Photo Critique
The staff at PURSUE PICTURES occasionally selects a photo and conducts a brief critique on its strengths and weaknesses. It’s a nice lesson in some of the technical aspects of photography, and a good way for new photographers to gauge their own work against others. Lets take a look at this fun and quirky beach scene and what makes this photo stand out from the crowd. This image stands out for a lot of reasons, and one of its main strengths is in the quirky nature of its subject matter. What on earth is a lounge chair doing on a beach cliff? Additionally, it’s color — and the bright colors of the cushions — add to the intrigue of the picture. Those colors juxtaposed with the bright blue of the ocean and sky, and the natural quality of the rocks, also contributes to the fun and playful nature of this photo. It has a Wes Anderson kind of feel and does an awesome job evoking a mood and energy to the viewer. It also does a nice job of identifying its subject: it’s front and center and there are no questions about what we are supposed to be focusing our attention on.
Focus and color quality are correct, though it might be nice to see the chair in less of a profile and more of a three-quarter point of view. Still, it’s likely this photographer set up the photo this way, so I’ll trust this was the best of his series.
Areas this picture could improve are in the distractions the middle and background of this piece. There is an unknown object in the upper right hand corner of this photo that should be removed if possible and the boat in the background creates a strong visual distraction for our eyes, especially because of its linear quality and that it follows the basic sightline of the rock. While this is a fun piece with a great sense of humor and a specific style, its strengths would be elevated with some careful considerations about distractions and composition.