Self Portrait - Critique

Self Portrait is one of the more anticipated assignments of the year, as it gives you an opportunity to express yourself creatively.  This year, it was critiqued once again by the guys over at Laughing Dog Photography.  Dustin, Dwayne and Adam delivered a unique approach to the critique and gave some real life advice.  Here are some of the top scoring images.

 Charissa Kennedy

 Christophe Benard

Alysa Lybbert

Vintage Reproduction

The first year students were given an assignment to test their skills in lighting, composition, post-production and attention to detail. They were asked to chose a photograph shot before 1960, and see how close they could come to reproducing it using the skills they have acquired. Considering that none of these images have "copy and paste" off the originals, I think they came pretty darn close! Nice work guys!

 -->

Critique Class - Portrait Relationships

We are getting closer and closer to the end of the term now.  Last week's critique class was judged by Robert Bray of the Art of Photography.  As he has won Portrait Photographer of the Year 3 times for Canada in the PPOC, he chose a portrait category that focuses on relationships.  Below are some of the top images.

Charissa Kennedy

 Penny Vanderheyden

Sara Watson

Shayla Kurta

Science Fiction/Fantasy - Critique

The Science Fiction/Fantasy category has been around for a couple years now.  Leigh Frey is one of NAIT's official photographers and she is a former NAIT grad herself.  This category featured some of the best images of the year and it really pushed some of the students.  The images that received the highest marks are featured below.  Which ones are your favourites?

Charissa Kennedy

Penny Vanderheyden

  Megan Kruse

Alysa Lybbert

 Josie Baerg

 Courtney Bergen

Critique - Intimate

We have gotten a couple weeks behind in the blog post department.  We are pushing further into the semester and more and more assignments are getting handed in.  This critique was judged by the lovely ladies at Studio 9 photographics.  The critique topic was Intimate, which, as usual, is up to the interpretation of the students.

The top images as selected by Studio 9 are as follows:

 Josie Baerg

 Sara Tetz

 Lauren Voisin

Penny Vanderheyden

Critique - Painting with Light

This past weeks critique was selected and critiqued by Corey Hochachka of Troglodyte Photography.  The topic was painting with light which could be taken as a theme, or a technique.  The traditional methods of Light Painting involve extra long exposures, and the use of light sources as a paintbrush.  There have been more and more experiments with light painting lately, and therefore many new modern techniques have evolved.  

The students have created some interesting images, and there are a few really great ones in this set.  Which of these images do you find yourself drawn to the most?

Penny VanderHeyden

Charissa Kennedy

 Christophe Benard

 Megan Kruse

Critique - In Camera Illusions

The third critique topic for this semester was entitled "In Camera Illusions".  The students were to create an image that exhibited a creative illusion, without the use of photoshop.  The guest critique judge was Renee Robyn, a very talented local photographer who creates illusions in and out of camera..

Some of the images that received the highest marks are below.

Kelsey Somers

 Tara Joyce

Lauren Voisin

Jesse Kushneryk

 Riane Lutz

Evoke emotion using the colour red - Critique - Edmonton Photography School

The second topic for critique was selected by the second year students.  This is the first time that the second year students were the judges in critique class.  The images were graded by each of the students, and their mark was derived from the average of the results.

It was interesting to see the variations in the marks and feedback from 18 different individuals.  It is a testament to how much art is subjective.  It was also an exercise for the second year students to practice constructive criticism, and evaluating other individual's work.  Something that is more difficult than many might expect.

This week's topic was to "Evoke emotion using the colour red".  There were many images that centred around the themes of passion, leading to a few racier images.  However, many of the more successful images had a blood component in them.

Below are the 6 images that received the highest marks as chosen by the Second Year NAIT Photographic Technology students.

Sara Watson

 Janine Esplin

 Christophe Benard

 Charissa Kennedy

 Riane Lutz

Penny Vanderheyden

What I Feel - Critique

A new semester, a new critique class.

The first year students have moved into the second semester.  They have 4 months of education behind them and a whole bunch of knowledge to apply to their new work.

This semester of Critique class now features some guest critique judges.  These judges volunteer their valuable time to evaluate the images, and then come in and give feedback to the image makers.

There are 11 guest judges and topics this semester, and the first one was Con Tanasiuk of Genesis Studio.  The topic that he selected is as follows:

Most of us have a good idea of how to use our heads ( reason), to make a good photo.

I would argue a great photo is more.

Its often intuitive as well as reason based.

Trust yourself; let go and see what happens.

Your focus: "what I feel"

Some of the top images that were selected by Con are below.  Which images are your favourite?

- Shaun

Amber Cleasby

Christophe Benard

Charissa Kennedy

Courtney Bergen

Riane Lutz

Tanya Hiltz

Megan Kruse

It is all in "Post" with CaptureOne Pro

Continuing with their knowledge and understanding of PhaseOne gear and the CaptureOne Pro software we look at what tools are available in post to make adjustments to the files before they are processed out so we are not decimating the pixels. CaptureOne Pro is a world leader with it's processing software and ability to accept RAW files from all platforms. In class we take a look not only at the regular adjustments that we typically make before processing out files but also some of the advanced features as well. These include custom color editor, conversion to black and white, correcting for moire, vignetting, lens cast calibration etc. I like to test their understanding of the concepts with assignments. In this particular instance the assignment consisted of two parts:

(1) Capture an image that purposely had the White Balance incorrectly set. Process out two files - a"before" image showing the file uncorrected for color and an "after" image with color correction.

(2) Capture an image (free creative licence to shoot whatever came to mind) and process out the file as "normal" (before). Then using any of the advanced features of CaptureOne Pro software adjust the file however you like (after). Process it out and show both before and after side by side.

The marking was assessed not only in their ability to use the software but as always also in the creative, execution of idea and the final result.