Break the Rules for a Reason: A Photography Critique with Will Delaney

In this episode, wedding and portrait photographer Will Delaney joins me to critique a fresh batch of reader submitted photos. We talk street photography instincts, color theory, vertical versus horizontal framing, and when it actually pays off to break photography's so called rules on purpose.

Find Will: https://www.delaneymedia.ca https://www.youtube.com/c/DelaneyMedia https://www.tiktok.com/@_willdelaney https://www.instagram.com/_willdelaney/

Hello everyone, welcome back to the channel. Today I'm here with Will Delaney. Hello, Will, thank you for joining me today.

Hey Martin, thanks for having me. I'm excited to critique some photos.

Thank you. For anyone watching for the first time, here's the basic idea: every week we run a small photography challenge where people can submit their photos, and I invite guests to share their opinion on the images you're about to see.

Sounds great, let's get into it.

@takayuki_gonno — the alley

Let's take a look at the first image.

I like this one, it's very moody. I really like this light, it looks like it's early morning or late in the day, and it's coming through an alley or a gap between two buildings, which really narrows the light and draws your eye right to the person. That part I really like, since it helps you focus on the main subject of the photo.

One thing I find a little distracting, and this is just personally my thing with street photos, is that signs can sometimes look a bit ugly. There's a lamp post on the right side, and the lamp post itself is fine, but there are a couple of signs on it that, if it were my photo, I'd probably clone stamp out afterward, just because I don't love how they distract a little from the photo. It's not too bad, since they're pretty dark, so the focus stays mostly on the main subject.

In terms of how the photo is edited, I like it. It's pretty subtle, the colors are nice, it looks well balanced. It's made a little dark in the shadows on the street here, and you could maybe bring the shadows up just a touch so it's not completely black. Otherwise I really like this photo, I think it's really nice.

@pokguyscolour — blocked by a tree

Thank you. Let's take a look at the second one.

Interesting. Based on the grain and the colors, this looks like it was shot on film, which is interesting, you don't see a whole lot of that these days. I like to shoot on film for fun myself sometimes, I think it helps slow me down and think a bit more about the creative process, and you don't get to see the images right away, so it's good practice for your manual exposure, making sure you know your camera's manual settings, instead of just shooting a bunch and adjusting afterward. So I respect that this was shot on film.

That said, I'm not a huge fan of this photo, mostly how it's composed. We've got this person in the frame, but they're being blocked by a tree, and it's a little busy: there's stuff going on on the left side, signs and objects, it looks like the person is reaching for an umbrella, there's a lot going on, and I don't really know where to look when I look at this photo.

I understand that with street photography, a lot of the time it's a quick snap, and you don't have time to reposition or find a different spot. But if this person had moved around the tree, they could have gotten the subject's face in the shot without the tree blocking it, which I think would have made a much nicer photo. Not that the tree shouldn't be in the foreground at all, but the way it's positioned here takes away from the photo rather than adding to it.

Do you have any insight into how you recognize whether a scene has potential? Looking at this, you could say the photographer might have moved around and done things differently, but I sometimes find that some scenes are just better than others. Honestly, this one might have been pretty difficult to turn into an amazing shot, just because of how everything is laid out. Even moving around, I feel like it would always end up being a fairly messy photo.

I agree. This probably isn't something I'd have taken a photo of if I were walking down the street with my camera. I think there are things that could have been done to make it better, but you're right, I don't think this scene is really a winner for a great photo. In terms of how I'd personally look at a scene and pick out what makes a good one, that's actually kind of tricky to define. It's just something that feels right in the moment, interesting to look at but still part of the everyday. There's a strange, interesting balance in there. This photo could be better, but I still don't think anything here is especially photo worthy.

What do you personally prefer when you're walking around trying to shoot street photography? Do you rather find a scene and wait for a subject, or follow a subject until it clicks into a better scene?

I'd say, when I do street photography, and I'll preface this by saying I'm not an avid street photographer, I do it for fun sometimes, but it's not my main type of photography, I like to focus more on people's faces and their expressions. It's a little trickier with street photography, because things happen in the moment, and it's not like you can say, hold on, stand there, I'm going to take your photo. Maybe you could try that, but it can be a bit tricky.

