The Editor of Frames Magazine Critiques Your Photos: A Conversation with Tomasz Trzebiatowski
In this episode, Tomasz Trzebiatowski, editor of Frames Magazine, joins me to look at a new batch of reader-submitted photos with an editor's eye. We talk about what makes an image worth printing, and at the end he gets a taste of his own medicine when I critique one of his own photos back.
Check out FRAMES Magazine
Website: https://readframes.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frames_magazine/
The Editor of Frames Magazine Critiques Your Photos: A Conversation with Tomasz Trzebiatowski
In this episode, Tomasz Trzebiatowski, editor of Frames Magazine, joins me to look at a new batch of reader-submitted photos with an editor's eye. We talk about what makes an image worth printing, and at the end he gets a taste of his own medicine when I critique one of his own photos back.
Introduction
"Hello everyone, welcome back to the photography critique. Today I'm with Tomasz Trzebiatowski, who is the editor of Frames Magazine. Hello Tomasz, how are you doing? Thank you for joining me today."
Thanks so much for inviting me, I am happy to be here. Look at the images.
"So the idea behind this is that I'm going to show you images from my community, and I would like to ask you for honest feedback, probably as if those photos were your own, or as if someone sent them to your magazine."
Okay, got it. If they were my own, I would be much more brutal.
"Yeah, so I will try to hit somewhere in between. I don't think we mind being brutal, just something that is constructive, that can help people, and also explore how you, as the editor of a photography magazine, see the pictures, and what you imagine when you get them into your hands."
All right, so let's get started with the first one.
@sacks
Well, so you started with a strong one. From my opinion, I love the shot, I mean, I am a big fan myself of Saul Leiter-type photography, so if you wouldn't tell me who it is, or, well, I actually still don't know who it is, so I would be almost like guessing, is it a Saul Leiter shot, so that's the highest compliment actually, to be honest. From my side, I like this kind of complex, three-dimensional street shots, there is so much happening here, and there is always this thin line between, is the image too chaotic, too busy, or is it too simple. This particular image is very, very busy, there's much happening, it's a crowded, busy composition, but this is exactly what, in this case, in my opinion, makes it so extremely interesting, worth exploring. There are bits of information I can take from here, I would guess it's probably London, I might be wrong but probably not, I can see the double decker there, I love the lamps going into the image, creating this line at the bottom. There are so many layers on top, I mean, I guess it's a reflection shot, but then again you don't really know, maybe this is through the glass, from inside one building. But definitely very atmospheric, an image full of mood, it gives me the feeling that I'm there, on this street, or in this place, looking outside. And the colour palette, I love it, it's slightly subdued, not pastel, but not screaming extremely vivid at me either, it's some kind of very coherent colour palette. I love the shot, I would be strongly considering it to be printed.
"All right, is there something bothering you about this shot, or something you would improve, or wish were different?"
Almost nothing, this really works for me very well. If anything, my eye keeps jumping to this lamp, I guess it is, which is very in front here, at the bottom of the frame, this is a bit fighting for my attention too much in this whole thing. So maybe I would try to either exclude it, or take a slightly different angle, that would really be the only thing. After the shot, I can imagine it was a quick shot, because somebody was catching the silhouette, so I know it's not easy, but if anything, I would try to change the angle from where the photographer was shooting, to maybe get rid of the first lamp, or put it slightly off-centre.
"Thank you for that. Moving on, what do you think about this one?"
@FoundThisCamera
Okay, let's see. Definitely, it's a nice shot, doesn't strike me very strongly, I mean, it's good, the light is nice, backlighting, there is an atmosphere, there's a mood, because the light is hitting from behind, probably reflecting somewhere here and refracting back on the people, it's a nice street mood, which is definitely captured here. In terms of composition, for my taste, not ideal, somehow the line of the fence and the gentleman walking towards us, the space here is slightly too tight for me. And also the pose of his leg, of course we know he's walking, but I think it could be, maybe if it were half a second later or earlier, it would be a more unnatural, more visually pleasing pose of this gentleman walking. Very good shot, but not up there. I think it's mainly the composition, maybe the building in the background, if it were me, I would be trying to have this building in the background, on the left side, with the blue windows, really straight, it's a bit, it's not entirely straight, so I would try to get the lines of that building straight, then it would keep the whole scene really settled. But I like the shot, there's much to it, slight adjustments would, I think, make it even better.
"So now I'm going to show you this one."
