asakusa, tokyo
My friends and I are fans of the Perfect Picture School of Photography for a number of reasons, one of which are the weekly critiques that the instructors give and the comments other students leave when we post up our images. They are an integral part of our learning and advancement of our craft. Assignments are distributed on Fridays and we have about 10 days to submit our images for our instructors to critique. If you are lucky, students will post their images early and instructors will provide feedback and you can digest the information and use it to make a better image for your own submission. The most difficult part of feedback can be finding places like this where you can receive an objective, respectful review of your work. Show your latest images to your family and friends and chances are they will love them. That may be good for the ego but as artists we need to also have constructive critiques if we are to improve. This includes feedback on composition, technique and post-processing.
Last week the image above was submitted to the Weekly Image Critique on the Pixelated Image Forum. Here is what a couple of people had to say:
I like this. It makes me wonder what’s on the profile girl’s mind (girl on the right). She seems a little bored with the whole thing. I like the isolation of the subject. No background distractions. Nice lighting on her face. Clearly, the girl on the left is the focus of this shot. The girl on the right points you right there. Where I have a bit of concern is the primary focal-point seems to be a bit soft. The supporting girl seems to be the point of focus and more sharp than the other. I think I would like this even more as a portrait with just the girl on the left. The look on her face is a bit odd…contemplative, or maybe even mildly amused that someone is taking her picture?
It’s a nice photo. The black background seems slightly out of place to me (based on the photo and not the background info). I’d have preferred a background that put the two girls into some kind of environmental context other than a studio look. As for look, this photo for me is about the right girl’s look. I’d call the photo “Really?’. She has that, “Did you really just say that?” look.
These comments are helpful because they talk about the emotional reaction of these viewers. The critiques are balanced and discuss not only the strongest elements but also what can be done to improve the image. I consider these comments a gift–thanks Mike and Jeffrey.
Here are a few other places to submit your work and get feedback–Flickr, The Travel Photographers Network, Zack Arias, and Photo.net. Take the plunge, upload your work, and receive your gift!
P.S. Some more feedback folks…this is from David duChemin and demonstrates so clearly why we need to put our work out there to improve our skills. Thanks David!
Sabrina – I’ll go with the rest of the comments and add this – the background isolates them, and I like that. I like the sideways glance. What is missing is a moment. There’s no connection. If the girl looking at you had burst out laughing, or looked sternly at you, that would have been a moment that brought connection. As it is, without a real emotional hook I feel like the image is only half-way there. But to get an image half-way takes a lot of work all on it’s own, so don’t take this harshly. I just think there’s a missing element and that, for me, is a moment to provide emotional hook. And a little more depth of field would be nice 
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