Classmate Self Portrait Critique

For my critique I chose Tom Ibrahim's self portrait project.

Tom's first photo, of the cherries and the basket, was beautiful. I loved the contrast of the dark red cherries and the light colored basket, and the framing was nicely done, because nothing was central to the frame.

The second, of the kayak, was also nicely framed, though I wish the background had been more interesting. It was a cool photo, but because it didn't show something interesting past the bright yellow kayak that was, again, well placed in the frame, I was left wanting.

His third photo was rather disappointing to me, especially after the incredibly interesting first two. The plants he was photographing almost evenly split the frame, a mark of an amateur photographer that could have easily been fixed with cropping, and there wasn't a lot of color contrast, which made it feel like we were just looking at grass.

The fourth photo, of the purple flower, had a nice color contrast and story behind it, but the photo was blurry and that took away from my viewing experience. Fading the saturation of everything but the flower would have been a nice way to hide that and to bring out the contrast better, as well as upping the sharpness and clarity (specifically in camera raw).

The fifth image was fun, and I appreciated the break from nature, because it showed a range in Tom's personality. I liked that the framing of the group was off center, because it gave a sense of movement and fun to a fairly precarious looking trust circle, or whatever it was.

Overall, I really liked Tom's midterm project, and thought he did a good job synthesizing each image for viewers.