Critique the Community
Night Photography
Win one of two free Fstoppers' tutorials with your best image taken in the night.
Congratulations to the winners!
Twenty images taken at night were put in front of Lee and Patrick to rate. There was a lot of disagreement.
Congratulations to Mads Peter Iversen for submitting the image that earned the highest rating by the rest of the community. We'd also like to congratulate Alan White for being the random entrant to win a tutorial. We'll be in touch with you to claim your prize.
This episode contained some very controversial images. Lee and Patrick disagreed heavily on several of them and Lee giving out a rare 5 star rating. Do you think Lee or Patrick was more wrong in their ratings?
If you missed your chance to participate in this episode, our next Critique the Community will offer a brand new twist. Lee Morris and Mike Kelley will be critiquing your logos. We invite you to submit your logo on top of your favorite image now.
Rules & Prizes
For our next episode of Critique the Community, we will be taking a look at night time imagery. Enter your best shots now for your chance to win a free Fstoppers original tutorial.
Although your first thought for night time photography might be astrophotography or cityscapes, we will be looking for a much broader range of genres for this Critique. The main basis for our selections will be whether or not it is clear the shutter was pressed at night.
To enter, submit up to two of your best night time images below. Submissions will be accepted through June 18th, 2018 EST. Of the entrants, two winners will be selected and be given a free Fstoppers original tutorial. The first winner will be based on image that gets the highest average community rating. The second winner will be chosen at random.
The purpose of these contests is to provide helpful and accurate critical feedback to your fellow community members. Whether you've uploaded your own images or are just browsing the submissions, we encourage you to take a minute to scroll through and easily rate your fellow members pictures using your keypad and number arrows. Please keep your comments encouraging along with any feedback you provide.
Mon, 06/18/2018 - 23:45
This contest has ended.
448 people have cast a total of 31,280 votes on 471 entries from 305 participants
Contest Submissions
Click on the thumbnails below to comment and rate each image.
Click here to learn about the Fstoppers rating system and what each star value means.
59 Comments
Probably extending the system from 1 to 6 could help, with 1 as snapshot, 2 as poor composition are subject wich can't be improved, 3 as image wich needs some work to be done to it, 4 ready for portfolio, etc.
Well well well, look at what we got here :)
The London shot is the one you argued the hardest and he agreed with me on that one.
It's still a "needs work" on composition. I don't think "needs work" is only for the post
There is rarely a 1 around here. So if you see an image with a lot of flaws the urge to press 1 is quite high. Then you see an image that is not a 3 but much better than the one before it seems a bit unfair to rate them both a 2
I Think you were right in most of them but the London shot I have to agree with Patrick..
The London photo without the 'London' is defiantly a 2. Patrick is completely right here, it's by your definition cannot be a 2 star. Other matters are arguable.
I can't see a 'Girl in the bed' photo a 5 star. 5 is unforgettable, and I will forget about it tomorrow.
Wow this is gonna be a tough one. There are a lot of really good submissions so far.
I"m listening to this commentary right now and yes, Lee was absolutely out of his mind on this one!
The "girl in bed" photo was EPIC! Conveyed such mood.
by heaps of miles, the best ever critique! Hilarious!
Car shot - 4 - don't like the lamp as well but if i'd seen this at first glance on an add, my eyes would be on the car before looking at details! awesome.
London shot - 3 - could be seen on an add (cheap one) but if it sells, then it's worth having in your portfolio.
I've got no chance, with all these great Submissions, so far.
Neither do I, but it's fun to post one's work, especially night shots since they require a little different thought process. It's all fun!
I used to shoot stock photography. My highest selling image is a picture of my moms hand signing a sheet of paper. That will never be in my port.
the question is, can you see a cheap local tourism company using that pic to promote london? i can.
I would not rate it 3, but from the moment it has potential to be sold (and i do see that) then it could make your portfolio.
