You are only RU-vid photographer who is honestly talks about photography how it is in real life and not like other ones who are talking same stuff every time. I honestly really like your channel, keep good work. And also I like your creative analysis of photography stuff.
I agree. Try Jamie Windsor and Sean Tucker. They too are rather talking about what makes photography art, than comapring numbers and sepcs of new cameras all the time. (Not that i wouldn't be guilty of watching gear videos, though especially Jamie Windsors videos make me really find the love for photography again, the same love, which i began shooting for.)
I agree....James' strength is his honesty. No sarcasm so you invest in his words and opinions. Try and find one review or some advice elsewhere without sarcasm. There aren't many!
This video reminds me of my second favorite photography joke: How many photographers does it take to change a lightbulb? All of them. One to change the bulb, the rest to say how they would have done it differently.
I never comment on RU-vid but I love that more photographers are doing these critique and composition videos. They push me way further and are still very enjoyable to watch.
I’m just gonna drop this quick note here: Love your funny approach to photography and downearthiness (not a word I know, but you know what I mean) of your delivery of content. I am very happy I have bumped into your content! Keep up the great work!
This must have been a difficult video to make, to not feel like I'm being super egotistical reviewing such beautiful photos. I appreciated you making it clear that its for your preferences and obviously it isn't the photographers responsibility to keep your preferences in mind
Great idea. I'll try it soon. One thing I noticed in the photo of the truck by the lake in New Zealand(?)...The light on the two tussocks of grass doesn't line up with the beams the headlights would have thrown with the truck in that spot. The truck is pointing toward the lower right corner of the image, but nothing is lit over there. Meanwhile, there's a big bright clump of grass way off in the left corner. It looks as if the foreground was taken from a different shot, with the truck pointing in a different location. Enjoyed the post, as always.
Really like your channel because you go into the works and gears of photography and don't make me want to by a new camera or lens like every other RU-vid photographer 😂
I just realized that I do this! If someone had asked me I probably wouldn’t have been able to explain what I was doing. You’ve defined this process and now I will try and do it more consciously. Thanks for this great tip!
Sir love from india. The first photograph is composited . The MOSK silhouette in the photo is digitally placed on post. Look at the SMUGE on the reflection, It's created by brush and look at the shadow color difference of the mosk and the birds. .The mosk buildings were not there while captured Just wanted to let you know.
If you think about how many photos you see on Instagram that you like and you don't remember even before you finish scrolling your feed it makes a lot of sense. You surely will remember a photo if you stop and think about it for a minute or two. Thanks James for bringing that point or method if you will!
Aside from gaining some very useful info on examining others and my own pics, I did enjoy listening to Emilie practice her music in the other room to you....
I think that the first two photos and the last one work best in black and white, because It helps to drive focus on the subject in the first two shots, while in the last one It enhaces the light play. But again, artistic choice. Thanks for the nice video, I ll certainly keep doing this exercise!
Great video, I think it will be very useful to look at other photographers pictures this way! Will definitely try it! Nice on moving to Wales, I've only seen it in pictures, never been there myself, but it looks like it's so beautiful there!
Apparently I'd been doing this kind of thing unconsciously, because once you mentioned focusing on what you don't like, I was _very_ aware that I was able to almost immediately come up with something I didn't like about just about all of the photos shown here. First one: The dust cloud, even though it's part of the point. Second: Face was too dark. Third one: Lopsided and too wide. Fourth one: Just don't like how vibrant it is. Fifth one: Don't care for the sky being in it. With as bright as the ground is, I'd rather it just be the ground and the water and nothing else. (I know plenty would disagree.) Maybe I'm overly critical. Maybe I know nothing of art. Or maybe I accidentally made my style and didn't realize it. Regardless, it's a good thing to do to see if you want to try something new.
Thanks, James, for a great video, as usual! I like the idea of taking time to ponder what I might change in other photographers' photos that I really like. I'm glad you've taught us this exercize in creativity. Please keep up the good work!
Huge congratulations on your 100K (and rising) RU-vid success. You definitely deserve it. Also, after that heart stopping moment in your previous video, I am so pleased to see that your have located your wedding ring! Cheers.
