Master of Photography is back

jamesev said:
And when and how to break the rules to produce an outstanding image
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If I had a pound for every numpty who’s posted an image on the internet boasting they’ve broken all the rules, whilst clearly perfectly illustrating some rules, I could retire.

Seriously; the ‘rules’ aren’t rules in the true sense and were discovered by studying successful images. The bits we need to be aware of are the laws! They definitely can’t be broken.
 
snerkler said:
Thanks. Don't get me wrong, I won't give up and I'll keep trying, learning the rules etc etc, but I do feel (for the moment at least) I have a mental block with this.
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I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way....
I had a look at your website galleries and to be honest it was exactly as I was expecting it to be. Technically excellent (great for commercial photography if that's a direction you want to go in) but I didn't get a connection to any of the images. I think you'd benefit loads from shooting a project that was personal to you whilst experimenting with different shots and subjects. Shoot loads and only start picking through the images when you have a bit of distance to them.
 
Ste_S said:
I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way....
I had a look at your website galleries and to be honest it was exactly as I was expecting it to be. Technically excellent (great for commercial photography if that's a direction you want to go in) but I didn't get a connection to any of the images. I think you'd benefit loads from shooting a project that was personal to you whilst experimenting with different shots and subjects. Shoot loads and only start picking through the images when you have a bit of distance to them.
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Doesn't come across the wrong way at all, it's as I see it (except the excellent bit ;)). Thanks for the advice, I'll rack my brain to see what I can come up with in terms of a project (y)
 
I watched my first episode of this from series 3 last night (White Landscapes - I am more of a landscape guy). I get that photography is subjective, but wow....I completely got the worst photos wrong (I agreed with 1 of the best ones)....Going to catch a few more episodes over the next few days
 
Interesting the last episode where advice of the guest pro was ignored by a couple and the main judges liked the presented images while the guest pro slated them, yet they still got through.
 
I have enjoyed watching the show not so much the judging side of it just the whole process and just good to have a show that is of interest outside of Wildlife shows :)
 
I thought the Donkey images which 'won' were pretty poor overall, especially the last image. The right person went though - his were just awful, I could have done better with a kids camera!!!

The judges are so up their own bums its unbelievable!
 
I also thought the weakest photographer went out. In previous series the guest advisors seemed a bit more in tune with what was needed (by the judges). In this weeks episode, the guest advisor was offering very poor advice and those who ignored it did much better. Those who are familiar with club competition judging will recognise the attributes and the problems in judging well illustrated in this show. The London based judge is fine in my view but the controversial Italian judge is very difficult to predict. It is as well to remember that this show requires a winner as do many competitions and there is no perfect way to achieve this.

Dave
 
cambsno said:
I thought the Donkey images which 'won' were pretty poor overall, especially the last image. The right person went though - his were just awful, I could have done better with a kids camera!!!

The judges are so up their own bums its unbelievable!
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They seem to just talk gibberish. When they're banging on with stuff like "you haven't put enough of yourself in the project". What does that actually mean?
 
I enjoyed this week, of all the tasks over all the series’ this is the only one I think I’d have been half decent at, although I’d have spent to much time with the animals rather than taking pics :LOL:

I actually agreed with the judges this week (not the guest judge though) and Robin’s pics were amongst the worst I’ve seen on this program.

I do think the contestants ruin some pics though with the processing. I really liked the Bernese Mountain Dog on the guy’s shoulder but by the time he’d pushed the shadows so much in looked unnatural to me.
 
snerkler said:
I enjoyed this week, of all the tasks over all the series’ this is the only one I think I’d have been half decent at, although I’d have spent to much time with the animals rather than taking pics :LOL:

I actually agreed with the judges this week (not the guest judge though) and Robin’s pics were amongst the worst I’ve seen on this program.

