View Poll Results: I (the LF forum user)...

Voters
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  • ... would be happy if I took such photo

    12 34.29%
  • ... would be unhappy if I took such photo

    15 42.86%
  • ... would be happy if someone took such photo of me

    11 31.43%
  • ... would be unhappy if someone took such photo of me

    7 20.00%
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Thread: Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

  1. #1

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    Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

    I hope that it is ok to ask for critique of specific images. Moderators, please let me know, I would like not to violate any rules of the forum...

    I would appreciate any thoughts you have about this image and/or a simple click on the poll buttons.



  2. #2

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    Re: Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

    This was taken with Kodak Ektar 202mm on Graphic View 4x5

  3. #3

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    Re: Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

    Not sure what kind of critique you are looking for. Technical? Compsition? Aesthetics? Does the pic depict what it was meant to?

    IMO, focus and OOF balance is kinda cool. Clarity of detail is good. Tonal balance is acceptable levels.
    What is the picture about? There is nothing that ties the picture to anything. To me, it appears as a snapshot, meaningful only to the person taking it, and the person in the pic. Was he hit by a truck? Fall off a bicycle? Bad rugby matchup?
    Trying to critique as opposed to criticize helps if you know what it is you are looking at.
    What with and where was it shot? Is this 35mm, or 11X14?
    Details, please.

  4. #4

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    Re: Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

    How did you get to photograph Tiger Woods' older brother? : - )

    I'm not a portrait guy but it looks good to me and I would have been proud to have made the photograph. If I were making it after having seen yours I think I think I would have removed the necklace chain. The chain is the brightest thing in the photograph and the first thing my eye went to. I'm not sure about the head placement, partly because I can't see the entire photograph at once on my monitor, but I might have framed it so that his eyes were a little closer to the top (i.e. a little less background above his head). But I don't know, these are things someone more experienced with portraits than I am can talk about better than I can, I thought it was a very effective and interesting portrait.
    Brian Ellis
    Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
    a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

  5. #5
    Abuser of God's Sunlight
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    Re: Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

    I'm not a portrait guy either--- one reason is that it's outside my comfort zone.

    i voted that i'd be happy to take such a picture. not so much because i think it's a "good" picture, whatever that means--i like the picture, but i'm increasingly wary of things that automatically look like "good shots."

    i'd be happy to have taken it because it represents a kind of open, human rapport between the artist and the subject ... a connection that's more of a challenge (or at least a more interesting challenge) than the purely photographic ones.

    one day i'd like to take on a portrait project.

  6. #6

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    Apr 2007
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    Re: Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

    I'm a wedding/portrait photographer by profession so please excuse my opinion.

    The photo has too much empty space above the head that doesn't serve any useful purpose. The lighting is bad, needs fill flash and has no separation from the background (far too flat). As a portrait the shoulders are slumped, the pose too flat on. It is not off center enough for that to be part of the composition or on center enough to work. As an enviromental portrait the picture tells me nothing about the context.

    Sorry.

  7. #7
    Abuser of God's Sunlight
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    Re: Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

    Quote Originally Posted by Ben R View Post
    The photo has too much empty space above the head that doesn't serve any useful purpose. The lighting is bad, needs fill flash and has no separation from the background (far too flat). As a portrait the shoulders are slumped, the pose too flat on. It is not off center enough for that to be part of the composition or on center enough to work. As an enviromental portrait the picture tells me nothing about the context.
    this is why i'm increasingly uninterested in "good shots."

    it's always a cover for saying an image complies with a bunch of rigid, predetermined standards. in other words, it means that it looks like a lot of stuff you're used to looking at and liked, so it must be good.

    trouble is, there are so many "good shots" that are empty and pointless, and so many great works of art that specifically fail at complying with old and hardened standards.

    when someone tells my one of my pieces is "good," 9 out of 10 times they're giving it the thumbs up as a successful cliche; they're not looking at what the work actually shows them; what it points to; how well it says what it says.

  8. #8

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    Re: Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

    Quote Originally Posted by Ben R View Post
    I'm a wedding/portrait photographer by profession so please excuse my opinion.

    The photo has too much empty space above the head that doesn't serve any useful purpose. The lighting is bad, needs fill flash and has no separation from the background (far too flat). As a portrait the shoulders are slumped, the pose too flat on. It is not off center enough for that to be part of the composition or on center enough to work. As an enviromental portrait the picture tells me nothing about the context.

    Sorry.
    Just remember.... You ask. So... try to seperate the critiques from the criticisms. (even a cow has enough sense to chew up and swallow the hay, and spit out the sticks )
    Concur with Ben. Mostly. The general stance of the individual fits with the overall appearance. Slump shoulders and all. Not sure about fill-flash. IMO it would detract from the "agonized" look in his face. At second look, with the railings in back and the type clothing, he looks like a jockey thtat just got tossed over the rail. . Comments in my earlier reply still hold, but to go a little further. Even in a "casual" "for me only" shot, I still have the "rule of thirds" stuck in my head. As Ben stated, lose about half the empty space above the head. Move the subject left and up to do so. Don't crop at the joints. Put his elbows and left arm back in the pic.

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Jun 2002
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    9,487

    Re: Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

    It needs something... it is just kind of boring unless you know the guy.

  10. #10

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    Re: Request for critique (or a simple poll about a specific image)

    Thank you all for your responses. Several of you mentioned the awkward cropping. Would something like this work better?


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