Twenty images were selected to be critiqued and the winners have been chosen. Do you agree with the ratings?
Congratulations to Nico Socha for submitting the highest community rated image and to Chris Jollie for being the randomly selected entrant to win a free Fstopppers original tutorial. We will be in touch with both of you via your Fstoppers profile to claim your prize.
If you would like to be a part of the next Critique the Community, we are going to have Elia Locardi in the studio with us giving feedback to your best landscape images. Submit your entries HERE.
Thank You very much! The image was originally not black and white but I like it because it is not typically "beauty" as expected.
Here is the original version: https://fstoppers.com/photo/280750
And also thanks to the community!
I think I like this color version even more! Great image
What blows my mind is how low some of these photos are scored. It's absolutely astonishing. I wonder if the people who score them so low can do any better.
Go the community and look at some of highest rated images. Those should be the standard for what you aspire to be in any genre.
Photography is subjective if you take away the technical aspect out of the picture. Nonetheless I stand by my comment that some of the photos in this list are scored way too low. I noticed this over the past several months that many users here are simply mean.
I agree to some degree. The ratings on the FS Community are from other photographers who are def more harsh than the general public. I think that's a good thing though. It's easy to post a photo on Instagram and get 2,000 likes and feel great about yourself but it can also feel like your mom telling you your work is great simply because she is biased and wants to be encouraging.
My suggestion is always to use both the FS community and a more public platform like Instagram to get a wide overview of how your work is received. It's a lot like music, the general public will consume poorly written pop music that is cut and pasted and compressed to the point of no dynamics but if you shared that pop song with a real musician you admire, they'd probably not find much value in it. It's all subjective but you can still try to qualify the overall art in some capacity.
I'd like for FStoppers to institute a mandatory comment rule when judging a photo. Simply clicking on stars is utterly useless. The scoring system is like saying your photo sucks, but without an explanation. It isn't helping especially the ones who are still learning. In the real world when someone criticizes something we expect a reason not a simple I don't like it. People are lazy to begin with, but giving them a medium where they can freely practice this laziness is even worse.
I agree, the whole contest is scored very low. For instance, my images get 4-5 stars on my profile but here only 3-3,4. Also some other photographers are higher scored on their profile. But as David Strauss mentioned everybody wants to win and score others lower than they would be scoring on their profiles.
There is no doubt this is true and I'm not sure how to really solve this. My suggestion is to always view both ratings. The reason we can't import the ratings from the community is that those who have 100s of votes that are 4 stars would always win even if a new image that was a 5 was submitted. It's def a tough situation to fix.
Maybe when you have posted a contest contribution, you can not vote for the competition. Only those who have nothing to win or lose can vote. Then maybe the voting would be impartial and more fair?
FStoppers should have a rewarding system based on how much you give feedback and rate pictures, so that more people get involved both in contests and overall.
Critique the community - toxic masculinity edition!
Watching two guys rate and comment on women’s bodies is gross enough but Patrick crossed a line...I know his argument is he’s just being honest and its what sells, but he’s wrong. Companies are using different body types to sell beauty product. There’s even been campaigns that use untouched up models or models without makeup. And guess what, the photographers that took those photos where able to make the photos look damn good! Companies are finding out that this fucked up regresssive stick figure idea of “beauty” isn’t what all customers what, and that representation can sell...
On the last picture it was particularly gross... that picture had some serious photographic issues but Patrick could stop talking about how hot the models where...
Hate to burst your bubble but almost every #nofilter photo you see are actually photoshopped. It's a massively unethical situation but I personally know several retouchers who work for major brands that specialize in the "unretouched retouch" look.
Again, this has nothing to do with body shaming or being harsh for the sake of being harsh. Walk down any cosmetic isle or open any magazine and count the number of unattractive men and females used to promote products. I'd venture to say the only "normal" looking people you will see are celebrities.
You can argue points about companies like Lane Bryant but they are still marketing towards a very specific demographic.
Again, this isn't about being mean or body shaming but rather putting your absolute best foot forward in your own photography portfolio so that you can be successful as a photographer.
Yeah Patrick, cause this is totally not a thing, i’m just making it up
https://www.ae.com/featured-aeriereal/aerie/s-cms/6890055
And my comments aren’t just about retouching, its how you attacked acutal bodies and praised other skinner bodies
It's still a relatively small subset. American Eagle's page looks nothing like Aerie's page and we shall see how long this trend lasts. I still stand behind the idea that you should make your own photography portfolio look as amazing and high end as you can and then you can always execute the goal of a specific brand once they hire you. If you were to use the images on the Aerie underwear sales page as your own portfolio, I'd be willing to bet you wouldn't get the same high paying gigs you would get if your portfolio looked like the Express underwear sales page.
And just a small caveat here, you are pulling from a more lifestyle oriented page than a true beauty page. If you are aiming to shoot for Mac, L'Oreal, Maybelline, or other high end beauty brands, I think you'd be silly to use models that aren't above or extremely above average in looks.
Most videos when there’s usually a “well this isn’t standard x but if your whole photofollio is this and your customer is y then it would work” type critique.
Take the photo that you made the psa on. There was some serious photographic issues with that photo. But that model would fit in perfectly with an aerie or dove campaign given that the photographer could bring the skills. Then take the last photo with the two models. Yep those models fit the “normal” standard of beauty but those eyes where a mess. They loopked completely blurry. Yet you’re all like “you got beautiful models” so its cool the guy jacket the eyes right?
Honestly part of the fun of these videos are when your off the mark (ie that’s clearly a picture of yellowstone that you guys think is some strange or exotic place, and eagles fight like that a lot, its not this rare thing)...but here it just comes off as sexist bs. Honestly if you start the intro to the contest (ie last video) with a only bring hot models statement and then double down on it how welcomed do you think photographers that take phototo that are 5s for a dove or aerie campaign would feel?
Yeah express would never cast a plus size model
https://www.express.com/exp/womens/express-one-eleven
The sales page: https://www.express.com/womens-clothing/express-one-eleven-lounge/cat285...
https://www.target.com/c/plus-size-clothing-women-s/-/N-5ouvj
https://www.glossier.com/category/body
https://people.com/style/m-a-c-cosmetics-features-plus-size-woman-in-gro...
Do i need to find more? It might not be your thing, but there is a market there for 4 or 5 star beauty images with non-traditional models. Why are you guys ok pointing this out in every other critique the community (ie if the this doesn’t seem on point but if this is your whole portfolio then it makes sense) but are drawing a line in the sand on this one?
I was left wanting to see at least one African American image over a 2. I am just saying. Maybe it is just me. Something to think about next critique.