To have your work featured in the pages of the magazine, send 1-3 photos of 10×15 cm to the editorial office. Be sure to write “Photocritic” on the envelope. On the reverse side of each photo, write your surname, first name, patronymic and place of residence. You should also specify the technical parameters: make of camera and lens, exposure shutter speed, aperture , type of film, place and time of shooting, the nature of lighting. Be sure to title your photos. Submissions are not refundable.
Appa Rifma
“Memory.”
You can send your works by e-mail: rekst@inbox 10×15 cm, the resolution no lower than 250 dpi .
Criteria for judging a photo
Your picture is analyzed in the “Photocriticism” section using four criteria.
The genre of photography
Photographic genres are very diverse, and each has its own characteristics of composition and lighting solutions. So, to analyze your photo the definition of genre is necessary. The name of your picture is very important, because in the title you can see the author’s concept and attitude to the image.
Composition of a frame
The notion of “composition” has many and various definitions. The Concise Dictionary of Art Terms defines composition as “the structure, the relationship between the most important elements of a work of art, which affects its entire meaning and structure. “Through the unity of a composition the artist expresses the content of his idea, makes it understandable and impressive…”.
A photographer who wants to make an interesting and creative work of photography, not just to expose photographic material, should understand and be well versed in the laws and rules of photocomposition.
The eminent master photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson believed that “the photographer must be constantly concerned with composition, but when you take a picture, you perceive it only intuitively, as you are caught up in the fleeting moment or shifting ratios.
Lighting
It is known that the word “photography” literally means “illumination”. No photo can be taken without lighting. An experienced photographer, like a painter, paints his picture in light. A stream of light in his hands, like a brush in an artist’s hand, creating an image on photosensitive photographic material or a digital matrix.
Technical quality
Lack of sharpness, inaccurate color reproduction, poor treatment of shades and highlights can greatly reduce the impression of your picture. Whatever original photo work you make, do not forget about its technical quality.
The “Photo-criticism” column is devoted to critical analysis of photos sent to the editorial office by our readers.
Terentyeva A. A., Tikhonova A. With.
“Autumn Still Life”
“Autumn Still Life”
Picture genre
This photo is a still-life composition.
Composition of a frame
Still life composition is center-weighted. Bouquet of flowers, the main compositional element, is placed in the center. On the left is the pumpkin, which, with its size and bright yellow color tone, is perhaps too overpowering on the left side of the frame. On the right side there is a big dark spot of empty space. There is a dark “hole” in the bouquet itself – right in the center. These dark voids leave a feeling of an incomplete composition. This might be because the cropping was originally chosen vertically, which is not entirely justified in this case. The height of the bouquet of flowers is not so great to choose a vertical composition of the frame. The upper and lower parts of the picture are left blank.
Illumination
A simple lighting scheme was used to illuminate a still life. A soft box simulates the light from a window. One source of drawing light is used, and a reflecting screen is used as fill light.
Technical quality
The technical quality of the photo is very good.
Summary
Summary
Despite the compositional flaws, the still life still conveys the mood of Autumn. Rated Good.
Ognjenovic M. M.
“Lantern”
Picture genre
The photo work can be referred to the genre of found still life. This genre demands from the photographer the ability to see and look for the unusual and interesting in the most ordinary and unremarkable.
Composition of the photograph
The peculiarity of this genre is that the composition is created not by the photographer but by time itself, and not instantly, but over a long period. The photographer’s task comes down to accurate framing. It is necessary to delineate the boundary of the frame space so that it does not include anything superfluous and at the same time does not exclude something important from the picture created by time.
Lighting
The lighting is light-toned. The photograph’s space is evenly illuminated with diffused light, not altering the composition.
Technical quality
The technical quality is excellent.
Summary
Summary
The picture deserves an excellent mark.
Kartashova E. A.
“Portrait”
“Portrait”
Picture genre
The photo belongs to the genre of a portrait photo, taken in the interior,. ie. , indoors. This kind of portraits doesn’t always mean displaying the interior itself. The large scale of a portrait image makes it possible to exclude the surrounding area from the frame. Such portraits look especially impressive against a dark background.
Composition of the frame
We are facing a bust portrait. Portrait subject’s face is in the classic half-turn. The figure is arranged according to the rule of the leading shoulder.
The lighting
Natural light is used. Light enters the room through a window to the side of the portrait. This lighting can be called halo lighting. It’s formed by a wide directional, diffuse stream of light. Look at the gradual, gradual transition from the light tones to the dark ones. There is no clear border between the two. This could be done with a large soft box in the studio. Called a pen version of the shadow half-turn.
The disadvantages of lighting include the lack of fill light. A slight, not at all weak filling would have been nice here. It would highlight the dark parts of the image and prevent them from fading into the background.
Technical quality
Excellent technical quality in black and white.
Summary
Summary
Good point. Not only did you succeed in the lighting and composition, but also in creating a portrait of the subject, which is extremely important in a portrait photo. This work shows that a portrait can be made artistic not only in the studio, but literally “on your knees”, as they say, without using expensive lighting equipment. Everything depends on your desire and aspiration.