I think when you can see the person's face and make that connection, especially if you can get them to look at the camera, that changes everything. When I do street photography I use my big 70 to 200 millimeter lens, so people tend to notice me pretty quickly, and I know that makes some people nervous. You see a lot of street photos where the subject doesn't know their photo is being taken, like in this photo, this lady, whoever she is, obviously doesn't know it's being captured, she's looking away. But I think you can get much better emotion out of a photo when the subject realizes you're taking it and connects, when their eyes meet the camera. I think that makes for a much better photo, in my opinion. Not that every photo has to be like that, but that's generally what I like to go for when I take street photos.

@ayham_mn_hon — the ride in the background

Alright, let's take a look at the third one.

This is interesting, I see what they're going for here. They've got the guy's head in the foreground, looking up at the ride behind him. I think there's a way this could have worked, but I don't like how they did it.

For one, I don't like that the top of the ride is cut off. It looks like almost the whole thing is in the shot, so it would have been nice to see all of it. I think the cropping is a little odd, honestly. If the photo were just a bit wider overall, it would have worked better, because then, looking at the bottom of the frame with this guy's head, I can see what they were going for: including a foreground element, an observer, which adds an extra layer to the photo. But the way they've done it, cutting off halfway through the back of his head, doesn't quite work. If it were a little more zoomed out, a couple of steps back, so you got down to his shoulders in the shot along with the whole ride in the background, I think that would have looked nicer. Or maybe having a few people in the shot looking up would have helped too. The way it's framed right now, it almost looks accidental, like they were trying to photograph the ride and this guy just stepped into the shot.

Would you rather this be a vertical photo instead of horizontal?

I think vertical would have definitely worked better, because I'd want more room at the top and more room at the bottom.

I think it could still work horizontal, but you're right that you'd also have all this negative space on the left and right, which is fine, but it's a bit much.

Right, so I think this would have worked better as a vertical, two by three ratio, instead of horizontal, because right now it just feels like this guy's head is in the shot by accident, rather than intentionally.

Horizontal or vertical framing?

Speaking of formats and orientation crops, I know you do a lot of wedding photography. Do you have a personal preference for shooting horizontally or vertically?

I probably shoot vertically more, and I think that has a lot to do with how Instagram has affected my photography, which I don't really like. I think it's subconscious, I've realized it now, but I started doing it without really noticing. Vertical photos on Instagram usually do a little better, because a four by five vertical photo takes up more of your screen, so when people post on Instagram, they tend to shoot vertical. That's not necessarily a good thing, but it's caused me to shoot vertically more often than horizontally, because I'm thinking, even at a wedding, these people are probably going to post this on Instagram, or if I'm shooting for myself, I think, well, I might post this too. Recently I've become a bit more conscious of that. If it's something where I have a few seconds to take the photo, I try to do both, because I never know what I might want to use it for later. Every once in a while you get a shot where you have to nail it in that exact moment or you miss it, but if you have a bit of time, I'll shoot both orientations.

Especially for clients, right?

Exactly, especially for feedback, or their favorite photos, since even if you get, I don't know, fifty, a hundred, two hundred, five hundred photos from a wedding, you probably end up keeping maybe ten favorites.

Do you get any feedback on whether they prefer vertical or horizontal photos?

That's a good question, actually. I think everyone's a little different, some people just want their photos for social media, and some people want to frame them and hang them up at home, so it really depends on their intention. When I deliver my photos, I use a gallery service that lets clients favorite the ones they like best, so I suppose I could go through and see whether they tend to favorite more vertical or horizontal shots. My guess would be more people lean toward vertical, since they're thinking about their phone, which is vertical, and they want the photo to look good there. But that's just a guess, I'm not entirely sure.

That's interesting, I'll have to look into that more. You can leave a comment under the video if you happen to know the actual percentage.

Absolutely.

@eortizfoto — a moment at the beach

Alright, let's take a look at the next photo.

Oh, this is interesting, this is kind of what I was saying before, one of those shots that happens in the moment and then it's gone. There's a lot going on here. It looks like, well, actually, it's grainy, that might just be an edit, but it could have been shot on film.

Do you know if this was shot on film?

I'm not sure, I'd be lying if I said I knew for certain, but if I had to guess, I'd say maybe sixty percent film. I'm leaning toward film, which adds to that sense of spontaneity. We could probably say it was a higher ISO, but this looks like it was shot in daylight.

Yeah, it looks like it was somewhere near midday, maybe morning.

Right, but it is very grainy for a photo shot in the middle of the day. It's interesting though, this isn't the type of photo I'd normally take, I don't think I'd ever take a photo like this, but I think it's still a good photo, it's just not something I'd think to do.

