I'd love some critique~

[Michaela]

Hey there. 🙂 I’ve been following this website for a while now and recently signed up for the forums. Currently, I don’t receive much critique and I would love to hear from you guys. You can find some of my photos here: http://michaelaforbus.daportfolio.com/

 

I’m a high school student right now, and I plan on pursuing photography as a long term career. I generally prefer nature photography, but I’m pretty open to everything right now. I use a Canon T4i with the kit 18-55 and 55-250 lenses right now, thought I’m saving up for the 50mm 1.8 and an extension tube so I can play around with macro. 🙂

[cass335]

Alrighty here is my opinion:

Animals/Nature:  I like the first peacock, the cat (a lot..great lighting, clarity, and comp), and the last snake. The 2nd peacock seems snapshot-ish, and the tail blends into the surroundings. The 1st snake photo seems a bit warm, and I am not a huge fan of the large blurry rock, it is distracting.

Scenes:  The boardwalk would be better if there was definition or clouds in the sky. I like the simplicity of the second photo and the composition. 3rd photo appears to be tilted which I suspect is from the angle it was shot at. 4th one I don’t find all that interesting. I like the last one quite a bit. The DOF keeps it interesting, and it has nice tones with the various colors.

Creative Photography: They are neat but I have seen the Disc/waterdrops quite often actually. I still like the 3rd one though. I also like the 4th one, it has nice lighting, and clarity.

Portrait: Needs some work, but definitely not terrible. Just some practice would help with that. My favorite….the Doctor Who cosplay. But that’s because I am a HUGE Dr. Who fan and he actually looks quite a bit like David Tennant.

Hope that answer gave you what you are looking for. =)

[Michaela]

Hey, thanks so much for the response!

Animals/Nature:  I like the first peacock, the cat (a lot..great lighting, clarity, and comp), and the last snake. The 2nd peacock seems snapshot-ish, and the tail blends into the surroundings. The 1st snake photo seems a bit warm, and I am not a huge fan of the large blurry rock, it is distracting.

I can see what you mean about the second peacock being snapshotty. There isn’t much “wow” to it other than the length of his tail feathers. The cat was one of those “right place, right time” photos. She was lounging by a window and I stuck a black binder between her body and the window.  The sunlight hit her face perfectly and made her eyes glow.

 

The snake photo is fairly warm because that’s how the lighting in his tank was. I’ll fiddle with it and see how it looks a little more neutralized, but I do like  the warmth here. The rock is eh.. some days I like it, some days I don’t. I wish I had known better when I shot that one.. I was shooting automatic back then. :/(Other opinions on this specific photo would be great)

Scenes:  The boardwalk would be better if there was definition or clouds in the sky. I like the simplicity of the second photo and the composition. 3rd photo appears to be tilted which I suspect is from the angle it was shot at. 4th one I don’t find all that interesting. I like the last one quite a bit. The DOF keeps it interesting, and it has nice tones with the various colors.

I will definitely play with the boardwalk one again. I remember adjusting the lightness and the clouds became much more prominent. I’m not sure about the tilt in the third (Eiffel) photo. I’m going to agree that it’s probably the angle I was shooting from. On the last one (M&M’s), do you find the streaky lines from the light reflecting distracting at all? My photo teacher mentioned those, and they didn’t really bother me until after he said something.

Creative Photography: They are neat but I have seen the Disc/waterdrops quite often actually. I still like the 3rd one though. I also like the 4th one, it has nice lighting, and clarity.

Yeah, the CD drops are definitely cliche. It’s fun to experiment with, though. 🙂 The third (Insa) is definitely my favourite too; the way the drops reflect onto the disc is really fun. I haven’t been able to mimic that since.

 Portrait: Needs some work, but definitely not terrible. Just some practice would help with that. My favorite….the Doctor Who cosplay. But that’s because I am a HUGE Dr. Who fan and he actually looks quite a bit like David Tennant.

I think part of my trouble with portraits is that I’m *very* uncomfortable with shooting people in these situations. I’m not really sure why, either. The Doctor Who cosplay is be Kevin Coppa; he definitely makes a great 10. You can find more of his stuff here, if you’re interested: http://alternatecoppa.deviantart.com/

 

Again, thank you so much for your input. I really do appreciate it.

[Worst Case Scenario]

cass335 has pretty much covered it. I really like some of your shots, but they are mixed in with some fairly average ones. The snake shot is not a keeper. The colour temp is all wrong and makes it look like its been shot through a tank, the composition isn’t great and the rock is too dominant. But the biggest problem is that despite it being a rattler, it’s just a tail!

