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Photography Final Critique

ghall

ghall

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 27, 2006
3,771
1
Rhode Island
I have to take a photography class as a part of my schools graphic design program. I though I'd share a few of my pics to get a critique before I have to turn it in. The theme is video games. Originally I had lightly touched up photos without any kind of weird posterizing, but my instructor suggested it. I think it looks terrible, but I want to get a wider opinion.
 

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I agree with you, looks like garbage. Do you know what they will be evaluating (because there isn't much to evaluate on this)?
 
i'd recommend stepping away from the video games and get outside! lots of stuff to photograph outdoors
 
If your instructor is also grading and it was their idea then leave it, but its stupid as sin. Honestly. This isn't "photography". Sure you took a photo but it jumped to the realm of graphic art when you post processed like that.

Already the photos are inanimate objects and to make them more interesting you had to do something, but the recommendation to go this route was a bad idea in my opinion.

Overall, it's not super creative. I guess my beef is not so much about the shots of the objects but the processing.

Again, if the teacher who said to do it is the grader then leave it.
 
SnowX said:
I agree with you, looks like garbage. Do you know what they will be evaluating (because there isn't much to evaluate on this)?
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He's grading it on originality, he also likes stuff that makes it hard to see what it is. I preferred the straight up photos, but he hated them and seems to like these. He saw me working on them and was like "now you're getting it!"

Should I be scared that I have this same instructor for web design next semester? :p
 
I hope he's a better teacher at web design. As it is, I would suggest that you learn photography from somebody else. At that amount of posterizing, you might as well just draw those in illustrator.
 
Getting What?

I would like to know what the "it" in "Getting it" is from your instructors viewpoint. The image as is shows me nothing other than that the student knows how to trash something in PhotoShop. My design instructor taught us to use hard filters like this when the original really was bad and we had to hide defects. But even then, he taught us to lean towards making it into a piece of art. This is not art (no offense to you intended). I would rather take a grade hit than sign off on something like this. If this was a pay job, things would be different. If a client wants crap and signs the check, I'm OK with that. But it will never make my professional portfolio.

Dale
 
Designer Dale said:
This is not art (no offense to you intended).
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None taken. I totally agree. Unfortunately I need the grade.

For those who said "get outside", the camera I was using isn't mine. It was a Nikon D60 my school owns, and I didn't feel comfortable taking it outside. :p
 
I like the component cables. I think the effect works there, because it draws attention to the traditional colour-coded nature of component cables.

The rest, not so much. :/ But, if the instructor likes them, that's the important thing right now. You've got plenty of time to do your own thing, if it's for grades or money, you might as well get the best grade you can.
 
modular said:
i'd recommend stepping away from the video games and get outside! lots of stuff to photograph outdoors
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I agree with him... Try doing this kind of photography outside where theres a lot more subjects that you can have rather than having one subject in this picture. But it's what your instructor suggested so lol give him what he wants! Very creative kind of photography thought!
 
The theme is video games, so how would going outside help?

They may not be conventional images/photographs, but just copying a standard style doesn't push the boundaries. Also 'liking' shouldn't always be the judgement criteria.

I do agree that a similar result could be obtained using Illustrator.
 
I like it. Video Games are full of vivid colors and sometimes the colors clash. By themselves, the photos might not work, but as a series...i think its pretty good. Besides, you are a graphic artist...you gave it a graphic feel. Stick with it!
:)
 
those are not photography! Those are graphic design. With graphic design, you can take any crappy photos and make it look "WOW" :D
 
wheelhot said:
those are not photography! Those are graphic design. With graphic design, you can take any crappy photos and make it look "WOW" :D
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And yet even still, it doesn't look like "wow".

I would be wary of an instructor like this to be quite honest.
 
It's hard to know exactly what course this is, and what the instructor was thinking. The standard might be quite low, it might not be, impossible for me to say from here. Obviously these are balls, but this is pretty extreme posterisation, there is more subtlety possible and it is conceivable that when your instructor said 'getting it' he didn't mean you were there.

If I was stuck with this idea I would, [and I am a science student not an arts one, just a warning!], take photographs which were identifiably the things in question, which say something about 'video games'. I would then give them a punchy treatment which does not render them vague or hideous. I would then assemble these into a panel I think, rather than displaying them individually, to try and say something. You are doing 'graphic design' after all.
 
For those who are curious I just got my final grade. Scored a B- which is better than I would have given it.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts, I'll definitely keep them in mind if I have to do something similar again (hopefully with a different instructor, LOL).
 
The professor is a tough grader... on himself.

ghall said:
For those who are curious I just got my final grade. Scored a B- which is better than I would have given it.
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That's actually funny. Was the grade based on these images only, or were there others? If this is the whole assignment, then I have to shake my head and/or laugh at your professor... he told you what to do, and you did it, and he gave you a B-? Not to mention his comment "Now you're getting it," which certainly sounds like at least a B+.
 
ghall said:
He's grading it on originality, he also likes stuff that makes it hard to see what it is. I preferred the straight up photos, but he hated them and seems to like these. He saw me working on them and was like "now you're getting it!"

Should I be scared that I have this same instructor for web design next semester? :p
Click to expand...

I had a photography "professor" in college who was a freaking idiot. I can't remember the exact class but it was one that did incorporate basic web design as it relates to photography and she was teaching stuff that was easily two-year-old information and way outdated.

It was the most frustrating experience to put answers on tests that I knew were wrong, in order to get the passing grade because she thought they were right.

But as you seem to understand these professors control your grade and future so make sure to learn it "their way" and be prepared to forget it after the semester ends.

What kind of photography are you personally interested in? What do you like to shoot for fun?
 
Flash SWT said:
I had a photography "professor" in college who was a freaking idiot. I can't remember the exact class but it was one that did incorporate basic web design as it relates to photography and she was teaching stuff that was easily two-year-old information and way outdated.

It was the most frustrating experience to put answers on tests that I knew were wrong, in order to get the passing grade because she thought they were right.

But as you seem to understand these professors control your grade and future so make sure to learn it "their way" and be prepared to forget it after the semester ends.

What kind of photography are you personally interested in? What do you like to shoot for fun?
Click to expand...

I'm actually not interested in photography, it's a required course for my major.

SUPERSTEVE9219 said:
what school do you go to if you don't mind me asking?
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New England Institute of Technology
 
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