It's very busy, there's a lot going on. The focus here, this lady sitting on the beach in the foreground, seems to be the subject, she's what's actually in focus, but the action is happening behind her. I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but there's a kid running by, maybe the dad, and then another lady in the background. It makes for an interesting action photo, and it definitely tells a story. I'm not exactly sure what the story is, but I feel like you can imagine one.

Yeah, I can imagine it too.

I could create a whole narrative in my head: this girl is just trying to enjoy the beach, but the kid is running around, and the dad is annoyed, looking over his shoulder like, what's this kid doing? It's a little busy, but I think it works, and it also feels like the kind of photo you're lucky to snap, and then it's gone, no redos, no second chances. I like it from that perspective, that it's very much an in-the-moment thing. So yeah, I like this photo.

Martin's photo — the vignette

Let's take a look at the next one.

This is interesting. The first thing that stands out to me is that there's a heavy vignette on this photo, and in general I'm not a fan of heavy vignetting. If you can notice the vignette, it's probably too much. Specifically here, I'm not a fan, because the subjects who are in focus are the people right on the edges of the frame, which is already a slightly awkward crop. If these people in the foreground are meant to be the main subject, you'd want the photo to be a bit wider, so they're not so close to the edge, and the vignette just adds to that problem, because not only are they right on the edge of the frame, but you're also darkening that edge and making them even less noticeable.

There's a lady in the background, in the white shirt, who's a little out of focus, but she's the brightest point in the image and roughly centered, so your eye actually goes to her first. That's where I looked first, at this lady who, as far as I can tell, isn't even really meant to be part of the photo. Then the two ladies on the side, and there's also a very busy background. There aren't enough elements isolating the subjects here. I can't really tell if this is supposed to be about the ladies in the foreground, or if it's meant to be a story about the lady in the background, who looks like she's grimacing, she looks really upset. And then there are just so many people, signs, and things going on in the background, it's a little distracting, that yellow money exchange sign coming out of the head of the lady on the right doesn't help either.

I think it's a good idea to have your main subject isolated in some way, whether through a blurred background, brighter lighting on the subject, or just the composition itself. You need to do something to isolate your subject and guide the viewer's eye to where you want them to look, and that doesn't really feel like it's happening in this photo. For that reason, I'm not a big fan of this one.

Do you personally use vignetting in your own photography, maybe to draw attention to a subject?

Occasionally, but never that much. In Lightroom I'll maybe pull the slider to about minus five, and I don't usually go further than that. What I like to do instead is add a radial mask over my subject and bring the exposure up slightly, like plus 0.1 or 0.2, which makes the subject a little brighter and helps draw attention that way, instead of just adding a vignette. A vignette really just darkens the corners, and especially once it's strong like this, it doesn't actually draw you toward the subject unless the subject is right in the center of the frame, which in this case they're not. So I think vignetting has pretty specific use cases, but I do use it sometimes.

@victor.nobiuz — rain on the window

Let's take a look at the next one.

Okay, so we've got the rain on the window in the foreground in focus, and people walking by in the background. I think it's nice, it has a relaxing feel to it, like you're sitting inside on a rainy day, cozy, maybe in a coffee shop. I like that feeling.

I do think the raindrops-on-glass type of photo is a little cliché, it's one of those things, like photographing train tracks, that feels like something you do when you're starting out in photography. You see the raindrops and think, if I get really close, this will look really nice. That doesn't mean it's bad, but I think it's something a lot of people do to come across as artsy, and it's not necessarily as meaningful as they might have intended. I do like it though, I like the story it's telling, I just think the way they've told it is a little clichéd.

@dazestation — the wedding party by the bridge

Okay, these guys are dressed up in suits, this almost looks like a wedding photo. It might just be three guys walking down the street, is that Tower Bridge in London in the background?

Yeah, I think so.

Just based on how nicely they're dressed, walking together, this looks like the kind of photo you'd take on the way to a location for wedding photos. It's not a bad photo, but it's also nothing special. One thing I noticed, you can tell from the bridge in the background, is that the photo is slightly tilted. That's an easy fix, you just crop and rotate it a little.

There are a few distracting elements in this photo, that's one of them. The other is that it looks like it was shot at a very high aperture. It looks like the middle of the day, and you can see a bit of motion blur on their feet as they're walking, so instead of increasing the shutter speed to compensate for the bright daylight, it looks like they increased the aperture instead, maybe something like f/10 or f/16. Their subjects are pretty sharp, but the background is also very sharp, which I think makes the photo a little too busy, because I can't quite tell if the bridge is supposed to be part of the subject, or if it's just about the guys. There's also a small sign with the number 999 on it that's a bit distracting, something I'd probably clone stamp out.

