Image Doctor: The critiques!
A regular part of Australian Photography magazine for more than a decade, the Image Doctor, professional photographer Anthony McKee, can give constructive feedback on your images, with a selection of his favourite submissions appearing in print in AP mag every month.
If you want feedback on your images (it's free!), you can find out the details for submission here.
This month's winner
“I took this photo of a Western Spinebill after waiting a while for him to come back to this bush. It's not the sharpest photo but I'm pretty happy with it and just want some basic feedback on this image.”
Anthony’s Tip: Hi William, I like this image and while you might not think it is sharp enough (possibly because the exceptionally fast movement in the bird’s wing has created some blur) you have still applied appropriate technique. The one thing that I think would make the photo more interesting though, would be if you were to have shot in the horizontal as opposed to the vertical; I can’t help feeling that the left of the frame is a little too close to the bird’s tail.
The other adjustment that might make this image just a little more interesting would be to select the background (hopefully using the original RAW file) and to pull it back about half a stop, just to get a bit more tone into the picture. Otherwise, good effort.
TITLE: Western Spinebill
PHOTOGRAPHER: William Haddrill
DETAILS: Canon R7, 100-400mm lens @ 400mm. 1/800s @ f8, ISO 1600.
“I am an amateur photographer and have been photographing for one year and have completed my studies in Photography. I made this photo in an old abandoned sheep shearing shed. My subject was playing around with ballet poses while I was using the background as a texture. I was able to snap this image as her hair was falling over her face, but I don't know how I feel about it.”
Anthony’s Tip: Hi Caroline, a collaboration of talent can be a wonderful way of exploring new ideas, but while you might occasionally fluke a great shot, most of the time you will have to work the situation.
Yes, you took a model to an old woolshed, but what are we seeing of this model or even the woolshed? A hand and a mop of hair?
Not every image needs to be a literal interpretation of the scene, but good abstract images still need some level of narrative to be interesting.
I would be going back to this location with your model, but this time shoot a little wider, or try placing the model against a wall to bring textures together, or try combining her movement with slow shutter speeds. Keep exploring the options.
TITLE: Caroline Stargatt
PHOTOGRAPHER: Curly Girl
DETAILS: Canon 800D, Canon 18-200mm lens @ 40mm. 1/60s @ f5.6, ISO 400.
“This image was shot at a local Under 18’s footy match. I was impressed by the athleticism of the two players contesting the ruck and wanted to try and capture the action from a low (kneeling) perspective to emphasise their height in the contest.”
Anthony’s Tip: Hi Wayne, one of the challenges of sports photography is knowing where to be at the right time. I mean, how much better would this photo be had you been on the direct opposite side of this play as both these guys were going for the ball?
What I think you can do to make this photo more interesting though is to re-crop the image upwards. You will notice there is plenty of ground beneath the players’ feet, and not much sky above the ball.
Open the image in Photoshop, go to the crop tool and just move the crop upwards so there is less ground beneath the players’ feet, then you could use generative AI to put more sky in above the ball. While we still might not be seeing the players’ faces we will at least have given those players a chance to reach up into the air and catch the ball!
TITLE: Young Guns Fly
PHOTOGRAPHER: Wayne Peters
DETAILS: EOS 7D, 70-200 f2.8 lens @ 185mm. 1/1000s @ f2.8, ISO 100.
“I captured this image in Burnett Heads at a local spot. It was captured using my Canon EOS RP on a small tripod. Any feedback on how I could do better would be appreciated.”
Anthony’s Tip: Hey Joseph, one question every photographer should ask of their subject is, what is your message to me? As I look at this mass of boulders on a shoreline, I see boldness and courage. Each of these rocks probably started life as a jagged strata over a million years ago, and over time they have been bashed and polished into the uniform shape we see now, much like soldiers in an army.
For me, this photo needs to turn those boulders into heroes, and one of the best ways to do this is to crop this image to a vertical and make more of the foreground.
My quiet hope is that you did also make a photo of this scene in the vertical, and somehow I think if you have a look at it you will realise that this is your winning image.
TITLE: Burnett Heads Sunrise
PHOTOGRAPHER: Joseph McCormack
DETAILS: Canon EOS RP, 24-105mm f4-7.1 lens @ 24mm. 8s @ f16, ISO 100.
“I recently went hiking in Alpine National Park for two nights and found this river on the second night. I instantly created the composition in my mind and knew that golden hour would light the scene in an unparalleled way.
This is a HDR image and I removed some small branches on the left hand side of the image. No AI was used in any parts of this photograph.”
Anthony’s Tip: Hi Niam, learning how our eyes interrogate a scene can make all the difference to how we process our images. This photo is a classic example – look at it and ask yourself, where are your eyes going?
Our eyes should be enjoying all that rich detail in the foreground but instead our eyes keep wandering up to the sky, simply because by default our eyes are always drawn to the brightest part of the scene.
To get about this problem most landscape photographers will typically darken their skies. One way of doing this has been to use a Graduated Filter, but more often than not most photographers will now darken the sky in post.
Typically, I expose for the sky and then (having shot RAW) I will use an adjustment brush to brighten the foreground. Keep up the good work.
TITLE: The Flow
PHOTOGRAPHER: Niam Yagnik
DETAILS: Canon M50 Mark II, 15-45mm lens @ 15mm. 2s @ f9, ISO 160.