Helpful Critiques #5
Fearless Photographers founder Huy Nguyen and Tyler Wirken share their thoughts on anonymous work submitted by photographers in the Fearless community.
[ Huy ]
I appreciate this clean background. It's a very simple background that's made for this photo. It's used very well. I would like to see the dancing couple bigger in the frame. I don't think we need a lot of background even though it's a nice clean background. We need the subject to be bigger in the frame.
[ Tyler ]
Absolutely. I agree. So whenever I look at something like this, I'm trying to figure out what the purpose of including both moments that are happening at once. It's a really nice father-daughter dance moment. She's really pulled into him with her arms around his neck. He's got a nice expression. I'm really drawn to that moment.
I'm honestly a little confused as to why we have this other moment happening in the same frame. It could be just about how the photographer wants to show some juxtaposition to a sweet little moment happening over here and then a regular moment happening on the right.
I don't know if they play off each other enough. I get a bit confused when I'm trying to figure out what is the purpose of including that that bar scene. That was a conscious choice of the photographer. You can tell by the composition because the moment with the bartender is actually commanding more real estate than the moment between the bride and the dad. We need to give them more emphasis on the bride and the dad and having that bartender as a secondary moment. That would make a little bit more sense.
[ Huy ]
I'm in agreement with you because I don't understand the bar scene either. I don't see how it connects to the moment of the dance. I'm glad that the photographer is actually looking around and trying to include other things in the photo. We always encourage photographer to be aware and to look around and to give us more than the obvious. However, I don't think the photographer accomplished the task of making it clear what's happening.
[ Tyler ]
We're trying really hard to do more, right? You're like "Oh, I want to layer something. I want to have extra information in this picture." Sometimes you stop at that thought process. Once you find something to put in there, you need to continue that thought process and ask "is this making sense? Will this make sense to the viewer? Does it feel deliberate? Or does it feel like an accident?"
As a viewer, it feels a little bit more like an accident.
[ Huy ]
I think it's deliberate because the photographer gave that bar scene so much space. And the photographer must be thinking that it's something important they want us to look at. So it doesn't work with us. We don't understand but maybe other people do.
[ Tyler ]
It's hard to understand. I can appreciate the photographer's effort here and trying to go further, but for you, what would make this work? What would that bartender's scene need to include them in the frame?
[ Huy ]
If you want it to be humorous, then the bar scene has to be something that plays off the dance, like something distracting to the dance. Like they're not paying attention to it. Like they are drinking together or they're doing something together that is not nice to the dance. But we don't want that. We want them to do a toast to the dance. That's the only picture I think that would be worth shooting.
We want them to be looking just like the mom and the sister then saying "Awww". That's what a nice picture would be.
[ Tyler ]
But that moment is so sweet between the dad and the daughter that if you go with a funny juxtaposition, it will diminish that moment. Whereas if you had somebody hugging while they're watching the dance - mom and sister - then all of a sudden now that extra layer really takes that emotion to a higher level. And that's what you got to think about when you're doing it.
Photo Critiques - June 5, 2020 from Fearless Photographers on Vimeo.