Is it a strong picture? hell no. Could it sell? possibly yes. ;) that is my point of view.
Same here
I'm with you Lee on the car, its a great photo and even with the car highlights a bit hot they are nice and even and not jumping around like you would expect if it was light painted. (or a lot of time was spent on photoshop) I do agree the light post and the crap on the left needs to go. I have to go with patrick on the london shot, as it cannot be a 1 even without the London part. Its definitely not a 3 though. I would put it in the 2.25-2.5 area!
I think people who keep voting one star on images which are clearly not snapshots should be banned from voting.
They might be voting 1s on images that do not belong to the contest's theme ( like in the previous contest where we had a lot of entries that were anything but minimalism )
Bill, it seems the entries are following the theme, for the most, part this time around.
Yeah for the most part but I just learned Night seems to be a subjective term for some people...
Most seem to do fine this time. I think I saw a few glitches here and there. Sunrise and sunset images should be excluded IMHO, but that's up for debate I guess.
I think it could be considered night even the midnight sun of the northern countries
"Night or nighttime (sp. night-time or night time) is the period of time between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon." If we want to stretch it it's fine for me but Night has a very definite meaning it's not like minimalism.
I agree with Andrea. And mine are definitely NIGHT photos (they have the moon and all), but some people still see them as sunrise / day photos. Nothing I can do about that, other than being flattered :D
Hey Bill...David Pavlich from the original SDP webpage. Nice to see you here. I just joined and you're the first name that I recognized.
I change my ratings to five stars whenever I see people's good photos are given underwhelming scores on fstoppers.
Wow the community is brutal! You need to be tough skinned to enter your photo in this competition. Fair enough it might be difficult for me to be objective about my own work, but I have just voted 4 stars on some incredible images to find the community average is just 2! Come on people, a lot of these images are far better than "snapshot" or "needs some work." Feedback and critique are great tools to help people improve, but voting 1 star on images that are clearly very well crafted images is basically trolling and is just going to break people's spirit!
In my opinion, Lee was more right about the car photo. I'm an automotive photographer so this subject is actually something I can talk about with a little knowledge. With the voting system the way it is, I would give this a 4. If I could be more specific with my vote, it would be between 3.5 and 4. The pole is not a problem. If it was behind the car where it looked like it was growing out of the roof, then it would be an issue. In this photo, it actually helps frame the car. The junk on the far left should probably be removed and the lights under the car should be made to match the rest of the photo. This photo works.
You have to have thick skin to have your photos critiqued. I'm my worst critic, so if someone gives me 4 stars, my rating would probably be 3. I do some HDR tone mapped stuff and get ripped all the time, but I expect it. That gawdy stuff isn't for everyone.
yes but how many people who give 1/2 star ratings or even 3 star actually give any comments and feedback on how to improve? Very few 😐
I think some people are deliberately bringing the ratings down to have a better chance themselves. Clearly if some effort went into taking the photo and post-processing it, it is not a snapshot. I am not even upset about the low ratings on my entries, because I see some excellent shots being punched down!
This is by far the critique with the best submissions ever!
I'm now officially kicking myself for not entering this one! Love all your opinions, great insight!
I believe the minimalism contest had the best of the best entries.
Its best entries are true 4.5 - 5 star images.
Nice images and nice critique!
Every time, I stay awake to watch the critique as soon as is comes out, as it is a great series!
But I would like to discuss a few things further, without meaning to offend anyone :)
Why couldn't picture number 2 not be a portfolio image?
Because it's street photography, not staged, not perfectly sharp everywhere? Not every good image has to be an advertisement. It can be art or simply a good image.
To be honest, I would love to see more of such images in our community! But the community set-up a certain style, other pictures are getting compared to. That's a normal thing. I believe there's something like an fstoppers-style as much as there is an instagram-style.
