Critique Evening September 2019

Our meeting 26th September was a night where we invited members to submit a number of images to receive critique. Initially four images were to be allowed, but because of the high number of submissions this was reduced to three per person.

The club is lucky to have Steve Myall as a member, who was persuaded by the committee to provide some of his vast knowledge, gained from entering countless Exhibitions and Salons, and from being a judge for competitions both locally and nationally, to help fellow members improve their photos.

The brief for Steve was to look at the images and provide some thoughts on how the images may be improved for entry into club or other competitions. His comments were well received and he made clear that there is a difference between images that we might like for putting up on the wall at home and those that might do well in competition, and that just because he was suggesting a crop or some dodging and burning, it didn’t mean the image was a bad one.

Below are a selection of images that Steve looked at together with some of the hints and tips he provided. Due to the number of entries it isn’t possible to add them all here, but remember some of the key points Steve mentioned, like looking for bright areas around the edges and make sure sections aren’t burnt out. Also look at the image to see if there is too much negative space – one tip being cover up the main focus point and if the rest of the image doesn’t’ have any interest, then do you need it?

If you would like any further feedback on your images on the night then please have a chat with Steve at one of the future meetings.

Steve suggested that cropping in closer would get rid of the distracting Subway sign and the man in the hi-viz jacket whilst focusing in on the blue and white elements.
Here Steve felt that whilst the white lane divider was part of the image, it was too bright and perhaps needed cloning out or darkening down.
Steve felt that the image had a bit of a colour cast that would need correcting and that the main interest was in the Autumn colours at the bottom and it would benefit from losing some of the sky.
With this image, the white area indicated was a distraction. Under the new rules for competitions this could possibly be cloned out. However Steve did warn that for Nature we need to ensure we read and adhere to the rules.

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