To make this photo better, and it's not a bad photo, I think if they'd taken it a few seconds earlier, while the group was walking right toward the camera, that would have made a better emotional connection, since you'd have caught their faces. That's one change. The second would be a lower aperture, so the background wasn't so sharp. I'm not one of those photographers who thinks every photo needs insane bokeh where you can't see anything in the background, I think a fairly in focus background is fine, but this one is very busy, and I think if it were just a little blurrier, it would draw more focus onto the guys and let you read their expressions a bit better.

Thank you. Let's take a look at the next one.

@alyhazzaa — orange and blue

I really like the colors in this one. When you talk about color contrast and color theory, you look at the color wheel, everyone's seen the color wheel, and usually you take two contrasting colors from opposite sides of the wheel and they look great together. In this case, orange is on one side and blue is on the opposite side, so with this orange wall, the skin tones, and then this blue wall with blue accents against the orange, it works really nicely. I don't know if it was intentional, but there aren't really any other colors in this image, which is great, and that's something I like to do in my own photos too, even if they weren't necessarily captured that way. When I'm adjusting the HSL sliders while editing, I like to mute other colors so there are just two dominant ones, and that's what's happening here, whether it was shot that way or edited to look like that. I'm a big fan, because the colors are really nice, and the quality of light is nice too, they're being lit by open shade.

This is a good example of a photo with a lot going on, but handled well, because the first thing your eye goes to is the girl walking with the bags, since she's the brightest point and also, I think, in focus, though it's hard to tell since she's fairly close to the background. Then you look next at the guys on the left, who look like they're having an interesting conversation, half in shadow, a little shady, a little sketchy, hidden in the darkness, which I think is kind of interesting. Then there's another guy on the right, who looks like he might be buying something from a shop.

Overall I really like this photo. The only thing I might have changed, if I could, would be to take a few steps to the right and shoot it straight on, so the subject was centered in that doorway in the background, I think that would have made it stronger. But I also understand that, under the circumstances, this was shot quickly and the moment was over, it's not something they could really plan for. So my critique here is pretty subjective, I know it's not necessarily something they could have done in the moment, but I still think it would have made the photo a little better. That said, I still really like this one.

@omri_shomer — the dog and the wedding

Moving on to the next one.

This is an interesting one, I'm not really sure what they were going for here. There's this dog in the foreground, but he's blurry, and then there's what looks like a couple who just got married in the background.

That's actually your thing, right? This is a wedding photo.

Yeah, I wouldn't shoot a wedding photo like this myself, but I think it's a funny photo. If this is the bride and groom's dog, I personally wouldn't bring my dog on my own wedding shoot, but if you're a big dog person and you brought your dog along, I think this would be a funny photo for the couple to have, if it's their dog. They're kissing in the background, and it's almost like the dog is looking over at the camera like, what's going on? If this is meant to be a photo for the couple, of their dog, I don't think it's a great photo technically, but I think it's a good one for the couple, if that's what it's for. If I were a big dog person and brought my dog to a shoot, I'd be really happy to receive a photo like this, because it's funny.

In terms of the actual composition, there's a lot going on, the dog takes up most of the frame, it's almost like a meme, it feels like there should be text over the photo. I don't really know what to think about it, because compositionally it's not great, the dog's out of focus and also a bit too close to the camera. Actually, this might just be a photo someone took of their own dog, with a couple happening to be in the background, I'm just guessing here, but if that's the case, it's a really weird photo. My guess is they used the situation and juxtaposed the dog to create this kind of layered image. That black shape on the right side of the frame that's partly cut off might be a bag belonging to whoever was taking a more professional photo of the couple, and it looks like someone tried to make the dog look like it's interrupting the photo, walking into frame. But that's just what it feels like, like the couple is posing for their own separate photo, and then someone decided to capture this moment too.

I will say, they captured the dog's expression really well, looking right into the camera, which I think is pretty funny. I also like that the dog is out of focus, because it makes you think the photographer's actual focus was the kissing couple, and the dog just wandered into the frame. If the dog had been in focus, it would just be a photo of a dog with a blurry couple in the background, and I don't think it would have the same funny impact it has right now. I don't think this works very well as an artistic photo, but I do think it's a very funny one.

@forbudtfoto — the cyclist

Let's take a look at the next one.

