A Note from Chris:
When I proofread this post for Cee, I told her it was too hard. I could figure out the marina shot, and the one with the chairs but I wasn’t sure of what to say about the others. I never dreamt that anyone would feel bad about doing the critique. Believe me, she wants everyone to have fun with this. There are no right or wrong answers, and critiquing pictures is fun. We like to go through on-line photography courses like those at Lynda.com, throw the sample photos up on our Apple TV and then critique them. It’s a great way to improve your eye. Have fun with this!
This week’s CCY Theme is Critique My Work tell me what is right and wrong with my photos.
I will be showing 5 photos uncropped straight from the camera. Simply comment on at least two of the photos explaining in detail what is right and wrong about these photos.
Each week I will select several features from everyone who submits an entry. And from those posts that I feature, I will grant one blogger the Gold Star Award. To find out who was awarded the Gold Star Award and Features for this week, please see CCY Features: Week #11 Centerpoint – Breaking the Rule of Thirds.
Note: Participants who do not have at least 2 photos critiqued will not be featured nor be considered for the Gold Star Award.
Essay
I hope you’re enjoyed our holiday break. This week’s blog is an easy one for you, I hope. You get to be the critic. Here are five photos I took that don’t quite work or at least have a couple things wrong. You get to discuss them just like you’ve seen me do for weeks now. Tell me what you like about then and more importantly what does work or you don’t like. Have fun. Think about all the topics we’ve discussed.
- CCY: Week #11 Centerpoint – Breaking the Rule of Thirds
- CCY: Week #10 Using 2/3 of your photo frame
- CCY: Week #9 Rule of Thirds Introduction
- CCY: Week #8 Diagonal Lines
- CCY: Week #7 Vertical Lines
- CCY: Week #6 Horizontal Lines and Horizon
- CCY: Week #5 Leading Lines
- CCY: Week #4 Simplicity
- CCY: Week #3 Always Take More than One Photo
- CCY: Week #2 What All Well-Composed Photos have in Common
- CCY: Week #1 How your Camera is Not like Your Eye
Below are the five different pictures. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to write about at least two of them. More, if you feel so inclined. Write out your answers.
If you want to play and do some post processing of my photos, feel free to. I have a link before each of them that will take you to a .jpeg file that is large enough for you to play with yourself. (Note: I didn’t save the RAW file because not everyone can read them)Try out your post processing skills on them and see what you can come up with. If you do choose to edit the picture, please explain what you did and why.
Next week I’ll post my edited versions of each photos as well as summarizing my thoughts.
Click to get enlarged version of Red Umbrella.
Click to get enlarged version of Taxi Cab.
Click to get enlarged version of Colored Chairs.
Click to get enlarged version of White Wall and Wood Door.
Click to get enlarged version of Sunset at the Marina.
Have fun!
Upcoming Challenges
- Week #12 Critique My Work (current)
- Week #13 Perspective
- Week #14 Symmetry
- Week #15 Cropping Tips
- Week #16 Intersections
- Week #17 Basics of Colors
Qi (energy) hugs
Cee
Cee's Photo Challenges 
wow you’re brave! I’m not sure I would have the courage to welcome a critique…eek!
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I’m hoping people will come up with things that are wrong (or right) that I didn’t think of 😀 😀
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The red umbrella should be the focal point of the picture. Cropping most of the dead space would be cool.
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I agree this photo needs a better focus and cropping would help it out tremendously.
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The colored chairs are great….except your eye goes to the white car in the reflections…..
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Sunset at the Marina is washed out …….needs more oomph in the pic….LOL….do you know how silly I feel….an amateur criticising you Cee……very very silly but you requested and so here I are. Wink wink
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Put your comments into critique in the form of a post and enter into the challenge. Or if want edit my photos. Two is all that is needed to be critiqued for this challenge. And yes you are right again.
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Oh my, since photo editing isn’t a strength for me, this will be a challenge! A fun one though. 🙂
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Just have fun.
