1. Proper Criticism of Photography
So nicely created by Mary Kate O’Connell
Mr. Boothby
Photographic Imaging 1
December 14, 2012

2. “Crit”
• “A crit involves a group of people looking carefully at a
selection of photographs, such as those you will be producing
for the exercises in this book, and analyzing or judging them.”
• Why do we crit?
- We criticize others in order to prepare ourselves for taking
our own photos. To understand how to take good
pictures, seeing the pros and cons of other people’s work can
help you a lot. When you criticize the work of others, you can
see what you like and dislike about other people’s photography.
Once you discover what you don’t like, you will understand not
to do the same thing.

3. Evaluating a Print
• To critique a print, you must answer the following questions:
1. What's good about it?
2. What's not good?
3. What could be better?
• When people judge photography, they tend to only enjoy the picture if
it is a photo of something they like. People need to put the things they
don’t like aside, and see the actual depth and beauty of the photo.

4. Now, Let’s Begin…
• For starters, when you’re looking to critique a photo, say it
nicely. The last thing you want to do is hurt someone’s
feelings.
• Good photos must be valuable, clear and very presentable. If
a photo does not contain those items, you have every right to
start critiquing.

5. Value
A photo has good value when:
• When there is a good balance of light
• Good contrast
• Decent brightness
You need to be able to distinguish the difference
between good and bad grays in a black and
white photo. Is the picture too dark? Is it too
light? These factors can greatly increase or
decrease the value of a photo.

6. Clarity
• A subject may either look sharp like a knife, or
soft like a blanket!
• When a photo doesn’t have clarity, the edges are
blurrier than they should be. This is not
acceptable. This is when you should start
critiquing.
• The main object of the photo should be clear and
in focus. This is when you know your picture has
clarity.
CLARITY IS A MUST!

7. The Art of Presentation
• As it clearly states in Chapter 4, a photo has to
be clean. A picture cannot contain any
scratches, dust, glitches, and absolutely NO
HICKIES!
Make sure you do not have any blemishes in
your photography.
Once you complete this, your pictures should be
ready for viewing by others.

8. Composition
• Composition is your style!
• Make sure the photo has:
1. Cropping
2. Lines
3. Aesthetics
HAPPY CRITTING!

9. Example #1 Dust
The picture to the right is a decent picture.
There are several nice elements, yet some
very horrid elements.
For starters, the photo has a nice starfish.
The starfish is in focus, and therefore
demonstrates clarity. The different shades of
gray in the photo are also very flattering. It Dust
looks cool with the dark contrast in the Dust
back, and a lighter contrast in the front. It
gives the photograph a kind of
mysterious, eerie feel to it.
When you take a close look at the
photo, you realize that there are some major
blemishes. There are a lot of dust and
scratches. If the photographer had simply
taken some time to edit his photo, he
could’ve had a brilliant piece.

10. Scratch
Example #2
In this photo, there isn’t much wrong
with it. The penguins are in focus, and
are very clear. Even the ocean, sand and
reflections are in focus as well. The only
down side with this photograph is that
in the water behind the penguin on the
right, there is a little mark that appears
to be a scratch. With the exception of
that scratch, this photo is near perfect.
http://www.naturephotographermag.com/index.p
hp?option=com_phocagallery&view=detail&catid
=1:featured&id=20:coyote-with-a-
snack&tmpl=component&Itemid=6

11. Example #3
This picture is so amazing. It has no visible
blemishes. It is definitely in focus. The object
being photographed is also a very interesting
thing to look at. It has a great dark and light
focus area. The fact that the top right corner
of her face is dark, makes questions run
through your mind. Why is that spot dark? Is
she not supposed to be eating the blackberry?
Is she hiding from someone? The fact that this
picture makes me ask these questions is great.
This is a fabulous photo, and from the naked
human eye, I can’t see anything wrong with
this amazing picture. http://www.jonathankantor.com/index.php
#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=11&p=3&a=0&at
=0

12. All information is from the Photographic Eye
The penguin The picture from
picture from slide 11 is from
http://www.jonathankanto
slide 10, is from r.com/index.php#mi=2&pt
http://www.naturephotogr =1&pi=10000&s=11&p=3&
aphermag.com/index.php?o a=0&at=0
ption=com_phocagallery&vi
ew=detail&catid=1:featured
&id=20:coyote-with-a-
snack&tmpl=component&It
emid=6
By: Michael F. O’Brien and Norman Sibley

13. Thank You!
• This power point “was made possible by
viewers like you. Thank you.” –Wise words of
PBS
• I hope you now understand the art of
properly critiquing.