Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/12/17

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Subject: [Leica] Levels of critique
From: jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:49:24 +0530
References: <9E846867-FC2F-4CB2-8BD3-CFCC333C41EF@mac.com>

George,
You have been doing this regularly in the Print Exchanges, and it has been
very helpful, as have others there as well - I do not think that I am
capable of analyzing photographs in such detail, I am not trained to look at
photographs in this fashion (on the other hand, I am trained to look at
Company Financial Reports in similar detail). I know immediately whether I
like a photograph or not, and that is good enough for me. I think that if
listmembers really want to improve, they take part in the print exchange
rather than post tiny jpeg and expect expert criticism. I think there are a
few places up for grabs this round, get in touch with Richard Man...
Cheers
Jayanand

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 1:52 AM, George Lottermoser <imagist3 at 
mac.com>wrote:

> Thinking about the recent thread(s) on photo comments and critiques:
>
> For me,
> While comments such as: "?great, ?like it, ?number 4 is the best one,
> ?doesn't do anything for me, ?WOW! ?looks like you missed the focus ?etc."
> do provide a certain amount of motivation and encouragement (or sometimes
> discouragement),
> they don't really qualify as "very useful critiques."
>
> They simply express rather quick first impressions;
> which I do value;
> because that may be all the time and consideration our photographs receive
> from most viewers.
>
> A detailed analysis (critique) of any given photograph (or body of
> photographs) would need to consider and discuss:
>
> 1) The genre
>        a) commercial
>                1 - portrait
>                2 - event
>                3 - advertising
>        b) news
>        c) editorial / documentary
>        d) fine art
>        e) casual / family
>        f) others
>
> 2) The conceptual context
>        a) what's the point?
>        b) what do you wish to communicate?
>
> 3) The aesthetics
>        a) composition
>        b) design elements
>        c) the moment
>        d) the light
>        e) feelings
>
> 4) The technicalities
>        a) exposure
>        b) focus
>        c) depth of field (or lack there-of)
>        d) color and/or tonality
>        e) noise / grain
>        f) etc.
>
> 5) How do the above three work (or not) together?
>
> 6) The historical context
>        a) place in history
>        b) place in art (or media)
>        c) from the traditional
>        d) to the cutting edge
>
> It may be helpful, if we want more than a cursory first impression comment,
> to include information as to the intention and purpose for photographing
> and posting the photograph,
> along with a clear request for advice regarding one or more of the above.
> Some already do this - as in Lawrence's "IMG: Maggie at the helm - opinions
> wanted."
>
> That of course is much different than what most of us tend to do here;
> which amounts to simply sharing photographs (and sometimes stories) of
> where we've been, what we've done, who we've seen, what we tend to look at,
> gear demonstrations, etc.;
> along with the occasional sharing of "actual client and/or published work."
>
> Regards,
> George Lottermoser
> george at imagist.com
> http://www.imagist.com
> http://www.imagist.com/blog
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>


Replies: Reply from imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser) ([Leica] Levels of critique)
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