Vitaly
“Winter Morning.”
“Winter Morning.”
Picture genre
Picture belongs to the landscape genre.
Composition of the frame
Vertical cropping is not always necessary with vertical subjects. The chosen vertical organization of the shot too narrowed the space. The cross turned out to be pressed close to the frame boundary, the landscape is presented too fragmentarily. For a photograph with such a figurative title, space is essential, so a horizontal cropping and possibly a more general shot would have been better for this one, with the unbalanced composition preserved. In addition, it would be better to exclude wires from the frame.
Lighting
The backlighting perfectly reproduced the texture of the snow, giving the image a golden color.
Technical quality
The quality of the picture is good.
Summary
Summary
The composition of the shot is not fully thought out. received a satisfactory rating.
Emelina-Barinova E. B.
“Puddle”
Picture genre
This is part of the winter landscape genre.
Composition of the frame
The frame is composed in such a way that there are three horizontal lines, dividing the picture into almost equal parts. It is not good for the overall composition. It’s quite common in a landscape. At least one line, the horizon line, is always present in a landscape. Symmetrical division of frame space should be avoided if possible. Perhaps in this case we could slightly decrease the presence of the foreground – snow-covered shore. And include more of the sky and the airy haze over the water in the shot.
The composition in this shot is interesting because of the reverse tonal perspective. It’s known that one of the laws of tonal perspective is that the background appears to be brighter than the foreground, which is very close to the shooting point. When the foreground is bright and the background is darker, one could speak of reverse tonal perspective.
When looking at a picture with inverted tonal perspective, you get a feeling that the far darker background is moving towards the viewer, and vice versa, the light foreground is moving into the back of the frame. The picture takes on an inner dynamic.
Lighting
The frame space is illuminated by the golden rays of the rising sun, which define the tone of the photo.
Technical quality
The technical quality of the photograph does not cause any remarks.
Summary
Summary
Rated “excellent”. Very nice landscape work!
Kostyleva C. With.
“Profile Portrait.”
Picture genre
This picture belongs to the genre of studio portrait.
Composition of the frame
The portrait subject’s face is in the classic profile position. In terms of the scale of the image, this is a head portrait. The subject is cropped horizontally, which is perfectly justified. It allowed to fully show in the frame the hairdo of the girl and leave enough space in the direction of her view. Vertical cropping would have been impossible with such a large scale portrait image.
Illumination
There are several ways of lighting a profile portrait. I had a detailed description of them in the “Photos & Techniques” magazine, # 1 32 , Spring, 2009, under the heading “Photocriticism”.
The used kind of light – cardiagonal, and for the profile portrait is not used. This is because the lighting makes the profile look flat. The texture and volumes of the face are absent in this photo.
The lack of modeling light is also a disadvantage. The girl has beautiful hair, and it is fully included in the frame, but because of the lack of hair highlighting it is almost not visible.
Technical quality
Technical quality is generally good, except for the over highlights on the face.
Summary
Summary
The portrait could not fully reveal the beauty of the profile to the full extent because of the illumination. Rated as “satisfactory”.
Chekharov D.
“Portrait”
Picture genre
This is a portrait taken in situ.
Composition of the frame
The heroine of the picture is in the center of the frame. Center-weighted composition with horizontal cropping is created. The problem with this composition is that you have to fill in the left and right side symmetrical parts of the picture. Here the left part is filled in with the branches of the tree, and the right part, equally spaced, is left blank. As a result, the left side was overloaded and outweighed the right side. No harmonious composition because of the center arrangement. Meanwhile, you should have moved the portrait subject to the left from the center of the frame and minimize the display of leaves in the frame. Give more “air” to the right side. The composition would immediately change and become more interesting and harmonious.
One of the disadvantages of the composition is the position of the hand: the hand is not visible, because it is hidden by the foliage. It doesn’t look very nice.
Lighting
Illumination is light-toned, soft, shadowless.
Technical quality
Very good technical quality.
Synopsis
Synopsis
The work deserves a good appraisal.
Malanicheva A.
“Two men”
“Two men”
Picture genre
This picture belongs to the genre of cityscape.
Composition of the frame
Composition is based on combining the foreground and background. Visually, the far background is close to the foreground, and the middle one is almost absent. This effect is due to the distance from the point of view. It is mistakenly attributed to the long focal length lens.
Indeed, this photo was taken with a long focal lens, but it’s all about the remoteness of the subject. Long lens is just the right thing to photograph from a distance. And the space is the same whether it is a long focal length or a stock lens.
Lighting
Photos were taken in sunny weather. The lighting is shaded. Because of the difference in lighting of the foreground and background there is a tonal perspective in the frame, which is formed due to the fact that the foreground is darker than the background. It gives a bit of volume and depth to the photo.
Technical quality
The photo has excellent technical quality.
Summary
Summary
Interesting Job! Excellent estimate.
Could you provide some feedback on how to improve or enhance my photography skills? I’m constantly striving to capture stunning images, and I believe constructive criticism from experienced photographers like yourselves would be invaluable. Can you please share your insights on my composition, lighting, and overall technique? I would greatly appreciate any guidance you can offer. Thank you!