I do think the contestants ruin some pics though with the processing. I really liked the Bernese Mountain Dog on the guy’s shoulder but by the time he’d pushed the shadows so much in looked unnatural to me.
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The over process a lot in my view. A little too quick to go black & white too. Like it makes a poor image good.
 
I absolutely loved the task this week but can't help feeling that Jérôme Sessini was absolutely the wrong person to have 'assisting' on this.

It was a lifestyle photography brief overseen by a photographer steeped in conflict coverage. It's almost as though he were sabotaging the candidates choices.

That's clearly shown by his dislike of what was far and away the best portrait shot of the entire selection and the recommendation to bin it.
In fact that image saved Sahin from an almost certain inclusion in the weakest two because his set would have been utterly bland without it.
 
cambsno said:
I thought the Donkey images which 'won' were pretty poor overall, especially the last image. The right person went though - his were just awful, I could have done better with a kids camera!!!

The judges are so up their own bums its unbelievable!
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Ha, I really liked the donkey photos, especially the last one. The only person to get the brief.
Agree with Robin (?) going though, his were terrible. He was using flash to try to make them look 'edgy' which I guess is why the conflict photographer liked them :LOL:

For the judges - I really like Toscani, he's great and almost makes the show by himself. The other two *shrugs*
 
Ste_S said:
Ha, I really liked the donkey photos, especially the last one. The only person to get the brief.
Agree with Robin (?) going though, his were terrible. He was using flash to try to make them look 'edgy' which I guess is why the conflict photographer liked them :LOL:

For the judges - I really like Toscani, he's great and almost makes the show by himself. The other two *shrugs*
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I agree. The guest judge hated the composition and angle but I felt it really captured the essence of the centre and the therapy.
 
Ste_S said:
Ha, I really liked the donkey photos, especially the last one. The only person to get the brief.
Agree with Robin (?) going though, his were terrible. He was using flash to try to make them look 'edgy' which I guess is why the conflict photographer liked them :LOL:

For the judges - I really like Toscani, he's great and almost makes the show by himself. The other two *shrugs*
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Well he’s a photographer. The other two, curator and editor
 
Ste_S said:
Ha, I really liked the donkey photos, especially the last one. The only person to get the brief.
Agree with Robin (?) going though, his were terrible. He was using flash to try to make them look 'edgy' which I guess is why the conflict photographer liked them :LOL:

For the judges - I really like Toscani, he's great and almost makes the show by himself. The other two *shrugs*
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If I recall, he hasn't shot anything without that flash sitting on the top of his camera in any of the tasks (OK, studio maybe not). I haven't liked anything he's produced either.

And I have to agree that the choice of mentor was completely wrong this week.
 
Jelster said:
If I recall, he hasn't shot anything without that flash sitting on the top of his camera in any of the tasks (OK, studio maybe not). I haven't liked anything he's produced either.

And I have to agree that the choice of mentor was completely wrong this week.
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I think he only really did long exposures and/or flash which made his photos a bit gimmicky.

By contrast the winning ladies use of a hand held reflector was excellent and subtle.
 
Ste_S said:
I think he only really did long exposures and/or flash which made his photos a bit gimmicky.

By contrast the winning ladies use of a hand held reflector was excellent and subtle.
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I like the program and seeing how artsy judges with years of experience in an industry interpret, however there’s been nothing that’s inspired me photographically from the contestants. It seems to be that they’re good at the stuff they do that features in their application portfolios but seem fairly inflexible to challenges that aren’t in their comfort arena
 
jamesev said:
I like the program and seeing how artsy judges with years of experience in an industry interpret, however there’s been nothing that’s inspired me photographically from the contestants. It seems to be that they’re good at the stuff they do that features in their application portfolios but seem fairly inflexible to challenges that aren’t in their comfort arena
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I've noticed that they're pretty inflexible too. The 'worst' example of this for me was the integration week where they had to take reportage shots of people integrating into the community in Italy. One of the guys just took a series of portraits, to me this is not what I would class as reportage nor showing integration, just 5 individuals.
 
jamesev said:
I like the program and seeing how artsy judges with years of experience in an industry interpret, however there’s been nothing that’s inspired me photographically from the contestants. It seems to be that they’re good at the stuff they do that features in their application portfolios but seem fairly inflexible to challenges that aren’t in their comfort arena
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I think that sums it up nicely. Even then, looking at the portraits the "people photographer" took, they weren't stunning, I've seen much, much better on here to be honest.
 
