Perspectives #5
In this innovative exercise, some of the top wedding photographers in the world were asked to critique the same wedding photos independently on their own without knowing what the others think. Would they agree? How different or similar would their critiques be?
Citlalli Rico | Education
When you have an image like this, I always wonder what the photographer was saying with this photo. I get that you have six women paying attention to this baby in the center. It's interesting that you cannot see any other people's faces or expressions, just hands. There are elements that make me think that they were trying to feed the baby. I don't know if it's because he or she was throwing a tantrum or was just hungry, but it feels like it's too much attention for someone who is okay. When you decide not to show anyone's faces and show just hands, it's important to know that the only expression that is in the photo is giving us the real message. In this case. The baby doesn't have a very interesting expression either. So I really don't know why we have all of them around the baby.
And why is it that everyone wants to feed or calm him or her? When you're deciding for a crop like this, or going in this close for a photo, make sure that all the elements and the expressions are supporting the message that you're trying to say when you should a picture like this.
I like that you show part of the wheelchair on the left so we know that it's a grandma. Also, because of the hands, you can see that they are older people trying to assist the baby too. You have a bunch of generations in one photo. I'm just wondering what it will look like if you were a little bit further back so we could see other people's expression in this situation. I know many people say that getting closer is better, but sometimes allowing yourself some room to see more expressions might support more of the message that you're trying to convey.
Jesse La Plante | Education
I feel like there's a really good story here. I'm just not a hundred percent sure what it is. It looks like there's about five individuals all trying to feed this toddler at the same time. This is a moment that has a lot of potential. It's a bit of a slow read. It would almost play better as a photo story. To capture the entire story in one image, I feel like there just needs to be a little bit more patience. Maybe the photographer needed to wait a little bit more to elicit some sort of more emotional reaction from the toddler. Or maybe five hands are coming in trying to feed him at the same time. Then maybe he starts crying or maybe tries to knock one of the bottles away out of their hands. It's close. I like it. But again, it's just a bit of a slow read and it's not quite there. I think just sticking with the moment and shooting through the scene, we could probably improve upon this a little bit.
Vlad Lodoaba | Education
First of all, good job. Congratulations to the photographers for isolating the subject from the background. One of the ways to do this is to have some sort of contrast between light and dark - a light subject on a dark background or a dark subject on a light background. In this case the child stands out very well against dark dresses on the ladies in the background. Good job also on the black and white editing. I really, really like that. I also appreciate the great contrast between the smooth skin of the child and the wrinkled textured skin of the old lady. And I also like the hand pointing towards the child from the upper left corner.
I think the photographer tried to make a really complex composition here. The thing with complex compositions is to ask yourself if everyone is contributing. In this image, my biggest problem is that I can't see the face of the lady on the right. The child is obviously looking at her and I would have liked to see her expression I would have liked to see in action-reaction type of moment. One easy way to fix that would be to take a full look at everyone in the frame and make sure that heads are visible.
The two ladies in the background are not really contributing much. The photographer made the right choice to crop them, but I would have gone even tighter with the crop to get rid of more of the image from the upper left corner.
Is this a strong enough moment? Is there enough happening? I would have waited a bit longer to see if something more expressive could happen. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, but as things are right now, the expression of the child is not there yet. For the future, position yourself left or right to make sure that the faces are visible. Then wait, keep your camera ready and see what happens.
Paul Tansley
It gives me a good feeling. I love the fact that the child's face is all against the black background. The main thing that I would change about this image is the crop. The face in the t-shirt I find to be a great distraction to the image because although it's very cool, it doesn't add anything to the image. By adding a simple crop I'm taking her out, all of a sudden I have a much stronger image to work with because your eye doesn't get distracted by going up to her. I'd also consider darkening down, just ever so slightly again, that t-shirt and hand maybe the pointing finger, just a touch to take the edge off of it slightly. And the back of the two girls on the right hand side, because again, any of these highlights just take away from that the child's face. Possibly darken this little sleeve here just a touch. Then dodge a little bit around grandma's face because she's an important character in this picture. But the capture with all the things going on - they are all trying to feed him, the pointing finger, the grandma with the bottle, the dummy down here, and the glass with the spoon on the top - is absolutely brilliant. I really like it as an image.
