Who doesn't want to be able to take better photos? With seemingly everybody taking more pictures than ever I thought it would be a good idea to post a diary in which folks can openly discuss and critique photos. DK user Ooooh and I have been discussing the possibilities and possible benefits of such a diary. I think we could learn to take better photos by sharing our opinions and inviting constructive criticism. I suppose I should really stress the constructive of constructive criticism. If this devolves into just another Sux versus Rox pie fight I'll take my ball and go home. Look carefully at each photo. Try to notice things like what points draw your attention, how your eye moves around the piece. Many things like contrast and brightness, the color saturation of the work-- are harder to critique because we're each looking at a different screen with different settings and capabilities. Such aspects may be worth noting in your comments because they will have affected your perception of the work, but I think the main focus of our attention should be on composition. Many of us have learned helpful tips that should be shared.
So, what I imagine we could do is this:
1) Somebody (perhaps a fuzzy-headed somebody) posts a diary to the Shutterbugs queue and gives it the "Critique" tag.
2) Anybody (I suppose anybody with at least blog editor status with the group) can then add a photo to the diary-- this can be done anonymously by embedding the photo from a photo hosting site.
3) After the diary has been in the queue for a couple of days a blog administrator or the original person who posted the diary to the queue would then publish the diary.
4) Then everyone can comment on the photos, make suggestions on how to improve them or call attention to aspects of the photo that they think were handled particularly well.
I thought I'd begin by posting one of my own photos up here in the Intro. You can click through it to the full resolution image on Flikr. This is just the raw image straight from my little
Sony Cybershot. Not a very fancy camera, but it does offer a fair amount of manual control for something that I can fit in my pocket.
I keep looking at this photo and thinking that it could be cropped into something more dramatic. Can you see how you might have approached this subject differently?
Below the little ginger hairball I hope you'll add more photos to this diary. I'd like to leave it in the queue without a fixed publishing time for a couple of days.
Inspired by Marko's subject matter (Ooooh here) I am adding two photos. The first is a wide shot which I think could be better, the second a tighter photo of the same prospect intended to get rid of the parts I didn't like in the wider shot. I think the the second shot is less interesting than the first! (shrugs shoulders)
Gadriella setting BlueJessamine down for a serious chat. Curtains open and movement. Any advice for photographing cats?
Two shots by BlueJessamine. Window at night. Both snapped with a Smartphone and no flash. This one with light from another room.
Less light from another room and the photographer blind as bat without some light. Framing off! The room is a small bathroom. Not a whole lot space to work with.
Animal Photos:
From Ojibwa: the problem is often to get the subject to cooperate with you. Then comes the problem of cropping--how much of the background should be left in and what should be cropped out.