Developing a Critical Eye

Shane McKeon

Before You Begin

Before you successfully begin your own work it is helpful to critique the work of other photographers

When critiquing a photo all the various components are evaluated: good, bad, or indifferent

Criticizing is different than critiquing. Criticizing is pointing out the negatives while when critiquing it is a balance of both negative and positive

Critique Sessions

Critique session- or “crit”

A very valuable tool for photographers

Involves a group of people who carefully examine a selection of photographs

Primary purpose- group analysis

Wen critiquing ask yourself three basic questions: What is good about it? What is not good? How could it be better?

Want to train your eye and learn to see clearly

Benefits of group critique: You can more fairly judge someone else's work rather than your own because you're not as close to it

Evaluating a Print

When evaluating a photo most people don’t know where to start and begin by saying whether they like it or not

Tend to like a photograph if they like the subject that is being photographed or visa versa

A photographer wants to move away from one’s personal likes and dislikes and move toward seeing the technical, objective factors and evaluate them

Essential distinction is between Style and Standards

Style: Largely a personal matter. Overtime a photographer develops a personal individual style

Each photograph also has a style of its own, a mood or interpretation. In the best photographs the style is consistent, resulting in a clear image

Skill is the key in Standards and they can be judged objectively

Four Basic Factors

Value, Clarity, Composition and Presentation

Ideally the photograph will score well on each of these factors or be overall successful

Value

Value concerns light- specially the Range of light in the photograph: black to shades of white and gray

The more contrast a photo has (the wider range between its dark and light elements) the greater its value impact will be

Although don’t be blind to photos always having contrast. A photo with all grays and no whites or black could be effective.

One must be able to distinguish between good and bad grays

Muddy grays: can result from under exposing, under developing, using an incorrect paper grade, over- exposing the print or removing it from the developer too soon

Improving Value Once one has determined that the photograph is weak the next question is “How could it be better?”

The most common mistakes are made when the photograph is being taken

Too little light: a dark muddy print

Too much light: highlights (while ares) to be “washed out” or “burned out”

How the film was handled can also effect the value of the pictures- keeping the film in the developer for too long or too short of time can result in complications with lighting and contrast

Anther factor is the paper one uses. Paper grades allow the opportunity to adjust the contrast up or down when making a print

Clarity A key factory is clarity. But not just whether or not the photograph is in focus but whether it is correctly focused.

A subject can be either soft or sharp

Sharp: all edges are very clearly defined

Soft: the edges blur a bit

A good way to treat this is to determine which objects will be sharp, leaving other in softer focus- leads the viewers eye to a focal point and makes the photo resemble normal sight

Clarity also depends on having an appropriate shutter speed and an appropriate contrast between the subject and the background

See how the smaller branch in the front of the picture is in clear focus and the tree in

the background is blurry

Clarity (cont.)

The relationship between the subject and background in a photograph has something to do with light and value with line and with composition

Common mistakes: Photographing a dark image with a dark background

If a subject in a photo is clear enough is can provide a context or setting

Improving Clarity

Focus is common cause of poor clarity

Generally caused by a failure to set the correct distance on the focusing ring

As the amount of available light decreases the photographer can deal with this is two ways:

The shutter speed can de decreased or the aperture can be increased

Aperture is increased- the lens get larger and the depth of field, or range of distance that will be in focus at any time, decreased

Something will always be in focus it just may not be in the frame of the camera. The trick is to carefully focus as you use larger apertures

Third cause of poor clarity: As the shutter speed decreases, the chances of blurring a picture increases

May be caused my “camera shake”

Presentation

The third factor to look for is the care and skill in which the final print has been produced

Pay attention to how clean the picture looks

Look for satellites, glitches, scuzz, hickies or glop (stuff on the negative that should not be there)

Also include fingerprints, scratches and dark circles

Neatly trimmed edges, squared corners and proper adhesion

Composition Point of Interest

Is there a point of interest? Does something stand out? A photograph should have a clear point of interest- a dominant element

Usually the point of interest should be close to the center although not directly in the middle of the frame

Cropping

After identifying the structure of the photograph consider the way it is framed

Is it “tight”- is the frame filled with important elements or is there wasted space

Black areas or negative space can enhance the picture’s impact but should also interact with the central image in some way

Keep the frame clean and simple. Narrow in on whats important

Composition (cont.)

A photo also has to have overall balance

Is it top heavy, lop sided, boring?

Can be balanced in two ways: Static or dynamic

Static balance just sits there but can be quite effective

Common way if achieving static balance is to weight the composition or concentrate its point of interest near the center

Dynamic balance suggests movement

Achieved by weighting the composition away from the center, toward one side or the other, or toward the corners

Lines

The lines and curves within a composition often have a tremendous effect on its impact

A single line can “pull” or “point” the viewers eye toward or away from the point of interest

Aesthetics

Finally “style”- the elusive something that makes the difference between a skillful photograph and genuine art

Sometimes a photograph can lack elements but work or visa vera

A good way to start is to master the techniques of producing consistently good photographs, and to train your eye to recognize the great ones that will eventually come alone.

Sample CritThe picture of the boy on the right demonstrates an equal and good balance of light. I feel like the picture has a medium size range and contrast of its whites, blacks and grays. Although it may contain more white seeing how the boys face, hair and upper right corner are very white compared to the rest of the image

When looking at the clarity one can see that this picture is more soft, seeing how the edges blur a bit with the background

The presentation of the photo is well done overall. Although there is a mark going from the top of the lip down to his jacket that may or may not have been able to edit out

I feel like there is a clear point of interest and the photograph does not contain wasted space

The slight tilt and not having the boys face to be centered add a certain style that pulls the viewers eyes to him

Photo credits to The Photographic Eye Book

This photo demonstrates a more white than black and gray contrast

The clarity of this photo is that it is more soft than sharp because the edges of the people blur into the white background.

The presentation of the photo is good overall seeing how there are no scratches or mark on the picture that should not be there

I feel like there is a clear point of interest in the photo. Even though there are three people in this picture the focus is on the baby. I feel like the way the father is holing the boy up draws attention to the child.

Photo credits to Picture People family photography portfolio

This photo has a clear balance of contrast between the colors in the image

I feel like this picture is more sharp because the flowers’ edges are clear and crisp. Even though the background is blurry it draws more attention to the clear edges of the leaves

The presentation of the picture is good because there are no visible marks or imperfections

The photo has a clear point of interest due to the blurry background and vibrate colors in the bouquet, drawing attention to the flowers.

Photo credits to Jennifer Angeloro wedding photography

WORKS CITIED Angeloro, Jennifer. "Wedding Photography Gallery." Wedding Photography Gallery - Jennifer Angeloro Photography. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2013.

"Family." Picture People. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2013.

O'Brien, Michael, and Norman Sibley. The Photographic Eye: Learning to See with a Camera. Worcester, MA: Davis Publications, 1995. Print