Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman

1. Critique the technique. 



Exposure.
Is any area overexposed or underexposed? If so, can you say why you think that happened? How could the photographer prevent this problem in the future? 

I think that the exposure in this image is slightly over exposed as the person looks slightly washed out as it looks a bit bright. A way the photographer could prevent this in the future would be to make the exposure lower.

Focus.
Is the main subject in focus? Is it sharp focus, or a "soft" focus? Is the focus appropriate for the situation? 

The main subject in this image is not in focus, I personally think the focus on this image is soft but it is appropriate for the situation.






Depth of Field (DOF).
Is the DOF shallow or deep? Does the DOF work in this shot, or should more (or less) of the photo be in focus?  
I don't think the depth of field of this image is shallow, I think its kind of deep, this is because you can see the background clearly so its not shallow or you would not be able to see the background as clear as you can. The DOF in this image works, I think this because if the focus was just on the person and you could not seen the background I don't think the image itself would work, but I do think there could be a little more focus on the main subject being the woman.

Lighting / White balance.
Is the light soft or harsh? Does the type of lighting enhance or detract from the things in the photo? Is the white balance set correctly? Is there a yellowish, orangey, or greenish cast to the photo? 
The lighting in this image is harsh, I know this because there is a shadow, soft lighted photographs don't have shadows, I think this type of lighting enhances thins in this image.

2. Critique the composition. 
Centred vs. "Rule of Thirds".
Is the main subject in the centre of the frame? Is it on a third? Somewhere else? Does the chosen composition work, or would you have done something differently? 
The main subject is in the centre of the frame, it does appear to be on a third, the chosen composition of this image does in fact work very well, I would of don't nothing different as a generally like this image

Fore, Middle, and Backgrounds.
(Most applicable to landscape photos) Does the photo contain all three? If not, do you think it would be better if it did? 
This image has a foreground, begin the main image, and a background being the wall, I think having a middle ground would make the image better.

Cropping/Framing.
Is there wasted empty space is the photo? Should the crop have been tighter? Is it cropped so tightly that important parts of the photo have been cut-off? 
I think the only wasted space would be the top, above her head I think its an unnecessarily large gap, I would make he crop on tis tighter at the top but maybe wider on the sides.

Colour / Tonal Range.
What type of colours do you see? Did the photographer use many primary colours? Secondary? Complementary? Are the colours too vivid? Not vivid enough? If you are looking at a B&W photo, is there a true black, true white, with a large tonal range in between, or is the photo too "grey"? 
I don't think there is no true black or white in this image, the black is a bit dull and the white a bit off coloured and also dull. This photo is too "grey", the only true black is her jacket but it  appears that is not the only black thing in the image.

Diagonals, S-Curves, etc.
Did the photographer make use of any visually interesting elements, such as diagonal lines or S-curves?
I don't think there are any S-cuves but I do think there is one diagonal line, that being her leg.

Leading lines.
Do the lines and overall composition make you want to look deeper into the photo? Is your eye drawn into the photo, or out of it? 
The lines and composition do not make me want to look deeper, my eyes are drawn into the photo but not kept there, this is because of the line away from the main subject. The triangles on the subject make your eyes stay but after a while you start to look at her shadow, the floor, the wall.

Dark vs. Light areas.
Are there too many bright areas? Too many dark areas? 
 There is a even amount of dark and light areas but they are not too dark nor too light.

Balance.
Is the photo "balanced"? Would it be better if there were other objects or other light/dark areas in the frame to improve the balance? If the photo is off balance, is there a reason for it? 
I think the image is balanced, there could be other subjects involved in the image but I think that would throw the balance of the image.

 3. How does it make you feel? 

What mood do you see in the photo? 
When look at this photo I see the mood is calm I think this because the subject looks calm, she's just sat there smoking a cigarette, nothing is involved in the image its just her on her own so nothing is bothering her.

Do you think this mood is what the photographer intended? 

I do think this mood in intended as I don't think there could be another mood intended in this photograph. If there is I fail to see or find the other mood, so if there is another image then the photographer needs to make it clearer as it is no shown in this image.

Martin Parr

Research Martin Parr

1. Critique the technique. 

Exposure.
Is any area overexposed or underexposed? If so, can you say why you think that happened? How could the photographer prevent this problem in the future? 

In the image chosen above, the exposure is good, this is because it is not overexposed or underexposed.

Focus.
Is the main subject in focus? Is it sharp focus, or a "soft" focus? Is the focus appropriate for the situation? 

This image has a sharp but soft focus in some places, for example the main woman at the front has a sharp focus but the women in the back have a soft focus.

Depth of Field (DOF).
Is the DOF shallow or deep? Does the DOF work in this shot, or should more (or less) of the photo be in focus? 

The depth of field in this image is shallow, i know this because the focus is on the woman at the front and not those at the back, i personal think that if they would of made the dept of field a little stronger to make the focus more on the woman at the front the image would of been better, as you can see the women in the back clearly and in some are just out of focus, this is why i believe the image would benefit with a stronger depth of field.

