We had nearly 80 submissions this month for our Plus Photo Critiques contest, and they were varied in subject and quality. Hudson and I chose 20 photos from the group as worthy of mention, and they’re discussed in the video above. We also picked three photos as the best of the bunch, and, to keep a bit of suspense, they’re announced at the end of the video. Congratulations to the winners, and to all who took part in the contest, and a special thanks to F-Stop for their generous sponsorship this month.
This month’s critiques
September will mark the return of the standard Plus critiques. The gallery will open on September 1 for submissions. One change we are making from this month on: we ask that you upload a single photo to the Plus Critiques gallery. With the volume of submissions each month, it’s easy for photographers to get ‘lost’ in the critiques. And, since we rarely — if ever — showcase multiple photos from members, it makes sense to limit each member to one upload per month.
Hudson and I have been photo educators for years, and critiques are a key part of our teaching toolbox. They are a great way to develop your eye, not only in recognizing good (or great) work, but in helping you evaluate your own photos. We try to be judicious about selecting photos from the monthly critiques, so that we’re not slighting folks who have been submitting for a while, while still calling out worthy submissions from the month. The critiques aren’t meant to be a contest; they’re designed to help people develop the language of critical thought when looking at photographs. We want to talk about why certain photos work, and why others don’t, and how we can all improve our work.
So, when you’re thinking about which photo of yours to submit this month, narrow it down to one that you’d like critical feedback on. It could be one that you think is pretty good, or one you’ve been struggling with. Everyone has those photos that drive them a bit crazy, where they’re not quite sure whether it is good or a flawed attempt. Also, feel free to submit work that showcases your journey as a photographer. If you’ve been submitting for a while, we do pay attention to the progress you’ve made over time, and we want to recognize those efforts.
We’ll see you later in September for the critiques video! As a reminder, the image submission guidelines are as follows:
Add your photos to the Plus Photo Critiques upload page (uploads will be turned on after September 1, and will run through September 14).
Photo Requirements:
- The long side of your photo should be cropped to 1920px for best results
- JPEG format (must have .jpg extension)
- Size: 2 MB file size limit
- Quality: 7 (or medium)