[Michaela]

Alrighty, I’ve nixed the snake rattle photo. Thanks for the added input on that on. 🙂

[picarusslim]

Would definitely be repeating the posters above tbh. The cat is excellent, love a good cat shot, can’t do them myself.

The cable car rocks. I like photos like that, simple but nice tones.

I wouldn’t like to point out any technicalities on the portrait shots but none really grab me. The reflections on the sweet tubes distract my eye a bit much.

You have a good eye and understanding of using a camera, just keep shooting. Trial and error (and loads of money;)

 

[serenidade]

OMGOSH you first peacock and the cat are absolutely stunning ! I would frame it !! I have a peacock themed room in my house ( Yes, I’m a freak)

Your portraits need some works but I really like the mood of the Girl with flowers!

[Rizzo]

agreed on the first peacock and the cat, i like both of those.  i REALLY like the peacock. nothing in the scenes really stood out to me, though. in the creative section i really liked the fourth picture – the light painting (thought that’s a personal preference, of course – some people aren’t a fan).  with the portraits, keep an eye on your white balance, and shadows. the comp of most of the photos aren’t super interesting – but from the animal section, i know you’ve got the creativity in you, so keep at it.

[Michaela]

I’m glad people really like the peacock and cat; they’re definitely a couple of my current favourites. 🙂 The cat photo was a happy accident; she was just resting in front of a sliding glass door, and the light was hitting her gorgeously so I wanted to take the opportunity to get a nice photo of her. I just stuck a black binder between her and the glass.. 😛

I do still have trouble with the technical side of shooting; I always forget to check my meter. 😡  If you have any suggestions with portrait stuff I’d love to hear. ^^

Thanks again, everyone. It’s really nice to hear this feedback.

[Unclebob]

I guess I’m just so jaded when I see ‘artsy’ photography that it’s hard for me to appreciate the true artful method of it all. All I do now is take images to make money and support my family, but I do have to say it was refreshing to see some of your stuff and see how you do still love it as an art form. However, with that being said, let me give you my jaded “if you want to make some money at this” advise.

 

I went straight to your portraits file as that, m’dear, is where the bang is.

 

Slow down and take your time. Check your light meter. Don’t pose shots. (they can go to Sears for that) Capture that moment. Make sure to adjust your ISO accordingly.

 

You really have a great eye and I guess my advise will only matter where you plan to take your business someday.

[Jones]

I am by no means a master of anything, and I’m still in high school myself… but I seem to have the opposite problem you do with portraits — got the technical side down, struggle with other things. For what it’s worth, I’d definitely say you have the better problem to fix, because people seem to be comfortable around you, etc. etc.

There aren’t a whole lot of portraits to go on, though I’d love to see some more, but the girl lying in the flowers is certainly my favorite. The only thing I wish is that the flowers and entirety of her face were all completely sharp… Maybe her face could be a tad bit warmer for the overall feel of the image, but that’s just me splitting hairs.

I like the one of the girl in front of the mountains, like she’s getting ready to go on a journey. I wish she were lighter, but that would be pretty hard to accomplish unless you had someone near her with a reflector, an off-camera flash, or you’re just throwing an on-camera flash a ridiculous amount for fill. I like the backlight on her, though. Splitting hairs again, I wish we could see what the image would have looked like if she were more to the left and then higher or lower. It seems too close to the middle horizontally now… now that it’s wrong, just that I’d like to see what it would have looked like differently.

The wedding shot is excellent, and weddings are the one thing I refuse to even look at so nicely done. There is some distracting CA on the edges of her dress, but I don’t know if you tried to do anything with that in post. It’d be worth a shot, if anything. My mentor, who was a 35-year veteran wedding photographer, would have been able to tell you a lot more things and what to do… she might have suggested a little fill on the face. That’s tough to get on the fly (for me, at least) though. Same thing with the kid and the baseball… wish he were a bit brighter, but that’s after the fact and not a ton you could do on it at the time (maybe try moving spots or something). But it is an emotional picture.

The man in the jacket is a nice expression, but for some reason feels a little teeny “snapshotty” and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s a little tiny blurry? Or too much noise?
Unclebob pretty much said it all… It can be tough trying to constantly meter on the fly, but especially if you are shooting one person in similar locations you should be able to get it down and keep it relatively in check throughout the shoot. Sears is out of business now, so don’t worry about them. 😛

Keep it up… enjoy your work.

[fstopper89]

The peacock is also my favorite! The colored objects in the glass are also interesting. While I like the shallow DOF, I think that one may have been more interesting if they were all on the same focal plane though. It’s just something different to try. I also agree with much of what the others already have said. For your portraits, I noticed light falling in odd places on their skin and some shadowing issues. Those are things to watch out for more. I would like to see more of your work though, as you have a pretty small sample.

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