DSLR Photography Forum

Critiquing is a process of studying the photographs systematically, and analyzing what you like about the photograph and what you do not, suggesting possible alternations, and discussing the technical quality of the photograph. An unbiased critique is a great source of knowledge for the photographer. So in this post we will step through the basic steps of a photo critique.

Technical Elements

1.Focus- Is the subject in focus? If it’s not is it a deliberate effort or a mistake?

2.Exposure- Is the photograph correctly and creatively exposed? Are there overexposed or underexposed elements in the photograph? What could photographer have done to prevent those elements being over or under?

3. Depth of field.- Has the Depth of field taken into account by the photographer? Has it been used creatively or has it being neglected? Has it been used creatively and effectively?

4. Lighting and white balance- Are you satisfied with the overall lighting in the image. Is the lighting balanced? How the lighting affects to the theme of the photograph?

5.Sharpness- Is the main subject sharp enough to stand out? Or is it blurred due to camera shake etc?

Compositional Elements

1.Has rule of the third, golden spiral, leading lines, patterns, other placement of elements in the frame taken into account?

2.Is the framing of the shot ok? Is it the perfect frame the photographer could’ve achieved? Is the subject filling the frame?

3. How the color range in the image affects the theme and mode of the photograph? Is it properly saturated?

What Does the Photograph Make You Think?

Does it make you happy or sad? What type of emotions does it bring back to you? Do you like the mode of the photograph? Does the photograph tells you a story?


Ask these questions yourself and try to answer them on your own. Your answers would make a much more detailed and useful critique.

Thank you pinmullosc! You were reading my mind! Appreciate the information!

If you are interested in basic but good template, check out this one: http://ppro.zoteo.com/ppro-critique.html .
This template is used by this group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/ngproinvitation/ .
As far as I am concerned, this is the only critique group worth belonging to. However it does call for reasonably advanced photographers. When I first joined, I thought I was already pretty good, but the first year I got always clobbered. It also helps if you can do decent critiques, especially the composition and artistic impact. Knowing your technical basics is not really enough.

Pavel,

Thank you for sharing the additional resources. This is an area that I definitely will need to spend some time studying and learning. Appreciate the share!

I have completed a couple of courses on critique and judging photographs. One important thing to remember is to take ownership of your critique, I think, I would change, In my opinion etc.

I think many of the rules can be and should be broken but only if you know them. One of the biggest themes in composition for me is not what to include but rather what to exclude, this is something that many photo snappers don't understand. I believe also that for some people the rules become more natural than for others, even if they don't know about them already. For example, I see now that even when I was starting photography I had the vision of not putting everything in the center of the image as many do even if I didn't know about rule of thirds etc.