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Response to Image Critique! Rip me apart! :)

from Paul Swenson (paulphoto@humboldt1.com)
The original darker photo has lots of merit. To simply dismiss it as a "bad Picture" strikes me as a real ego trip on the part of whoever would say that. I mean, who are we critiquing? Are we to hold Edward to the same standards as Avedon or Bresson. C'mon this is just a guy who shares a common interest with the rest of us.

Taking a Vince Lombardi approach to this forum when giving critiques is absurd. Besides even Lombardi gave pats on the back once in a while. The tough love approach to critiquing or teaching is such a cliche, great for anecdotes and the movies, but otherwise totally overrated.

This photo has great mood. I don't mind at all that their is very little if any shadow detail on the shadow side of the face. I feel that the imaged should be cropped to exclude the lower two thirds of the image. But we all realize this is a polaroid, no negative in which to make a cropped print or mainipulate image densities, and 4x5 to boot, technically a very challenging medium. Is it a perfect photo? No. Am I going to patronize Edward with a condescending lecture on what philosophy he should engender to become a great photographer? No.

This thread demonstrates there are many varied opinions when it comes to critiquing a single image. It takes a lot of temerity for one to shout that his is the only right one.

(posted 8794 days ago)

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