Despite the nice critiques you gave on the photos, this was also an excellent tutorial of how to critique in a positive way. I think that none of the photographers will feel offended. I like your style and hope that Wales won't change you too much
I always learn and feel extremely inspired after watching your videos. Just ordered my first camera and I’m excited to practice and try your presets. Thank you so much from Dominican Republic ☺️
Congrats on the award! It even made you smile on camera, which may be completely off-brand but really lovely. You got a great mix of inspiration, education and entertainment going. Go you!
Thank you James for another fantastic video! I am learning a lot by following your channel and my photos are improving. I often struggle with the dilemma of how much I should change on a photo vs. leaving it there, as it was captured...? I guess that is the beauty of the technology we have available today...
you moving again? Hell dude...since I follow your channel you have moved atleast about 4 times haha! All the best mate, so happy for you to reach that 100.000 Subs, you deserve it!
This is a good idea. I tend not to look at the the camera settings because you could never recreate the same lighting etc. But I do study others work old and new.
I hope you don't mind but I have shared this great vid on my F stop photography page on FB. I agree with you it's a great way of developing your photography. Well done keep up the good work, you have a great way of entertaining and teaching.
Congratulations on 100k subscribers. Interesting idea, just the idea of spending more time looking at images you love to understand why you do. I can sometimes spend seconds on images I love, so I need to try this approach.
When I started participating on a weekly photo contest site a few years ago (DPChallenge.com) , I got very heavy into commenting on the other entries in the challenges as I voted on them. But what I forced myself to do was to comment on the midrange entries. If an entry were really appealing, it was easy to leave a positive comment. If it were bad it was also easy to identify why. But I forced myself to evaluate my "eh, it's ok" votes and identify why it wasn't bad but wasn't really good either. It was a strong learning experience. That site also taught me to have a thick skin, as praise does not come easily and even the best entries will still have some haters.
Great video, James. I’m guessing the surf photo has so much sky because it was a vertical pano from the drone and if there had been more moving water the pano wouldn’t have stitched because there would have been movement in more than one frame. Just a wild guess.
It seems like this is ALL that I do with my own photos; see the 31 things I'd change if I'd noticed in the field. I think this is why I hate post-processing so much; it feels like getting punched in the gut when the photo from my memory is SO much better than the one I ended up with on my camera.
Yet another excellent video. Massive congrats on 100k subs James, just reward for a massive amount of work you put in , here's to 500k! Moving to Wales how exciting, hope it works out well for you both (I'm very jealous) , looking forward to seeing your Watersport/ surfing photos too. Cheers.
Congratulations on the 100K subscribers!! Onward and upward hopefully you'll have the gold one by next year!! I've gotta say my eye was twitching a little on the first photo you edited when you moved the spire so out of the center of the fame! The difference in negative space on each side didn't bother me as much as that big pointy thing not being in the center of the photo! 😆
I was really reassured when you mentioned not picking apart your own good photos. When I get one just right I admit to sitting back and basking in the glow of my own personal mini success. But it felt so egotistical. -Elaine
Interesting method, find work you like and try to see what you think would improve it or what you would do differently. Of course, what we do not know is gear the photographer had available.
For me, the first image could work better as a square image, taking away the dead space top and bottom. Second image could work great looking just at the buffalo without any background. Agree on third image. Fourth image looked odd with the tree and truck being on an angle relative to the frame. Also, very British was of saying "boeker." Five might have been better at a different time of day when the shadows were different.
Great video James! I'm going to implement this neat little trick, in the end, if all the time we spend on Instagram we do it in a somewhat productive way, the better. Regarding your book (I have the 2018 and 2019 editions), I'd treat it as a unique edition, once the book of a year has run out, there will be no more printed, as Sean Tucker does. I think it gives every edition a sense of uniqueness and also it gives the potential customers a sense of urgency. Anyway, great content, as always! Keep up the good work, greetings from Scotland!
Generally what i leanred in school was you're supposed to critique whats there instead of what isnt. Saying "i'd frame it like this instead" isn't really useful because thats not what they shot. Like maybe its useful if they specifically said they were gonna do reshoots but for the most part people are asking for critiques of how to improve the photo they took. Where is the critique of the editing? The first photo could've absolutely used a boost in the highlights cause it feels really flat and that was a much more glaring issue than the birds being uneven.