Oh, this is nice. Speaking of artistic photos, this is very nice. It looks like it could be set up, I could be wrong, but it looks almost too well framed to just be a street photo that happened to happen.

Yeah, this composition is really nice.

I think this might have been set up, but it's a very nice photo regardless. There's some green in the sky on the left and in the shadows, this photo has a tint to it that I wouldn't say is ideal, but I like the overall colors. This person has pretty bright reddish orange hair, contrasting with a bright blue bike and a yellow basket on the front, which makes them stand out nicely even though they're quite small in the frame.

This is what I meant earlier about a subject being isolated even when the background isn't blurry, there's nothing specifically compositional isolating them, just the colors. It also helps that they're positioned so the cyclist is riding between these black posts, if the photo had been taken with one of the posts either behind or in front of the subject, that would have ruined it a little, but here the subject is framed almost perfectly by these elements. The composition is very nice, I like that they got right down to the ground, so you can also see the reflection in the water. I really like the colors overall too, aside from that slight green tint.

I think this photo could have been cropped in a bit more. I'm not even sure what this reddish wall in the background is, but if it had been cropped in tighter, I think that would have made an even better photo. Still, this is a very, very nice photo, it just has a bit of a tint I'm not a fan of, but I like every other part of it.

@kicabalesphotography — the leg in the truck

Let's take a look at the next one.

Alright, this photo definitely tells a story. It looks like a foot or a leg is hanging out the back of this truck.

I think it's a leg, right? That looks like someone's foot, whether it's real, or maybe it's a Halloween decoration or something.

Yeah, something's going on here. I think it makes for a good photo, it tells a good story, because the technical qualities aren't great, it looks like it was maybe taken on a phone as the person was driving past.

Yeah, from the car.

Right, so the photo is pretty pixelated and crooked, but that's not really the point of this one. I think the point is just, what on earth, it makes you wonder what this human limb is doing sticking out of the vehicle. It tells a story, and I think that's enough to make this a good photo, even though it's not strong technically. I don't think a photo needs to be perfectly sharp and in focus to work. I'm looking at this as someone who was just driving along, thought, what is that, and pulled out their phone to snap it, so I wouldn't critique this one as harshly as another photo, because I understand the circumstances, it was just something that happened in passing. But I like it, because it does tell a story, and now I'm wondering, why is there a foot sticking out of there, is it a prop, or is someone asleep back there and they've forgotten and driven off? Now I want to know more, and I think that's what makes it work, it makes you curious and it tells a story.

@sacks — into the void

Let's take a look at this one.

Interesting. There's a lot of negative space in this photo, which looks like it was done intentionally. I wouldn't frame a photo like this myself, but I can see what they might have been going for. When you frame someone this small and leave this much negative space, it's either an accident, because you don't know what you're doing, or it's intentional, done for a very specific reason. In this case, since it's a very nice photo, and it looks like it may have been taken in a studio, judging by the quality of light, I think it was intentional.

I think what the photographer is trying to convey here has something to do with this person looking out into the unknown, into the void, with all this darkness around them, they're meant to feel very small in the frame. From that perspective, I think it works. If you want to convey that sense of emptiness, maybe of feeling alone, though I don't know exactly what they were going for, that's the feeling I get from it.

I think a horizontal photo might have worked even better here. If you keep the person over on, say, the left side of the frame, and have all this open space, since she's not looking up toward the negative space above her, she's looking away from the camera, a horizontal frame with all that negative space stretching out beside her might tell that narrative of looking into the unknown, or the darkness, or whatever this photo is really going for, even better than the vertical crop does.

That said, the quality of light is very nice. I like how they've lit this photo, and I like that you can't see the person's face, since I think it works better for what they seem to be going for.

This is a good example of something worth keeping in mind: there are a lot of rules in photography, you hear about the rule of thirds, the golden ratio, all these composition rules people say you should follow. You don't have to, but I think it's important to know them, because then, when you don't follow them, when you break them, you're breaking them with intention, on purpose. This photo is clearly breaking the usual rules around negative space and composition, but doing it in a way that feels deliberate, done because they wanted to convey a certain emotion. I think they were really successful in that sense.

@rosetta_lynn_photography — the ride

Let's take a look at the next one.