Lighting / White balance.
Is the light soft or harsh? Does the type of lighting enhance or detract from the things in the photo? Is the white balance set correctly? Is there a yellowish, orangey, or greenish cast to the photo? 

The lighting in this image is soft, this is because Parr has used bounce flash, the lighting does neither enhance or detract from the things in the photo. There are no colour casts to this photo, the colour balance is set correctly.

2. Critique the composition. 
Centred vs. "Rule of Thirds".
Is the main subject in the centre of the frame? Is it on a third? Somewhere else? Does the chosen composition work, or would you have done something differently? 
The subject of the photograph is not in the centre, its is a rule of thirds, this is because she isn't centred she on the left side, i think having the rule of thirds does work.

Fore, Middle, and Backgrounds.
(Most applicable to landscape photos) Does the photo contain all three? If not, do you think it would be better if it did? 

 I think the image does contain a fore, middle and background. As the main subject which is the girl would be the foreground. The girls which are behind her would be the middle ground and the other people and walls etc would be the background.

Cropping/Framing.
Is there wasted empty space is the photo? Should the crop have been tighter? Is it cropped so tightly that important parts of the photo have been cut-off? 
I think the image could of been cropped, Theres no space wasted but the crop could be tighter, I personally think that the image could be cropped closer to the main images, being the girl, I could of come in more near her back to get rid of the bit behind her, I think t it could of been cropped on the other side but it would get rid of the character of the photo, I think that the women in the middle and background make it better.

Colour / Tonal Range.
What type of colours do you see? Did the photographer use many primary colours? Secondary? Complementary? Are the colours too vivid? Not vivid enough? If you are looking at a B&W photo, is there a true black, true white, with a large tonal range in between, or is the photo too "grey"? 

There are no primary or secondary colours, the main colours used are very natural, there are whites and blacks and browns.

Diagonals, S-Curves, etc.
Did the photographer make use of any visually interesting elements, such as diagonal lines or S-curves? 
In this image there are quite a lot of triangles that keep your eye in the picture as well as diagonal lines but there are not s-curves.

Leading lines.
Do the lines and overall composition make you want to look deeper into the photo? Is your eye drawn into the photo, or out of it? 
 My eyes are drawn to the main image, but after a while they wander off to things behind and next to her as they are still slightly in focus.

Dark vs. Light areas.
Are there too many bright areas? Too many dark areas? 
There is a mixture of a lot of dark and light areas, I personally don't think theres too many or too little.

Balance.
Is the photo "balanced"? Would it be better if there were other objects or other light/dark areas in the frame to improve the balance? If the photo is off balance, is there a reason for it? 
I think the photo is slightly off balance due to the fact that half of the image is very bright, with a lot of whites involved and the other is dark with a lot of blacks, I personally think that the photographer did this to show different contrasts within the image, i think with the black being so bold it distracts your eye from the main image who is on the bright side, it feels like something is at the side of your eye so you have to look.

3. How does it make you feel?
What mood do you see in the photo? 
My mood for this image is neutral, I'm not happy or sad, or entertained or bored, I'm in the middle, it doesn't get to me, its just sort of there.

Do you think this mood is what the photographer intended? 

Im not sure what mood the photographer intended, if it is the mood i feel then i can feel what is intended but if its another mood then I'm not sure what it could be as i don't really feel anything.

Does it make you happy? Sad? Angry? 

Did the photographer succeed in telling his/her story with the photograph? Why or why not? 
There is no story to this image, there was no name, it was in a folder titled "Paris" so he did succeed in showing us his story of Paris but not in this one image you would have to look at them as a collective group.

Do you like the photo? In addition, more importantly, say WHY you like the photo, or why you do not. 
I do like this photo, I'm not too sure why I do, I think its just the way it is, the way they're  dressed down, in a simple white robe but they're faces and hair are done up, ready for their show, I think I like that side of the photo.

Would you hang this photo on your wall? Why or why not?
I would not hang this image on my wall, this is because I do not want random women on my wall as nice as the photo is, pictures I would put on my wall will have relevance and meaning to my life.

Colour Balance

This task was Photoshop based, we had to select an image and then open it in Photoshop and we went to the side bar on the right and selected colour balance which is the little scales, and then we changed the colour, to do this we dragged only one bar to the colour we wanted. For the first one we changed it to red, then cyan, magenta, green, blue and yellow and we screen shot each one to show what we did.

White Balance

In this task we were asked to take pictures using white balance. Each picture represents different types of white balance, white balance itself is the process of  removing unrealistic colour casts, a colour cast is a tint of a certain colour, so by selecting the correct white balance the image will not have a funny tinge to it but it will be the correct colour. While experimenting with the different types of white balance in the same place, we saw that some might the image look a bit dark and really blue, such as the first and second image on the second row, the first images was tungsten, which is indoor such as a light bulb  and the second is white fluorescent as these are both not natural lighting the colour will not be correct, to have the correct images you will have to change the white balance to the correct one, for example there are white balances such as (from the first image) daylight, shade, cloudy, tungsten light, white fluorescent light and flash, using these correctly will result in the correct image colouring.