I liked the winning images, I could relate to them though as I have worked with people with intellectual disabilities and I thought she captured the bond between them and the animals nicely. Let's be honest, there wasn't much competition, I don't think any of them had a full set I really liked. The guy who got booted hadn't taken one decent shot throughout the season IMO, I swear he was only using flash because he didn't know how make use of ambient or natural light.

The guest photographer was really put out by the contestants not listening to him :D he's only there to advise, they don't have to do as he suggests, he also seemed annoyed that the judges disagreed with him. Looked like someone had p***ed in his cornflakes that morning!
 
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I though Jan’s idea was very clever this week, not sure if it was my eyes but the images did seen to be somewhat desaturated to make them a bit darker.

Richard went for B&W again which seemed not so good an idea with family / going home where you might expect more colour and warmth.

Sidars was quite brave and opened himself up, but again (unless it’s my eyes) seemed quite dark.

I don’t think I’ve seen any colours really pop out in any of the photos in the whole of this series yet. Or do the contestants know the judges favour less vibrancy in the work?
 
I also thought Jans idea was excellent. Really got the three to work together. She who left was easily the weakest but Richard is a pretentious t***.
 
jamesev said:
I though Jan’s idea was very clever this week, not sure if it was my eyes but the images did seen to be somewhat desaturated to make them a bit darker.

Richard went for B&W again which seemed not so good an idea with family / going home where you might expect more colour and warmth.

Sidars was quite brave and opened himself up, but again (unless it’s my eyes) seemed quite dark.

I don’t think I’ve seen any colours really pop out in any of the photos in the whole of this series yet. Or do the contestants know the judges favour less vibrancy in the work?
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When Jan was doing his shots I didn't get it at all, but when they were presented at the end they did work to be fair. The girl's shots were weak imo so she deserved to go, which is a shame being as she did so well the week before.

I liked Sidar's shots but I must admit I found the doll a bit weird. The one of his gran holding the photo with the reflections was super imo.

I didn't get Richard's one bit.
 
I think Richard was lucky that the Italian girl presented a weaker set of images. She had some good ideas but did not seem to deliver them. Richard did not seem to have a clear idea of what he wanted to do or present. Unfortunately seeing his image on TV it is vary hard to determine how good they are. I had a quick look to see if the images are available on the internet for viewing but did not find them. Jan was easily the best this week in ideas and presentation.

Dave
 
Dave Canon said:
I think Richard was lucky that the Italian girl presented a weaker set of images. She had some good ideas but did not seem to deliver them. Richard did not seem to have a clear idea of what he wanted to do or present. Unfortunately seeing his image on TV it is vary hard to determine how good they are. I had a quick look to see if the images are available on the internet for viewing but did not find them. Jan was easily the best this week in ideas and presentation.

Dave
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It does surprise me when the judges ask as for 3-5 images the tell a story that this doesn’t proxy to the contestants that they need to link them, and as such should have the images as the same orientation and same dimension ratio. That’s what Jan did this time in a very clever triptych. When I see a series with landscape, portrait, landscape because these are the three strongest I just want to yell noooooooo.

Like last weeks with the dog and handler close image that was emotionally the best but didn’t fit with the others. Just seemed to be about publishing the strongest image rather than the best set.
 
jamesev said:
Like last weeks with the dog and handler close image that was emotionally the best but didn’t fit with the others. Just seemed to be about publishing the strongest image rather than the best set.
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...and yet that image saved him from elimination so was absolutely the correct choice.
 
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