Let's take a look at some of the best photographs for this critique and see what makes them work. I have organized them into small subgroups so we can get a better handle on what people are looking at, and more important, how they are looking.
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We start our journey out in nature where we have several landscape photographs.
The first photo by Jay may seem like a regular bunch of trees at first but the light is pretty extraordinary, in part because it is enhanced by a little bit of tonal tweaking. Maybe more important is that the bottom of the frame sits just barely above where the trees hit the ground, removing the horizon line. This is a subtle but very effective technique that adds tension to the shot.
The next photo, also by Jay, allows us to look further back into the picture space but then immediately blocks our view with the fence. Typically, photographs with the subject in the center do not work that well because there's nowhere for the eye to go, but in this case the fence blocking our view of the trail sets up a kind of psychological barrier. We can see where we want to go but we cannot get there. There is an expression about how the thing you can't have is the thing you want the most. This photo is just as much psychological as it is visual. The subtle warm tone enhances the photograph even further in both of these realms.
The next two photographs are by Kevin and work in the vertical mode using the 16:9 format that extends the space even further than usual. These two photos have a really old look and this effect is pushed further by the subtle blue tone that cools the photos down. Both photos play around with the contrast of foreground against background. The footprints in the snow in the second shot are particularly intriguing and add a secondary point of interest to the shot. They make we wonder if someone was walking away.
The next photo of the overlapping tree branches is also by Jay and is a great example of what I mean by Passive vs. Active shooting. This photograph is constructed in the photographer’s eye, set up by exactly where they stand and how close they are to the subject. If you had been standing next to her when she shot it, you would not have seen this. This reminds me of some of the abstract paintings by Franz Kline whose work is really extraordinary, but you really have to see it in person to grasp its intensity. If you can get your photographs to have the formal structure of a good painting then you are doing well. The light brown tone an extra feature is really beautiful, strong enough to have a visual and emotional effect yet subtle enough to be restrained.
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The next few shots combine trees and architecture to take us to a different place.
The next shot by Courtney has a unique upward glance with a strong diagonal in the foreground. This allows your eye to travel from the front to the back. The extra contrast add drama.
The next photo by Patty has us looking through a screen onto a snowy vista. This time we become aware of the photographer looking out the window. This is another example of a more active photographic view, even though it is still a pretty passive situation.
Allison take us out onto the street after the blizzard but what makes this a great photograph is that all the key energy is pushed up in the very top left corner. The horizon line is a little sliver along the top edge, parallel to the frame, and that adds visual strength. The lights in the very top corner have power even more power. It is good when something so small in the frame can have a strong visual effect.
Annie's photograph also uses that background horizon running parallel to the top edge to good effect. What's important here is that she got the foreground and focus and let the background go a little soft. Whenever you have an extreme foreground/ background situation it is better to get the foreground crisp and let the distance go a little soft. Otherwise people will just think the whole thing is out of focus.
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The next several photographs use empty sky as a major element. The first two are both by Mary.
Having a photograph that is 90% empty seems to break all the rules but this one is hysterical. Just the tops of those arches and one little spire on the opposite side... this is wonderful. Sometimes photographs can be a visual delight and need no further explanation.
This photo pushes the building down to the right-hand corner, giving it power, and the power lines etched into the sky become a strong graphical element. If enough of the spatial clues are removed then the visual space can get flattened. This is when photos start to take on the characteristics of drawings or paintings. [I was once instructed to squint at my photos and make drawing of the key lines and shapes in the frame. If I ended up with a nice drawing then the photo was well composed. Try it yourself.]
This photograph of wires by Jake is almost completely flat. The space again working more like a drawing rather than a photograph. The subtle gradation of the sky form top to bottom is smooth and subtle. The small vertical element on the right and the little curvy thing near the bottom take on greater relevance because everything else is so minimal. This is nicely done.
The next photographed by Francesca brings us down to reality, back onto the street. The strong visual element of the striped barrier plays against the brickwork in the background of the street itself. The top left corner has a pole that is perfectly parallel to the vertical edge of the frame yet the building on the right side seem slanted. This is a function of ‘camera vision’ and is the kind of thin people do not usually see just with their eyes. Beyond the pole in the top corner is a little white space that allows our eyes to escape out of the frame. These are very important elements even though they may seem minor at first. These are the kind of details you need to be paying attention to. Always look at the four corners of your frame to see how everything is sitting inside the rectangle.