Moving to Wales! Wot?! I say that because, never having been there, my only impression thus far has come from watching too much television during this time of constraint. My wife and I make use of the streaming services Acorn and Britbox in the US. We’ve taken to watching way too much of a genre I call “North Country Noire”, cop shows like “Shetland”, “Vera”, and now “Hidden”, which is filmed in Wales. All of them paint the entire landscape as bleak, forbidding, and in the case of “Hidden”, overflowing with psychopathology. When you get there please use the G9 to show us a place which is lush, green, and full of trees which are not dead.
One of the reasons I watch Vera (on Acorn and now PBS) is specifically for the 'bleak' landscapes. I'm in awe of those beautiful long shots. I've watched each episode at least 4 times and the visuals still grab me (plus, it's a great show otherwise). I need to travel there. I've been to the border regions of Scotland and had a similar feeling. Beatuiful.
It´s a mystery: Cold pizza is totally great. Sometimes I can´t decide if it´s possibly better than the orginal hot pizza. But pizza which has gotten cold because of high wind is terrible.
Nice idea. Interestingly enough each of the images you chose was a vertical and each solution to its "faults" would have been instantly solved if, in each case, the photographer had shot the image as a horizontal. I think there is an epidemic of "verticalitis" in photography today-perhaps that is due to the influence of the phone? I still have a hard time watching a vertical video. I suppose this is also due to how things display on social media. Perhaps a good subject for a future vlog! Stay well!
Jeremy Woodhouse Haha, I love the term "verticalitis" ! But yes, it's clearly because horizontal photos are not very well showcased on instagram or other social media. So most of them end up being cropped to vertical.
James, enjoyed the video and congratulations on your RU-vid award!!!! It shows to all that you have a lot of perseverance and sticking with it will give you dividends in the end. I have a question for you and it was part of your video today, well sort of...... I am all fuddled up in my thinking when it comes to photograph size. It is easy to say crop this or remove that but don't we have to maintain a certain amount of space so you can frame your shots? So when I crop, I not only am dealing with what improves the photo but also I am limiting my self to sizes 5X5, 5X7, 4X6 or 8X10?? The same goes if I have to enlarge, how would handle this madness that is in my head?? What do you shoot at out of the camera and do you make decisions on photo size to do your cropping???? Please help me out, I am going nuts about this. Right now I shoot in both JPEG and RAW and shoot as large a photo as I can. Thanks Buddy!!! Moonpie
@@JamesPopsysPhoto I agree on the sensor size, I am using a crop sensor Nikon, I just make take the picture as large as I can and shoot it just slightly bigger. No matter what I always keep the original Raw file and store the cropped picture according to its dementions as part of the name, like Blue "Spruce 5X7". If I find a crop that is not within one of these sizes, I create an outside boarder and plant the picture in the middle. I did a 4X6 yesterday that was really a 3.5X6 but put a white mat behind it and stuck it in a 8X10 frame, worked well if you can get it centered. Moonpie
A refreshing way to look at other people's images. "I wish I had taken this, but I would have...." Apply that in the field and it should make me look at what I am are photographing much more critically. eg, I think the smallness of the surfers emphasise the adventure/risk and the sky adds to that sense of "bigness" of the environment. Probably would hace shot more landscape to get the scale of the sea in. Matter of preference only.
Maybe try shooting the cat. For a vlog I mean...with a camera. At one point I started picking apart images in my head. Although I kept it to myself, I started to wonder if I was getting carried away on my high horse or something and stopped doing it. Interesting topic!
7:32 i think the backdrop is fine. its not too in your face and it makes you focus on the buffalo itself. id assume thats what you wanted with a subject like this, no? Theres enough bokeh to really de-emphasize what the backdrop actually is, as itd be probably pretty boring if it was in focus anyway. even if you had that buffalo standing in front of a cool background, wouldnt it just detract from the buffalo? unless thats what you want... but good luck getting a buffalo to move in front of the cool backdrop you wanted. or i guess you could photoshop the buffalo into the middle of a city street, but thatd just be ridiculous, no? also i kinda like the way the backdrop looks like a layer cake... goes from light to dark or dark to light. yw for the placard :)
Great video James, Congratulations on moving! Only seems yesterday that you moved, just the thought of having to move and then start painting and decorating seems hard work lol. Enjoy the process im sure Emily will give you all the hard jobs or you could just get your Brother to help! 😅
