Excited to announce my latest Lynda.com video –Learning to Critique Photos which is now live on the Lynda site.
I can’t bear to watch that face for too long but if you’re wanting to improve as a photographer it should be worth staring at that face for a while. Don’t worry I intersperse a bunch of images in between. The idea of becoming more visually literate—gaining the ability to identify and describe the elements of a successful image—can improve how you capture and edit photos. By learning photo critique, how to evaluate photographs, you can help elevate the quality of images taken by yourself and others. The course is designed to increase your ability to recognize what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to achieving a successful composition, something students I encounter are often unsure of.
This course is the perfect foundation for my weekly “Critique Of The Week” show which will begin airing in the new year.
The Course Description
Join Steve Simon as he deconstructs images through critique. Grow your awareness of the impact your choices make on the interpretation of an image. Enhance your command of shutter speed, depth of field, focal plane, and more, to help convey a specific meaning. Learn how to study, review, and analyze images, sharpening your photographic eye and expanding your visual vocabulary.
Topics Include:
Identifying strong photographs
Deconstructing images
Understanding the impact of shutter speed, focus, and depth of field
Interpreting the visual weight of an image
Evaluating the lighting
Determining whether to convert an image to black and white
Changing the meaning of an image by cropping
Timing and the moment
Designing in the image
Developing a visual vocal vocabulary
Since I have a hard time watching, if you watch–let me know what you think in the comments section. Good critique is essential to our development as photographers. Therefore, would love to hear your critique of the course. I can take it extra spicy. Will check the comments, with tissues at my ready. Tell it like it is…
“Designing your compositions is not just for aesthetic purposes. Good design means arranging the elements in the photo for the purpose of getting your message across most effectively. We have certain control, choosing how we work. The camera we use, the lens angle, shutter speed, aperture, they all have an affect on what will be emphasized and communicated in the final photo. Of course there’s no one right way to combine all of the above, but there are certain design principles and established compositional guides that artists have long used to their advantage, which tend to create stronger visuals…” Steve S.