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It would be like a grade schooler revising Shakespeare …
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LOL. Happy New Year. 😀
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Hi Cee, you have a tougher hide than me :-), great challenge as it really put me out of my comfort zone, I do NOT like to critic other’s work. anyway here is my critic and tweak on the images
https://juliepowell2014.wordpress.com/2015/12/31/cees-compose-yourself-challenge-week-12-critic/
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This is one of those great ideas that I’m too tired to appreciate except to say that you need to level the horizon on the final shot. Otherwise, I don’t have it in me to critique my own work, much less yours. I think I really really need a vacation. We’re off and away on Monday for a couple of weeks … so I’ll hook back up with you when we are back, around the third week in January. Happy New Year!
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Enjoy your trip you two.
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This was a fun challenge. I took this as a test for what we have learned, or perhaps have not learned. Since I know that a photographer takes a plethora of photos before getting the perfect one the first time, and that you are a great photographer, I found your bravery in this challenge very helpful. Here is my link using three of your photos to explain my thoughts on each. http://aseasonandatime.blogspot.com/2016/01/cees-compose-yourself-challenge-week-12.html
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You did a good job and critiquing my photos. And you are right sometimes it can take several attempts to get the perfect shot. I purpose chose non-perfect shots for this. So there was no bravery needed on my side.
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Oh this sounds fun! If I have time, I’ll put in my two cents. 🙂
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I hope you do get some time to play. Have fun with this challenge.
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It seems to me the photo with the old door and metal building is about textures and age, so I would edit out the pipes/ It also might be good in B/W or sepia tones, though I like the woodiness of the door. Good way to get your readers involved.
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Pipes do definitely need to come out of the door photo. Sepia would be a good idea too.
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This is really hard:)) I have always liked your photos:)
But in the first photo I felt the space above the umbrellas a little too much.
In the third photo the chairs are light coloured, instead of a white colured car in the background, maybe a dark coloured car would enhance the colour of the chairs.
Regards:)
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You are right about the umbrella. And on the car I did actually think about turning the car a different color but that is beyond my grasp for the most part. So your assessments are spot on.
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Thank you Cee:))
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Since this is waaaaayyyy beyond expiry date I won’t create a whole blog dedicated to – as somebody above put it – a primary school kid critiquing Shakespeare but I leave a few comments here, if that’s alright.
I’ll start with “Sunset at the marina” – the major flaw is obvious, particularly in connection with your comments on horizons, the water looks like it is running of to the right because the horizon is tilted. The photo has no focal point, the eye of the viewer is darting all over the place. I like the trio of cranes and would love to see a shot just of them, preferably taken a few minutes earlier or later with the setting sun still making them into a silhouette but not yet blaring on the sideline. Or, I could imagine an interesting shot with the “arrow” (geometrical figure) on the left formed by the balcony and the roof, again taken just taken a few minutes later. I don’t think that cropping would rescue much (even with an adjusted horizon) but I’d clip away the sandy part before the first wall (sorry, no idea what the right terminology is).
The “Red Umbrella” – yes it needs to be the focal point of the photo, I would try cropping it really tight playing around with formats. Square or portrait for preference – but I think portrait would work best. When cutting 1:1 (I just tried it, oops – they’re actually two umbrellas!) one would have to crop very tight in order to get rid of the outlying areas and if one gets too close, the photo become ordinary. I’d prefer a landscape shot with the umbrella standing left of centre, the tips almost at the bottom.
There it is, better late than never, I think 😉
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Wonderful remarks. I agree with everything you said. The one things that I didn’t not say about these photos is that I already knew they were not my best photos I’ve ever taken. I chose stuff with obvious blips in them. So things that were wrong could be found easily. IF I ever do this again, I would approach it differently.
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No way that I’d have thought these were your best. 🙂
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There were a couple I could fix to look okay, but they were far from my best.
Here is how I fixed these photos. A few people came up with what I thought was better than I did.
https://ceenphotography.com/2016/01/03/my-entry-to-ccy-photo-challenge-week-12-critique-my-work/
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Wow – the improved pictures are really improved. After looking at them I think I should be more adventurous in enhancing colour in my photos, I hardly ever do that.
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I love to post editing … I mostly enhance just enough to make it look untouched. Sometimes I do some other stuff and turn it into more a piece of art. Play to your hearts content.
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