RJ Bradbury Photography

View Original

Critiques Get Your Critiques Here...

Some of you may remember that I use to do critique videos, well I am starting those back up again. Now before we get in to this I want to make it clear that I am more interested in critiquing portrait work or work with people in it,  and not landscapes, pictures of cats. 

Portrait work covers allot of areas from simple head shots to wedding or fashion.

Many of us know it sucks trying to decide which of your images make it in to the portfolio. Putting a portfolio together or doing a refresh is definitely not something that makes you want to jump for joy.

In fact usually I am more like this.

It's tough and sometimes you end up unable to see the wood for the trees, or you feel so frustrated you just don't want to do it.  That's about where I am right now.  - Edit.. Things are much better now in 2018 by the way. 

You can ask friends of family for feed back but they are not editors or photographers (if they are then by all means go ahead) and whilst the feed back is nice and can still be valid,  you have to at some point look up the food chain. 

Please know I am not saying I know it all or my S##T does not stink (it does) but I am offering a helping hand to people who feel I can help them in this process. 

Now I can't put a portfolio together for you but I can let you know where your current one stands right now based off of what you send and what you tell me about you as a photographer.  If you don't like things called as they are I suggest not clicking send on that email.

The critiques will be my opinion and thoughts and called as I see it.   I will tell you what works and what doesn't but more importantly I will tell you why. 

The way this will work is as follows,  you have 2 options.

1. Send me a link to your site with the email subject line Full On Critique and I will go over your site, galleries, about page, layout and social media links/profiles.

This will be a long critique 1-2  hours and in one hit, screen cast recorded, edited and uploaded to YouTube. 

Now this option is best for people who are or want to shoot full time, paid gigs, client work.

2. Send me a link to a flickr, 500px collection or gallery with the email subject line Quick Critique and I will give feed back on the images in the set via a screen cast recording.  Max number of images 15, if your set has more I will ignore the email as I am not about to try and figure out which images you want me to look at. 

This option is best for people getting started or just after a critique of a hand full of images, may be one gallery on a site.  I won't look at the full site or social media.

I am expecting these to run for 30 minuets-ish.

Rules

You must tell me that you give me permission to record your website, social media, gallery etc and critique it + publish on You Tube or it won't happen, the reason for this is so others can benefit from it also.  Tell me a bit about yourself and the work you do/want to do as well.. where do you you want photography to take you?

If you send the email you are agreeing to take what I give out, no crying wolf after the fact.  You can disagree/discuss but don't suddenly start crying and ask for the video to be pulled.  It's not about being mean or putting people down, it's about giving help and feedback to people who feel I can give it. 

One of the hardest things to go through as a photographer is your work being pulled apart and feedback from others. You become attached to your work and images and its never nice to hear negative feedback.... but stick with it and the positives will come or you will be told why something does not work.  That last bit is invaluable. 

                                            Don't take it personally.

You can email me at rick@rjbradbury.com but please note this is my business email so don't go sending me images files or they will meet the trash can.

Thank You

Rick