Monthly Critique [Our Writers Sound Off]

As a new feature here on Digital Photography School, we are going to start a guest panel of DPS writers to critique one photo a month.  The writers for DPS have a wide range of backgrounds and experience and most of have been into digital photography for at least five to seven years.  This is not meant as a scientific, objective review of the photo at hand, but instead is meant to give a wide variety of opinions on a particular piece.  Each critique is simply the opinion of the DPS writers – and of course we’d love you to join us in the review by leaving constructive feedback in comments below.

This month’s photo was sent in by Vasco Casquilho from Portugal.  First the image and then the critiques.

And now for the critiques from DPS writers:

Barrie Smith – “I feel this is an excellent attempt at the technique but feel, if it were a frame from a burst of shots, that a frame before or after would have been better. I know how difficult these shots are to catch successfully but still think it needs more definition on the bullfighter. One solution is to crop the shot down to the left half of the picture, showing only the bulls head and the bullfighter; the bull’s extended torso spoils the comp.”

Helen Bradley – “I like the motion in this image a lot although I find the area of saturated red at the top of the image a little distracting. I would prefer a tighter crop to remove some of this so the eye is focused more on the centre of the action – the bull’s head and the matador.”

Chas Elliot– “I love it when photographers break out of the mold of needing to have everything sharp and in focus.  Using long shutter speeds and shaking the camera can result in abstract photos full of  interesting shapes and streaks of light.  What I like about this photo is that it’s right on the edge of being abstract or being a traditional action shot.  The colors and shapes are striking, with the added benefit of being able to recognize the action in the scene.  I’d hang it on my wall”

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