1. How to critique a
photo

2. Good critique...
...has an equal amount of positive and negative comments
...answers 3 questions:
What is good about it?
What is not good?
How could it be better?
...identifies the technical, objective factors that define a
photograph and evaluates them.

3. The four standarts:
-value
-clarity
-composition
-presentation

4. Value
-range of light in the photograph
-in general it's good to aim contrast
-good balance of black and white
-range of grays (distinguish between good and bad grays)
how to improve the value:
-most common is incorrect exposure when taking the photograph

5. Clarity
-whether it is correctly focused
-subject may be either sharp or soft
-sharp focus: edges are clearly defined
-soft focus: edges blur a bit
-center of interest is focused
How to improve clarity:
-focus is the most common problem
-using too large an aperture
-shutter speed

6. Presentation
-care and skill/ how clean is it?
-problems: white flecks, fingerprints, scratches, dark circles

7. Composition
-Is there a point of interest? (should be near the middle of the
frame)
-good cropping? wasted space? (frame should narrow in on what's
important)
-balance: top-heavy, lopsided, boring?
-static balance: just sits there, but can be
effective
-dynamic balance suggests movement
-Aesthetics: which photographs have that something, and which
don't

8. This picture has a high value, because it has a lot of contrast and a high range
of black and white. It also has a range of grays. It is rather softly focused but it
still has a high clarity and the center of interest is in focus. It is very clean and
there are no scratches or fingerprints on it. It has a good composition because
it is an interesting picture with good cropping and it has that something.

9. This picture has a high value because there is a lot of contrast between the rose
and the background. It has good clarity and is sharply focused. The center
of the interest ( the rose) is in focus.
It is very clean without any scratches, so it has a high presentation. The
cropping is good and there is no wasted space.

10. This picture doesn't have that much contrast. It has a range of
grays but I would improve the contrast to get a higher value. It is
softly focused, which looks good. There are no scratches.

11. Cites
http://www.photocritique.net/g/s?01LsQn (by
Mo Fridlich)
http://flairpix.com/famous-black-and-white-photographers/
( by Ansel Adams)
Picture from Chapter 4 Critical Eye (by Lena Aiken)