This shot of the bicycle wheel is also by Francesca and uses the street in a different kind of way. Again we are given an obstacle to look through that changes the way we think about the space. The shot is from low down that opens the space up and makes us more aware of our point of view.
Another even tighter shot of another bike by Courtney almost transforms the bike into a piece of sculpture and yet the flatness of the picture space moves it even more towards being a painting. This is very strong toning but it works to great effect with this subject.
This photo by Jay plays with the brickwork to create interesting pattern. We have a window on one side and a doorway on the other that allow our eyes to bounce back and forth and keep the viewer engaged. Looking through these allows us to escape and move into the distance. It's a pretty bizarre place and I think we could spend time here.
The next shot by Jay is tight in and looking down and it makes the chair even more extreme. This is another active view that works well. The placement of the curves in this and the previous fame show us the kind of forms that Jay is drawn to. You will soon become aware of your own visual preference that you did not know you had. Once you come to this recognition, use it to make more photographs of similar form.
This photo looking out the door by Francesca has a similar downward glance but it is the lines of light cascading across the entire frame, from front to rear, and that makes it great. Our eyes can follow the light out the door and we can wander across the street and play with all the visual goodies out there. This makes us think that the photographer is sitting there looking. It puts us in their shoes (or inside their brain).
This vertical sliver of the window, also by Francesca, presents us with a similar viewing situation. This time the viewport is restricted from both edges in, which intensifies the view. This is the kind of consistency I was referring to in Jay’s photos.
This photo by Mayuko also sets up an active view through a doorway, across the room, and then out the window and across the street. There are a couple of people out there that become 'omake', the extra little added surprise. (That’s a Japanese word and concept that I teach to all my classes.) People can spend more time inside your photos when you give them multiple places to go and different people or things to contemplate.
Here's another example by Jake of really great light streaming into an empty space that amplifies the solitude. The cameras is a little bit lower and it opens up the space a bit more. Try to find spaces that your viewer can inhabit for a while. Then try to get them lit with extraordinary light. Ansel Adams would sit on top of a mountain for hours just waiting for the sunlight to hit just the right angle to make the perfect shadows!
In this photograph by Judith the light is working in the opposite direction. I am not going to call this a self-portrait and typically one tries to keep your shadow out of the frame but this one has a life of its own and almost reminds me of walking on the street with my friend (my shadow, of course). This shot just makes me feel comfortable.
This Photo by Mayuko also almost looks like it's picking up some inspiration from Cartier-Bresson. The street scene is great on its own but the people walking through the space actualize the scene. The icicles and snow in the dead of winter almost render a scene of destruction. [She reveals in her evaluation that there was a fire and all the ice came from that! The feeling of destruction does come through even though it is not evident. Somehow photos can carry hidden information without that info being in the visual frame. This is the magical power of photography.]
This nighttime shot by Judith also creates an intriguing space, only partially lit. It keeps you bouncing from one side to the other. I can stand here pondering what is going on in those dimly lit rooms in the distance.
The extraordinarily rich toning and this photo by Courtney takes the nighttime and intensifies it. The restricted space and upwards view is also intensifying. I don't know where I am or where I am going but looking at this photograph is almost like eating really rich chocolate cake. Can’t beat that!
This richly blue toned photo by Kat depicts fire they we usually think of as being hot, but this time it is cool. Sometimes taking photographs in the opposite direction of what is expected can be quite effective. The restrictive view and downward viewpoint are both very effective.
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These last two photographs move us to a more abstract approach. The next series of 10 photographs gets progressively more obscure and interesting.
The train pole (catenary) photo by Patty is taken from an oblique point of view that creates a geometric design. The trees growing sideways are part of the magic. The writing on the pole is also part of the graphic nature of the shot.
This photo by Mayuko offers us another fractured view of some unidentifiable space. The foreground has text that serves as a visual element and then the edge on the left side splits the frame yet allows us to view peer down a long hallway. We have no idea what is coming or going because it is hidden behind this structure. It is a tenuous situation, and again, tension is good in photographs.
The closest of view in this photo by Allison renders another set of graphical patterns. Nothing seems to be parallel or perpendicular here. And the little Hyundai logo in the middle makes it even more peculiar. Gravity is suspended by the limited viewpoint. This removes the clues with which we would define perspective.
