Crit My Pic has returned! For our first post since we restarted this feature I’m going to be looking at Clay Lomneth’s street photograph which he actually sent in for review way back in September 2014 when Crit My Pic was on a hiatus, which is why it doesn’t have a title. I’ll be reviewing his street photo across a variety of parameters, such as point of view, composition, colour, subject matter and mood. So read on for my analysis, and if you’d like me to analyse your photo, check out our rules for submitting your photo to Crit My Pic, and then get in touch!

Initial thoughts

What we have in this image is a well spotted full person street portrait. A man amongst his belongings, within his own thoughts, relaxed , even down to the shoeless foot, the whole image is quite serene.

My first thought is ‘Colour!’ I’m certain the shop must have been crammed with brilliantly woven reds, yellows, blues, gold , greens, a floor to ceiling orgy of super brilliant colour. I suspect although can’t confirm or deny that the shopkeeper would have been wearing beige/brown or faded blue which would in my mind bring him to the fore even with the dazzling array around him.

Initial thoughts

I have said before and I’m not sure why but beach images are always of interest. I think it might be the brazen openness of people, playing half undressed in the sun, both innocent and sophisticated at the same time.

If you’ve been watching Crit My Pic , you will have found I always enter an image after the initial moment through the composition and geometry of the image but for this one because of the emphasis already in play with thirds , thought it might be an idea of reading the image slightly differently.

Initial thoughts

This image submitted by Rich McPeek has been sitting in the vaults of Crit My Pic for a few weeks now, which has given me more opportunity to give it a good looking over. The image is simply described as an old man, slightly separated from the masses, deep in thought. I like there are lots of uprights throughout the picture as this emphasises the elderly bend of the man in his coat.

I think the reason I always begin with the composition of an image is because it can define the story, highlight the main point. I come from an animation background and one of the simple but essential rules is ‘it (the scene) must read clearly’ and in fact I think for animation ‘it must read unequivocally’. In this image I believe the intent is to show the ‘Thinker’ and with the main character in this scene being elderly we hope and trust he has thoughts more romantic than our own.

Initial thoughts

Hi Marcel thanks for submitting to Crit My Pic with your image I’ve titled Red Commuters, although red angry faced commuter might be a better description. Instantly you’re drawn to the lady, who looks a little disgruntled in a way which reminds us all about the pleasures of public transport.

Initial thoughts

This image immediately peaked my interest with my love of all things Martin Parr and Coney Island by Bruce Gilden.  The Beach is a treasure trove of the natural and the grotesque both in behaviour and characters. We have tattoos, trainers and what is called in the UK ‘Wife Beater’ – cans of Stella Artois, oh and look a warm bottle of white wine for the girls!

Although I do have a penchant for making something the focus of the image, there is in this image the grand idea of the beach snapshot, wide and unfocused, a broad comment on the culture….BUT thirds rule in my world and so it is where I always always begin.

Initial thoughts

This lovely scene was dropped into the office by Ditch Mingo and a subject well worth spying through the viewfinder and admittedly a difficult image to improve upon, as any more time spent would have the girl looking either at the camera or being disturbed in some way but I feel there might be some post which could just help direct the audience more keenly to the subject.

Initial thoughts

As you might notice Henning I’ve changed the title of your image to Oslo Nine. This is because rather than it being taken in Oslo and was 9th in the series, on first glance, it felt like an underground bunker of some secret military base. Who knows what is going on?who knows who is who? And the POV , the so called ‘rats eye’ view really helps sell the story to me.

There is a really strong exit point in the image and your eye is immediately led down past the feet, across and past the pillars into the free air outside. The exit point is as near as dammit on thirds, as is the floor level, which all mark this out to be a classy image. I always ask though how could it be better.

I’ll deal with the irrational better first. She could be wearing heels and dropping a smoking cigarette. Chances of achieving that? Very little but it just gives you another insight as to how I see the image.

Initial thoughts

Thanks for dropping this one in to Crit My Pic Edward, lets dive in and see what we have.

A busy street scene, in amongst modern architecture. There are some great colours and contrasting colours going on, some bright points and darks. So my first thought would be what aspect is the crux of the image story…is it the people or their environment? I ask this because it helps me focus editing. If it’s the ‘smallness’ of the population going about their same day business, then we need them ‘small’ but if it’s something like the similarity of people (which there seems to be a lot of in this image) then make that the focus. Currently I don’t feel there is a focus for your audience to hang on to. This can be fixed in the crop and brought about by, as I always mention, the thirds hotspots. I am trying to develop taking these in the viewfinder but because of the parallax between lens and viewfinder it is always off and I have to compensate with some cropping in post although more and more not using cropping to find the story.