm and her head it looks makes it makes that area look bulky and big so you want to be really careful when you put some his hand up like their their hair right here like this you want to have a gap between here and here if you don't it's going to look like one big blob and that's the same concept when you're posing a girl you want to show off her waist you need a little bit of space because if the arms are right next to the body it all becomes one part of one big piece and so it's not quite a splattering I'm sure though that the client loved a picture she looks absolutely beautiful but I'm also thinking that you know what this photograph could really benefit from a little bit of cropping what about that because I mean I love showing the fact that it is a fur but now I actually see your face I don't see her face here so right there I'd crop it a bit but still a very nice attempt she looks lovely and nice soft lighting on her very pretty I love the idea don't like the follow through um can you see the baby I mean it I mean I'm sure that this is a lovely mother with her baby but where is what do you see what is the big thing that you see yeah but I see your hand see that's all I see is that hand and this story is not about that hand it's about that beautiful beautiful baby so the first thing you can do is turned this is a good example of watching where the hands are with hand is on the back of the babies but this way bring it like that and even if you have to tuck the thumb underneath a little legs right there this is looking like a like right out of the chute baby even a brand new baby this could be a very nice way you could start showing off a little bit of contouring on the baby the other thing I would do is I would bring that baby out like this so that I can see what it isi right now I see the back of the crown of the baby's head and that's not bad to show the crown because I think that's really sweet but still right in here then you see the mother and then you see that beautiful baby right in here with you absolutely gorgeous um and I pulled this one up because I liked the idea and I love the fact that mom and dad are holding his hand and I love context and the context that shows how little that little baby is that a horrible little kiddo with mom and dad shows context I like the fact that they're cropped but I think that you've got him turn the wrong way I would have turned in the other way and I don't know what was in this direction but still if you photographed at a low camera angle like this and you shallow depth of field more than likely you could still remove any distractions by blurring it out and you get a better you'd have a more flattering light on that little boy's face because the light's coming from over here to slip him around so that the light is behind him and then you'll get this nice little these areas right here that will bounce the light back up into your little child's face so it could be very very nice I love the expression that that is very good um and this is one I loved the expression on this little baby focal length of lenses really important because they're using a wider angle of the lens is very close to this child look how large the hand looks it's very much competing for attention I that doesn't necessarily bother me though because little kids in their hands it could be actually kind of cute you know look at that cute little hands look watch out from where the horizon lines intersect with the face that's that's a real big thing you want to be really careful because whenever you have a horizontal line that runs into a face that's something you don't want to do okay so now we're going to switch gears do we have any questions from our audience or from you all hear about any of the critiques we did so there are several folks who were watching whose photos yours critiqued and they all said thank you very much so glad you guys got to tune in for that question from fashion tv is what are your what is your view on chopped hands great question my view of chopped hands it does not bother me in the least bit as long as there's something going on in the face if there's magic here then that that's one of those editorial decisions that's like okay you can get over it it's ok it's not it's not like oh my god you know I won't die like the picture that gentlemen we saw where the light was real strong on both sides of his cheeks his hands were cropped off but it wasn't like oh my god I'll die it wasn't that there wasn't a huge issue because there was so much strength in the face I will tell you if you're going to enter competition don't crop off the joints like that you don't want to crop it below the elbow like this or crop off hand um you don't want to do that you don't want to cut it at a joint like that just not good they don't like judges don't like that and they will absolutely doc you points for that um any other questions yes go ahead I had a fellow question about hands in that last one where the family was walking naturally it seems like on the outside the hands will just kind of do something on mom and dad like they'll just either like there was one that was kind of fist like how do you have people relax their hands cause way no they catch a lot of light that's a great question well one of the things that I think is really important to do with children with their hands is I love to have the child take the hand not the not the parents so in other words as long as it's in a safe environment of course but I'll say the parents hey don't don't take your child by the hand get him to hold your hand a finger because that to me feels more real what a child would you just hold your you know your index finger haven't hold one of your fingers and then I think that's much more meaningful than just grabbing the hands but again if there is expression in the face you don't notice the hands it's not even important but if there's not a lot going on in the face then that's all you see okay you know more quick question for from organs whatever your thoughts on logos in the photos are they a distraction or can they take away from the portrait yes logos can be very much a distraction what we tried to have people do I'm not a little you know the little fashion police I don't you know I don't get real hard core on clients and we don't keep wardrobe I wouldn't dream of having wardrobe for clients I just I do bring lots of fabric I do have lots of fabrice for them but I don't do I don't like like you know having little perfect clothes for them to wear because I wanted to be really I wanted to be who they are I do these are the real big things that I tried to get them tio um that we want to avoid we want to avoid bold stripes or plaid tze and bulky sweaters those are the big things and I want everyone in the same family in other words in the same intensity so I wouldn't want to have everybody wear dark colors and have one person where white because all you're going to see is that one person wearing white clothes so I just we tell them to have a body in the same family long sleeves are better than short sleeves or half sleeves on especially for mature women we would like to have them wear long sleeve because itjust tends for mature women to make their arms look it's a it's a nicer look for the arm to have them to have a long sleeve so if I have a choice I would have them where all long sleeves that I don't like to have people too matchy matchy because that's really passe and very outdated I mean you know in the eighties we had all these people that are like you know they're all were blue shirts and or white shirts and khaki pants and it was like ok we already been down that path it's done you know so it's it's a little bit just to a little bit hard core in my opinion in some parts of america it's still very much appropriate what you do in the south you would absolutely have everybody match all we're the same you know the word something tones of clothing in california we're a little bit more loosey goosey about that and finally could you reiterate again with the horizon line this is for oh dane thank you for dame in that one of those last photos where would you put the horizon line with regard to the head okay I want the horizon line either above the head or below the head preferably above the head because it cuts that what happens is the horizon cuts a picture in half so this is a really good one of the best things that you could do this is a great even when you're outside photographing get your stepladder or get down on the ground and you can really change where the horizon lines are and it's okay haven't like through the body you just don't want to cut through the neck through the head like that because it's like it cuts that picture right there it'll cut it and it it doesn't look very pleasing so so if you are like if you're on the beach and things like that I would either get higher up when I'm on the beach shooting I definitely bring my ladder to the beach because I want that horizon line way up here I want to see it I want to see the ocean and see the water but I don't want it to intersect the picture because think about it the water is darker and the sky is tends to be a little lighter right so guess what if you have your subject in between those two those two dynamics then you've got cut it's cutting the picture right in half so you know it's not like you're not gonna get cancer if you do it but it's better not to have to let this arise in line show