Reviewing each other's work. |
The public should be able to look our photos and tell us what they get out of a photo and therefore help us know if our intended message came across.
The advantage of a professional photographer who is further along in their journey than you is they can tell you if a photo is good or not, but can give you some tips on how they might improve the photo.Ground Rules:
1. Let your photos speak for themselves—Be Quiet2. Edit and show only your best
3. Have everything needed to show your work4. Get multiple opinions
5. Take the advice and change6. Go back and show them your changes
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Brad Moore critiques Deanna Santangelo's work.If the person reviewing the images ask for more information provide it. Too much information will actually hurt your critique. If you tell the person this is a photo where you were trying to illustrate friendship then the person will then say if it worked or not, but you really needed to know what it says to them when they have no information other than the photo.
Sometimes you might actually have a very strong photo that is a failure. It may be a successful photo in the audience likes the photo, but failed to deliver the message you were going for.Edit and show your best work will help the person reviewing your work. Showing too much work will weaken your portfolio rather than strengthen it. Your portfolio is to show your skills. You may have a collection of different subjects and/or a photo story. Either way each photo should be showing something different.
You only need one photo to show you know how to do something so make it your best effort. Your second photo should show something different about your abilities. Maybe the first photo was available light and the second one shows you know how to use flash. Your third might be shooting in a studio.Your photo stories need to work like a written story a beginning, middle and end. The beginning is often an establishing photo to help us know what the story is about. You need to vary the images from wide to medium and then close-up.
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Scott Kelby reviews a person's portfolio.Sometimes the best way to show your portfolio is in a book or prints. This way you are not relying on technology that could quit. Don't want that to happen on a once in a lifetime meeting.
Get multiple opinions before making changes to your work. If you show your work to 3 or more folks and they all say there is something wrong with a photo_then you know it needs to go. What will not be so consistent is what they might say as a way to improve that photo. One person may say to back up and another might say crop in closer.Take the advice and change. Go out and make the changes to your portfolio. Take the photos out that most everyone agreed need to come out. Go and crop the photos that need cropping.
Go back into Lightroom or PhotoShop and re-edit those photos that can be improved.Most of all take the advice to heart as you shoot your next photos. Watch the edges of the photo. Know what you want to say to your audience about the subject.
Go back and show your changes. Find those people and show them your revised portfolio after you have made the changes and shot some new material. See if you got what they were talking about. Often you will find out that you didn't fully understand what they were saying and by revisiting you will discover this.
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From the other side of the iPad here are talking points when reviewing a portfolio.
1) Look
First of all, take a close look at the photograph. Let your eyes scan it closely: Make sure that you’ve caught every possible detail of the photo. If something jumps out at you as being really good or really bad, note it, but don’t say anything
2) Interpretation
Now, talk about the photo for a little bit. This is the thing that is most frequently overlooked when doing critiques, but is actually one of the most useful things you can do to a photographer. For the interpretation, start off by saying “When I look at this photo, I feel…”. Explain what sort of emotional response the photo raises in you. Follow up with “I think this photo is about…”. Any symbolism you spot, tell the photographer. If you aren’t sure, let them know that.
3) Technical points
The next thing to take care of, is the technical points. Is the photograph technically okay? Did you spot challenges, is the exposure okay, is there any unwanted blur (wrong focus, motion blur, zoom blur etc)? Are the colors accurately represented? What’s the contrast like? Could the photographer have used lighting differently? Would a bigger or smaller aperture have been beneficial?
4) Artistic points
What do you think about the crop and aspect ratio? If the photo is in black and white, should it have been in color and vice-versa? Is there a good balance between the foreground and the background? Would the photo have worked better with a different prop / model?
5) Good points
This is where you point out what you like about the photograph, and why. The why bit is most important: If you can’t tell why you like X, Y, or Z, there’s no point in mentioning it. “I like the sky” is useless. “I like the color of the sky” is better. “I like the deep blue color of the sky because it contrasts nicely with the yellows and reds in the photo” is perfect. Put some thought into this.
6) Points worth improving
This point is saved for last, because you’ve made the photographer more confident about their photograph by now. It is still important to remember that the photo has been taken, and that this photo can’t really be changed anymore. As such, there’s no point in slating people for their photographs. Tell them one or two specific points that could be improved on this particular photo such as layering; emotion of subject; content/news value; overall storytelling and were you engaged and perhaps one or two points that you would have done differently, if you were the one taking the photograph. Remember to talk about multimedia and where it might pair with the visual package.
7) Overall
How did this photo appear to you overall?
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