Week 6 - Critiquing Photos

Here's a tried and true way to think about any art when you want to critique it. Ask and answer these questions:

• What are the artist's intentions?
• What is the process (were there any "happy" mistakes that changed the intention?)
• What is the most successful element of the piece?
• What would you change if you could?

This week I ask you to critique 6 images on the Discussion Board. One way to view them and think about them is through  the lens of Composition. Another way is to combine the Composition vocabulary with the Critique Format above. Here's an example, a critique I wrote of this winter photo which I took a few years ago:

Winter Ice Storm, © Lisa Brooks, 2008

My intention was to capture a sparkling icy day in New England and capture the brilliant colors I saw. I took into consideration Rule of Thirds and Framing as I composed this image. The horizon bisects the bottom third of the image leaving 2/3s for sky. This gives a sense of airiness to this simple winter day. The bright red barn in the Rule of Thirds bottom right position draws the eye into the photo. The vertical tree trunks draw the eye up into the sky to roll around in the clouds and travel back down to the textured foreground. I think the bright contrast of red and blue, although not totally complementary colors, works to add visual pop to the photo. If I was going to change anything it might be to shoot from a slightly different angle to have the road on more of a diagonal and thus give more movement to this image, although the calm of the horizontal road is not totally displeasing.