I'm new.. be gentle!! C&C

[pgriz]

Warning - long post ahead.

1) Looks like setting-sun light, but a bit on the dark side. Subject is a guy taking a picture of a dark object that could be about to swallow him. Guy in the back is saying UH-oH. If a picture is supposed to say a thousand words, what would this picture say? What would you want us to come away with?
2) T-shirt is well exposed, but not the person’s face. Again, what’s the compelling story you want us to read from this image? If it was the photographer’s concentration, then you’d want to crop a lot closer and fill the frame with the camera and his face.
3) The horizon at an angle is an interesting idea. The focus is on the person, the background is out of focus. There is a miniature person walking below the guy’s chin, and there is a leg sprouting out of your subject’s chest. Can’t see his face, so I don’t know what he is thinking or feeling. I’d also feel that the negative space behind your subject should have been placed in front of your subject .
4) Hmmm. Buncha guys walking away. Was it something you said? Is this a photographic record of shunning? Guess you can see where I’m going with this – what’s the story that needs to be told?
5) Nice T-shirt, good light on face, interesting pose.... but how does the tree growing out of the guy’s back helping the composition? I’d suggest either a lower angle to remove the distracting background, or a much more open diaphragm to really throw the background out of focus.
6) Interesting shot of the beverages, but the black silhouette and out-of-focus person in the background don’t contribute.
7) Nice lady, but the lighting rather harsh. You’ve amputated part of her knee, and threw in someone else’s body parts. Also, is she wearing the building as a hat? Perhaps you should have asked the dude to her right to help you by holding up a reflector that would bounce more light to the shadow side, and choose a lower angle to remove the building from the background...
8) That reflector would have been handy here as well. Again, having a tree grow out of his back isn’t helping. However, the low angle and the skewed horizon line have promise.
9) So, you were taking a picture of the car and this dude got in the way. If not, what’s the connection between him and the car? If there isn’t any, then how is the car contributing to the image?
OK, so maybe that was a little rough. If your goal was to take snapshots for the memories of a fine day, then it looks like you’ve succeeded. But if your goal is to tell a story or evoke emotion in people who don’t know the participants, then you have to control the subject composition and especially pay attention to all the other things in the picture that may muddle or confuse the message, or distract, or annoy. That means changing your angle of view to eliminate the distractions, using the appropriate depth of field to isolate your subject from the surroundings, and wherever possible use the light to direct our attention to what you want us to see. One very good photographer told me “snapshots are taken, but beautiful images are painstakingly constructed”.

 

[Derrel]

Warning - long post ahead.

1) Looks like setting-sun light, but a bit on the dark side. Subject is a guy taking a picture of a dark object that could be about to swallow him. Guy in the back is saying UH-oH. If a picture is supposed to say a thousand words, what would this picture say? What would you want us to come away with?
2) T-shirt is well exposed, but not the person’s face. Again, what’s the compelling story you want us to read from this image? If it was the photographer’s concentration, then you’d want to crop a lot closer and fill the frame with the camera and his face.
3) The horizon at an angle is an interesting idea. The focus is on the person, the background is out of focus. There is a miniature person walking below the guy’s chin, and there is a leg sprouting out of your subject’s chest. Can’t see his face, so I don’t know what he is thinking or feeling. I’d also feel that the negative space behind your subject should have been placed in front of your subject .
4) Hmmm. Buncha guys walking away. Was it something you said? Is this a photographic record of shunning? Guess you can see where I’m going with this – what’s the story that needs to be told?
5) Nice T-shirt, good light on face, interesting pose.... but how does the tree growing out of the guy’s back helping the composition? I’d suggest either a lower angle to remove the distracting background, or a much more open diaphragm to really throw the background out of focus.
6) Interesting shot of the beverages, but the black silhouette and out-of-focus person in the background don’t contribute.
7) Nice lady, but the lighting rather harsh. You’ve amputated part of her knee, and threw in someone else’s body parts. Also, is she wearing the building as a hat? Perhaps you should have asked the dude to her right to help you by holding up a reflector that would bounce more light to the shadow side, and choose a lower angle to remove the building from the background...
8) That reflector would have been handy here as well. Again, having a tree grow out of his back isn’t helping. However, the low angle and the skewed horizon line have promise.
9) So, you were taking a picture of the car and this dude got in the way. If not, what’s the connection between him and the car? If there isn’t any, then how is the car contributing to the image?
OK, so maybe that was a little rough. If your goal was to take snapshots for the memories of a fine day, then it looks like you’ve succeeded. But if your goal is to tell a story or evoke emotion in people who don’t know the participants, then you have to control the subject composition and especially pay attention to all the other things in the picture that may muddle or confuse the message, or distract, or annoy. That means changing your angle of view to eliminate the distractions, using the appropriate depth of field to isolate your subject from the surroundings, and wherever possible use the light to direct our attention to what you want us to see. One very good photographer told me “snapshots are taken, but beautiful images are painstakingly constructed”.

That Size 3 font makes your C&C seem more harsh...but you really do have a way of distilling the problems within each shot griz! Some of your comments were amusing, like the shunning one and the car getting in the way. We see,we literally "see" so,so many photos in a day, and yet so few people actually analyze and really look at images...when we stop and actually write out flaws or faults or inconsistencies and incongruities, a lot of people accuse the C&C giver of being "harsh"....but you know what, a C&C like yours takes a lot of effort, and in the end, might really help a young photographer to understand that what he or she sees might not necessarily translate to a viewer who was not at the scene. ANd that I think, is the true value of C&C--to allow photographers to learn what other people are actually,really,truly feeling and thinking when they look at the photos offered for C&C.