NZPhotographer Issue 23, September 2019

I’m a Conceptual Portrait and Commercial
Photographer with a passion for art and
everything beautiful. I started photography
in 2011 and experimented in various genres of
photography before finding my niche.
Alongside some other reviewers, you’ll have
seen my name on the Expert Critique columns
here in the magazine as well as on the Excio
blog photo critiques – Perhaps I’ve critiqued
one of your photos?
I want to take the time to give you some
guidance and remind you of the importance of
being able to critique your own photos. All of
the tips below are based on my own personal
experience and are what I use when critiquing
my own work, as well as photos from the Excio
and NZP community, I hope you will find it
useful.
THE FIRST PERSON TO CRITIQUE YOUR
WORK AS A PHOTOGRAPHER SHOULD BE
YOU.
Always remember this. It is vitally important
that you have reviewed and know the exact
narrative of your work before allowing another
person to step in and offer their thoughts
because when you allow another artist to
critique your work first, you run the risk of
devaluing it.
To properly critique your own work, you must
first cultivate the right attitude.
BE UNFORGIVING
Remove every trace of emotion you have
about your photograph. Remember that the
people who will be seeing your work will not see
the stress, effort, time, and trouble it cost you to
create the photo and will not be judging you
from an emotional standpoint. Thus, you have
to be firm and unforgiving about this process
to ensure your judgment is based on deductive
points and not on emotions.
BE OBJECTIVE
You must stick to the exact reason of why you
took the photo in the first place. It is highly
possible that despite the effort you put into
the process of taking the photo, the end result
is not how you envisioned it. You have to be
able to admit to yourself when the result didn’t
work out quite right or fit your objective so that
you can try to plan better for the next time;
highlight errors and learn from them. Don’t try
to console yourself by saying you have a great
photo, ‘a second best’ or a ‘happy accident’ if
it does not fit your original objective.
DELETE THE PHOTOS THAT DIDN’T WORK
Delete the photos that didn’t turn out great no
matter how much time and effort you invested
in getting them. Keeping poor quality shots is
a phase you must outgrow. It is probable that
while trying to get that perfect photo, you took
several photos in the process; this leaves you to
choose the best from a large number of similar
photos. You have to be bold enough to delete
all the photos that didn’t work out. The reason
is so that you don’t become bias and lose
the objective by considering too many similar
options.
Now that you have cultivated the right attitude,
let us dive into the things to look out for when
doing a personal photo critique.
THE REASON FOR THE PHOTO
You can also call this “The Why of the Photo”.
Ask yourself Why did I take this photo? Am I
expressing the things conceived before
creating the photo? Is there any major element
driving the message?
I realize there are some photographers who
capture random moments and tend not to see
themselves as story teller but in opposition to
that, I say “every photographer is a narrator”.
There is always something that interests
the photographer in a scene that spurs the
shutter release; a memory you want to keep
or a fascinating story you want others to
see. The message of the photo determines
every other thing you see in and about the
photo and answers the questions of What is
the best angle? What artistic element should
be prominent in the photo? How much post
production work should be done? and more.
The message, the ‘why’ should be the driving
force for decision making in the whole process
of capturing and showcasing an image and
should take most of the photographer’s
attention.
TECHNICAL JUDGMENT
This term encompasses everything that has to
do with the technicality of creating an image
and includes exposure (lightning), composition,
visual weight, depth of field, distance (focal
length), the angle, stability, and so on. Let’s talk
about a few of these things in more detail…
September 2019
55