good critique

i love it when you get a good critique on a photo.

i know you've seen this picture already but I wanted to share with you a critique I got for this picture on photo.net and since I wanted to share the critique I thought i'd show the picture again... this time I desaturated it so its a little different.

photo.net used to be full of good critiques a place where you could improve, and now people rarely give a thoughtful critique anymore just low ratings...

but i did get this from a new member... a very helpful critique

Hello Jim!

I think the triangle made by your three "avatars" is not perfect. I feel the need to see your head on the right side higher than your image in the mirror, otherwise they are on the same horizontal level (or line), which makes the composition suffer. Than, you shoudn't crop the photo down, by cutting your fingers. For me, this a wrong way of framing. Also, the composition is not correctly balanced because of the same directions of your eyes are looking. All three are directed from right to left and meet virtually outside the frame. What would you think about your mirrored image to look on the opposite side and "meet" your look from behind the courtain?

The clock is showing 10 a.m or 10 p.m.? Because, even if you looked stressed and somehow in a hurry in the left and right doubles, you take time to reed a magazine / book while sitting on the WC. Have you waked up late in the morning and now you're in a rush or is it someone else waiting outside, to get to the toilet?

Well, I find this picture interesting and original (from the ideea) but still to be improved. Find a funny and inspired title to it. It deserves it. Tip: if lack of inspiration, ask your visitors to name it... ;-) Organize a contest, choose the best one that fits.

Regards,

Mirona Tatu

The cool thing about critiques is people with a new set of eyes can see things that you have overlooked or taken for granted. And by pointing out the things that you've missed it helps you look for them next time. I need to get better about going BACK and reshooting things to make them better... even though I say I'm a perfectionist... I guess I'm not because I'm to lazy to go back and fix things I need to get over that.

This photo actually took about 3 different tries I'm not sure how many hours that was but this was the third try.

I very much agree with Mirona's critique. The fact that I'm on the same horizon line in both of the pictures is because I am only so tall... but I guess I could have put a stool or something in the bathtub... the reason my hands are cut off on the sitting picture is because you're shooting blind (self timer) and I'm seated so i didn't know where my hands were going to be, I guess I could have fixed this by sitting on a telephone book. The mirror has to stay as is because the mirror when pulled out goes the opposite way and I was shooting as wide as I could (10mm) and I couldn't back up any further because my bathroom is very small. The clock reads 10:10 because that is the usual standard time for when clocks are set when they are shot. I felt that the clock added a balance to the overall compsosition. As far as gazes I cannot envision how to set this shot up so that it would be better when it comes to the direction of the gazes (i'm not saying that the way the gazes are set up now is good, in fact this critique has shown me that this picture is a good concept but most definitly needs to be reworked.)

jim baker