This crossbeam by Mayuko also becomes abstracted because of the limitation caused by its closeness of view. The numbers are another text element that is more visual than meaningful.
Mayuko comes through again with a completely different collection of items; hoses and ribbon on a curb all bathed by beautiful light. The closeness of view and the way things are cut by the edge of the frame make them even more visual and beautiful even though it is not pretty stuff in and of itself. This is another painting in the making.
Be subdued light in this photograph by Patty renders what could be an ordinary chain-link fence into a beautiful pattern of curves and reflected light. The warm brown toning is what makes this really beautiful.
This little piece of wall, also by Patty, is even less defined and let's our imagination take over. Again, warm brown toning is a major factor.
This almost blank shot by Courtney is just moisture on a wall with some white light reflected off the right-hand side. It is very simple yet very beautiful. Just the combination of water and light and warm brown toning is enough.
Another water picture by Kevin is this time, water on a window that we can look through, yet the background is not what is in focus, so we are left to ponder. This evokes the viewer’s imagination.
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Now, geometrical patterns move us from places and things into the world of people.
Mary give us a whimsical photograph of eyes peeking through a landscape. It is interesting that the eyes are looking past us. I wonder what would happen if the eyes were looking straight back at us. That might be too intense.
Here Jay has a shadow pattern running across her face that is interesting. The way the expression on the persons face interacts with what else is happening the frame that makes the real intensity. I wonder if she is anticipating something scary happening or just dreaming. Maybe we watch too many scary movies. [Do you know how many people we watch get killed every day on TV?]
Here again we see Jay as an actress. The look of fear or anticipation on the face is more apparet than in the previous frame, and it becomes startling. The light sepia tone takes us back to the 1940s. This is almost a Hitchcock film still.
Francesca gives us a 3/4 portrait in soft light. Her gaze is just past us. The warm yellow–brown tone softens the look even more.
The contrasty and grainy black-and-white effect in this photo by Courtney takes us off in the other direction. It is way more gritty and the expression is much more intense. Cutting the face just above the high intensifies the expression.
This stark black-and-white photo by Kat has a similar structure. One eye is covered and the other is looking back at us rather intently. This is also a striking portrait.
This close up by Mary has her looking down and away from us and it becomes just as much about the texture of hair and material. Still, the doorway in the background provides us a little bit more information and puts her character in a context. It makes us wonder about what may happen next. This is a nice addition.
The last photo by Patty is nicely warm toned with a little bit of reddish color in it. The face is split almost down the middle. The texture of the hair against the scarf is wonderful and the gaze looks off to the side with a little bit of sparkle in her eye.
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notes:
In the Comments, many people discussed the structure of the blog in the ‘construction’ sections. It would be more helpful if we shifted these comments to the structure of the photographs themselves. Although, in this first round, these comments were really helpful to get the bogs designed in a consistent fashion.
Lets keep the recipes all together at the bottom of the blog. Placing them after every photograph starts to compete for our attention. This is why we do not see artist statements on the walls of galleries, but rather, at the front desk in a booklet about the artist and their work.
You also have to go and check your blog on a computer to make sure that all of the photographs are links. Clicking on any photograph in your blog should open up a new viewing window where the first photograph appears very large and all the other photographs are along the bottom in a thumbnail view. This mode allows you to scroll through all of your photos using the arrow keys, then you can see them at the larger scale. This is where I grab your photos for my ‘Teaching Tips’ feedback blog. If I grab them off of the regular blog view I get smaller files. If your photograph does not link to this view page I cannot get your larger resolution photo.
Speaking of resolution, I am a little bit worried about the lack of resolution of some of these files. Always double check the size that your phone is putting out. Some apps really reduce the resolution and that's not such a good thing. 1200 x 1600 pixels should be the smallest file.
A couple of people did not include their POW photo in their Self Evaluation. You can go back and paste that it, so we have it for reference.
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This was a strong beginning. I hope you realize that one of the main reasons for working first in B&W is because shooting in Color is often distracting when trying to learn about the form of a photograph The ideas about Framing and Composition are much easier to grasp in a monochrome series. It is now important to remember all of these lessons when adding color on top.
happy shooting - - -