And that image compared to you give the picture of the guy on the mountain's edge a 4, although the main subject is not sharp as well and the highlights are clipped? I find that a bit strange comparing two nicely composed images on sharpness and composition, but then giving one of them 2 and the other 4, just because the one with 4 is more staged and less spontaneous? Or what is the reason?
Usually, I'm quite harsh on Lee, - for sure not for the sake of it -, but he couldn't be more right with "You owe this photographer and the model an apology". I don't think that every photograph has to be tweeked 10 hours in Photoshop, compositing a star night sky or whatsoever. I think, less is more. There are just many photographers established in the fstoppers community that other photographers trying different things have to be compared with as the non-plus-ultra image. It's natural that such trends happen, but still considering the technical challenges of this image, I find the result great as the scene is lit enough to line out that it is in the mountains (even above the clouds) which is a fantastic scenery. And having the surroundings darker, adds more mystic to it than any other element (flash from the front or crazy composites). And the sky looks simply natural for that time of the day and not over-dramatised :)
I think that Patrick has a point that the flare in the car picture looks distracting, while Lee is having a point about the light post not bothering that much. So I think, it is definitely solid and people can make money with it, as the car looks super poppy and nicely retouched, to create not only a light but also a strong colour contrast.
The London picture, Patrick...
That's not a portfolio shot and Lee is absolutely right, that it is not a 3. But on the other hand, it is not a snapshopt either, as the lines are straight and you pitched a tripod to take that shot. So there was for sure a thought process. So it should be a 2, not a 1.
And one last thing: "We saw 1* star pictures in this critique, where things are blurry or not in focus. That has to be by definition a 2"...So then, what about the image where the guy as the main subject stands on the cliff's edge with clipped highlights and who is out of focus? Didn't you give that a 4? :P
Btw, is it possible to apply for critiquing? :D
I wish people who give a 2 rating would provide what they think needs work. First it might help people be a little more honest in their voting AND it might actually help the photographer to improve. I don't comment on all the photos I rate but I do try to provide my thoughts. Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't, but at least the photographer knows why I think it needs work.
either trolling or ignorance on how complicated deep sky astrophotography is 🙄 😂
??????
He is talking about his DSO photograph ( Deep Sky Objects ) which is rated low for what it is.
He should take into consideration however that most photographers are clueless when it comes to astrophotography and mainly Deep Sky Objects photography and case in point, they judge on the aesthetic quality and composition of the image without considering at all the difficulty and equipment needed to capture images like Robert's.
I appreciate Robert's photo, I gave it 3 stars, if I had to judge on technical quality purely I would've given him 4 stars, but considering that I also have to judge the composition and compare it to other DSO images that I've seen, I would've rated it 3.5, but I can't give 3.5, so went for 3.
DSO photography is a niche subject, I wouldn't count on breaking any records here with DSO photography Robert.
no worries 😎
the composition also wasnt perfect because that is one panel in a two panel mosaic that will take me all summer to complete. I have to get about 10-12 hours worth of subs to complete it and so far its been 95% cloudy and rainy this summer in FL.
Ive enjoyed some of the incredible work i’ve seen so far... inspiring as I branch out more into night scapes.
Good luck with your astrophotography Robert!
Been there, done that, got tired because of the difficulties with light pollution mainly, and with the weather ( damn clouds! ).
Looking forward to seeing more DSO work from you in your profile here ;)
Thanks Bill!
Since the Veil complex was only 1/4 done, I replaced it with a finished image of Thor’s Helmet.
Is it ok to post with your logo or copyright info on it or should it be removed?
Up to you, generally photos look better without.
If it's not astro, some form of light painting, or long exposure, your image is just going to get dunked on by the community. Like, street photography? What's that?
Is there any shortcut to get to this site from the fstoppers main page?
I have to look up the minimalistic youtube video to find the link here...
Yeah same here and it's a bit tiring as i'm using several devices.
You can bookmark it with the ribbon icon, then you can go straight to it from your profile. You can bookmark anything, such as an article you want to read later.