New Joiners - People #542

This is a really lovely idea and it almost works but the meter on the camera has simply been thrown off by the contrast of the bright sun and the areas of shade. If you want to make these kinds of images, there's simply no way around making accurate exposures to compensate for the mixed lighting. It's a rather well seen image and such a shame that a lovely smile is lost in the over-exposed highlights.

A good image is often the result of timing but also where you stand. This is a situation that has a great deal of potential and indeed, isn't a bad effort to record a cook having a break. I think it might be improved however by a slightly different framing that either doesn't include the distractions of the doorway and concentrates on the cook or a wider composition that does include more of the scene but does so in a harmonious fashion. Well seen in any case.

This is a rather intriguing composition, on a camera or a phone, but one that could have been made a good deal stronger by the photographer moving themselves to perhaps a slightly higher position so that the bridge - which seems a central element of this frame - doesn't bisect the subject's head. Often, a really simple and very slight change of angle by inches, will make an enormous difference.

Although I think that this image is interesting and reasonably well exposed on the main figure (via flash I think), the background is completely blown-out and, as the lightest part of the frame, that's the thing one looks at first. Sometimes in these situations, there's little one can do except ask the model to move - or move oneself so that the background is less intrusive. It's always tricky but at least you have an image that is a nice momento.

I think that this is nicely done and, apart from the woman on the left staring straight down the photographer's lens, it works really well. A nice even background and the perfectly spaced figures give a harmony to this image which is very pleasing. The motif of someone taking a photograph within a photograph is a nice touch.

This, as an idea is a very good one - a model on the shore at dusk in lovely light is an excellent starting point. The problem here is that she is facing away from that lovely light and, although the pose is interesting, its execution looks rather awkward. We either have the model face the other way or introduce some carefully balanced light into her face - a reflector would or a (very) dialled-down strobe - either way, you'd have a much stronger image. Well done for seeing though.

Despite - or perhaps because of - the graininess of this very filmic image and its softness, I'm rather entranced. It appears to be a really interesting use of natural light, (although I did wonder whether it was the result of an altered colour balance) which rather beautifully envelops the face, exposing the shaded eye and cheek very nicely. Just goes to show that not all portraits that use lighting have to utilise flash nor harsh directional light. well done.

As an image this isn't a bad attempt but a good photograph is usually the interplay between foreground and background and here, although the figure is dominant and well seen, the background is too bright and distracting - and crucially, offers nothing in the way of visual information. Sometimes we simply have to move ourselves and frame the image in a way that means these two elements are harmonious. Keep pushing.

I really like this composition: I like its bravery and its starkness but in that are some of its limitations. The light that illuminates the face is clearly too bright: the philtrum and the forehead are overexposed and this means there is 'spill' across the nose. A better control of that key light and a better exposure of it would have resulted in a more pleasing effect - but still an interesting idea in terms of the framing.

I think that while this is a potentially interesting frame, you say yourself that this was an over exposed frame that you altered in post-production - and I'm unsure why. The problem when we do this is it's rarely successful and in this case looks unnatural. Perhaps a better approach would be a more careful placement of the subject and you - so that the sun isn't confusing your meter and also so that there isn't a camel appearing to grow out of the musician. All of that's about thinking what you can achieve and moving your self around the scene to make a harmonious image. Well done for seeing it but sometimes simply conceived images make better photographs in execution. Keep pushing.

A simple idea that's not badly executed. I like the reflection bisecting the frame in two and I like the child's pose that captures all of her attention. An 'Alice through the looking glass' moment. My only concern is the exposure which is underexposed by a fair amount. A more accurate camera - or better separate meter - reading would be ideal here - but a good effort nevertheless.

A lovely frame and one that has all the 'feel' of a tin-type or antique process photograph. I think that the image, 'despite' being shot on an iPhone is a really successful and understated - but powerful one - that speaks both to character and a simple compositional aesthetic. For me, I'd have liked a second light or reflector to have given the left eye/socket a bit more illumination - but that's a minor quibble on what is a cracker.

Lovely. A really intimate moment sensitively caught and I like the fact that the viewer has to do some work in searching through the reflections to find the image, If I was being super-critical I might say that the man's face is half a stop under-exposed but I can see strong light coming from his left (on his neck) so that might be something one has to live with. In any case, a strong and creative image.

I think that this is a cracking frame: not only because of the pastel light but also the real emotion that's captured. I like the hands very much and the 'controlled' spontaneity that this image has in spades. If I'm being a tiny bit critical I think that it would be a stronger frame if composed so that the image ended at the table's edge and correspondingly cut into the right hand side a bit - but nevertheless, lovely.

This is a really good idea but to make a really impactful image, I think might have required a bit more thought. I really like the intention to capture the braiding pattern but moving closer, ideally to fill the frame and additionally reorientate the camera to a portrait shape would have worked better. It might have been simpler just to ask the child if you could photograph her hair: people are often more than happy to show off their fashions. Just a thought.