I don't know quite how I feel about this photo. It's not a bad photo, it just feels kind of like a snapshot, like a vacation photo, from a parent who took their kid to this ride and just snapped a photo as they went by. I don't really feel like there's a lot of planning or artistic thought behind it, it feels more like, just look up and take a quick photo. That said, it's not bad, I just personally don't feel like it tells much of a story, maybe I'm missing something, but to me there isn't really a main focus in the photo. There are all these people in it, but none of them really stands out. So compositionally, I don't think it quite works, it just feels like a snapshot, a quick photo that was taken, and it's not bad, but it's nothing special.

I do like the separation of the subject, though, even if it's probably not that hard to get, given the nature of how this kind of ride works. It's not a bad photo by any means, and I do like that the people on the ride are isolated against this solid blue sky, no clouds, so they stand out there, which is nice. But it does feel like a photo a parent just took while their kid was on the ride, that's the feeling I get from it.

@_willdelaney — Will's own photo

Let's take a look at the last one.

Oh, this is one of my photos! Alright, so I get to critique this one now. Interesting.

This is a photo I took about two or three years ago, for a school project actually. I had to put together a photo book, and mine was about street photos I'd taken at night. Some things I like about this photo: I like that I got low to the ground to capture these reflections on the water, and I like that this couple on the left works as the subject of the photo.

Looking at it now, since I haven't looked at this photo in a while, there are some things I'd do differently. It looks a little crooked, I don't think I straightened it properly when editing, it's tilted slightly this way, and that bothers me a bit. Another thing is, I wanted this couple walking away to be the subject of the photo, but there's this bike passing through the background that intersects with them, and I think it makes the photo a bit too busy. I would have preferred not to have that bike cutting through the frame. There's also a parked bike on the left side that's a little distracting, along with a lot of street signs. If I remember correctly, I think I clone stamped out some distracting signs, but I don't think I did enough, there's a lot in this photo I'd have liked to remove, just to help the viewer focus in on the subject a bit better.

One thing I did intentionally: these office buildings up on the right, in the darkness, have this bluish green tint to them.

It's interesting, the colors are almost like binary opposites.

Yeah, that was intentional. I warmed up these street lights quite a bit with a local adjustment, and then, if I remember right, I did this in a fairly inefficient way, I'm pretty sure I brought it into Photoshop and painted an adjustment layer onto each of these windows individually. I could have done that a lot more efficiently, but I wanted to make these buildings look blue, to create some separation. I still like that part of the photo, but I think everything else is a little busy, I think I could have done better.

What do you think about this photo? Talking about the colors, I find it interesting, I wouldn't say I particularly like or dislike it. Usually I'm not drawn to that kind of light, but these particular colors don't bother me at all, actually, it's an interesting warm tone, I kind of like the lamps. I think the background, or wherever this was shot, is pretty busy, especially with the windows, which create this rhythm, this repetition, maybe even leading lines. What I think would work best, since the foreground is already so busy, is if the rest of the scene were almost empty, catching just one subject to focus on. So the things you mentioned, the bike being cut off, the bicycle interfering with the main subject, the couple, are a bit distracting. It's often hard to make a photo work when people are shot from behind, because you lose a lot of the emotion.

I agree.

Given how and where this was shot, I can see maybe having someone a little closer, as a silhouette, looking into the scene, because what it makes me feel is the size of the city, almost overwhelming, so I'd maybe lean into that emotion. Maybe a kid, or someone, standing in the foreground looking out at this big city, which might not even be that big, but shooting from ground level makes it feel that way. Or it could also work with just an empty scene and a bicycle catching a reflection or something like that. But for this particular scene, I think there are too many subjects, and some of them collide a bit.

Yeah, overlapping.

I agree, it's definitely too busy. I also think it would have been nice to have the subject walking toward the camera instead of away from it.

Yeah, I think that would help. Or maybe, thinking about it more, using those windows, I can see this being tricky, but maybe having a person mirroring the same pose as the main subject somewhere on the street would be really cool, though it would also be very hard to pull off.

It's tricky. It's one of those things where, and I definitely did the same thing critiquing other photos today, we can talk about the best way to get someone positioned perfectly in a shot, but at the end of the day, you're out shooting by yourself on the street, so in practice it's tricky to line someone up exactly how you want.

But you're right, it still would have made the photo a lot better.

Closing

Alright, thank you, Will, for joining me today. It was a nice, very insightful critique, and I'd also like to invite people to check out your YouTube channel and your socials, where you share your photography.

Thank you. Yeah, I had a great time today, it was fun critiquing photos. I actually used to do this on TikTok, I had a whole series where I critiqued people's photos, and I stopped for a while, but it was fun to get back into it.

Alright, thank you, and have a great day.

Thanks, you too.