@ma.druga
I like it a lot. This is immediately, I mean, we watch, we go through books, we know thousands of pictures, also of the masters from history, and so on. This strikes me like a combination, somebody was inspired here by David Alan Harvey, and Alex Webb probably, I hope it's not Alex Webb's shot, I don't know who's in your community, but I mean, if it were him, it's very, very Alex-Webb-ish. I love this kind of shot, it drags me into this scene, this is so real, so lively, and the composition, even again, kind of a bit chaotic, but it absolutely has its flow, starting with the boy in front, here on the, what is it, the Honda motorbike or whatever, then it kind of goes in a circle, the woman back there on her phone, and then goes back, the line through the boys here. It's kind of a little story in one shot, so I am immediately trying to figure out what's going on here, who are those people, is it a family, are they living in this place, what is the place. I get this sense of the environment, I could be guessing what the country might be, probably, I don't know, South America maybe. For me, if the photograph drags me in and starts me asking more questions, it's a strong photograph, and this is definitely the case here.
"So when you look at, or want to find, a strong photograph, what is it that you're looking for?"
That's a very good question, because I'm of course looking at very different kinds of images, from different genres and styles, but if I would have to put my finger on the common denominator, and it's, again, it's me, as an editor, some other magazine editor, or some other person, would be looking for different things. For me, the photograph gets really strong if it makes me, if it causes me to ask more questions about it. I don't have to understand everything, I don't have to know everything about the picture, but if it causes me to ask the question, dig deeper, stay and keep looking, this is a strong photograph. It might be an abstract, it might be a photojournalistic shot, it might be anything, I think in a nutshell, if there are more questions I want to ask the photographer, it's already a good shot, and this is definitely one of those images, I want to know more.
"All right, thank you, moving on."
@emirssevim
Yeah, again, definitely very good shot, somebody with a good eye, approaching the scene in a very artistic way. I can see the photographer, I can see the shadow, but we can also see the shadow of probably a child, on the swing, with a parent or somebody. But again, what makes this shot strong for me is, well, the other one you showed me just before was more straight-on, showing the story in front of us, this here, we're talking about shadow, so it's this shot with another layer, we know even less, we don't know how the people look, we don't know where they are, what's behind them, it's only the shadows, which means even more questions, so it's dragging me even more. But composition-wise too, interesting, I mean, about composition we know all the rules we learn, thirds, and all those golden circles and stuff, you could argue what kind of rule has been applied here, but maybe none, which, in the end, if you know the rules and start breaking them, there is a little bit of chaos in this scene, but again there is something which keeps your eye wandering. So you start with the photograph, there is the photographer, what is he shooting, he's shooting this scene, then you go right, you see the shadow of the child, there, again, I think in a nutshell there is a story here as well, and I think it's a strong shot, I wouldn't be improving much here.
"All right, so what do you think about this one?"
My photo
Let's see. Definitely, nice intention, nice idea, somebody, the photographer, noticed the boy, I guess, I'm not sure boy or girl, but probably boy, sitting on the street there. Again, I'm trying to ask my own questions, I see people standing around, also behind, probably some kind of street performance going on, and the boy is watching it, together with those people, and the photographer noticed the boy. Nice idea of going down, shooting through the legs of the crowd, it's nice. What, if it were me, I would be trying to include, in this case, somehow it doesn't work for me entirely that the whole head of the boy isn't busy, I would be going with my camera a little more to the left, and trying to include a bit more of him, because somehow this place, where the, what is it, the skirt of the woman, the black skirt...
"Yeah, yeah, I mean, I know the idea."
But in this case, I think it would work a bit better, because then you would eliminate also the white space, which is just next to his head, behind, and which is a bit competing with his face. This only, I would slightly change the angle here, just going, if possible, I don't know, maybe it wasn't possible, of course, but strictly visually speaking, then the surface of his eye, if you would go a bit more to the left with your camera, you would probably have a bit more of the... of his eye...
"Oh, yeah."
Which would make it a little more, even more personal in this regard, showing his eye a little more, more of his expression.
"Ah, okay, I see. Thank you, moving on."
@taoistpunk
Nice pants, huh. This is clearly a humour shot, a street shot. There's a big discussion going on, often somewhere on the net, or in photographic circles, about the so-called shot from behind, people even start discussing these days if it's fair, if it's respectful, and so on. I personally don't have problems with such things, I mean, the person remains anonymous here, unless some people in this particular town would know who is wearing these pants. Nice idea, humorous idea, in terms of composition here, not maybe ideal, there is the car in the background, with those reflections on the side of the car, which are, the car is of course a little blurred compared to the main subject, but still not that blurred, that it's not competing, it's still competing with the main subject a little, and I think the composition could be a little more clean. But it's me again, also the gentleman's leg, which is in motion, so of course it's probably motion blur, I would imagine, but it's not entirely tack-sharp here. And then the car, I mean, we talked about the shot before, right, which I said was kind of a Saul Leiter shot, there was way more in the frame, but somehow for me, either there is so much in the frame, so many elements, that the entire scene becomes one entity, one thing, here it's just a few elements, and they are a little too much competing with each other, for me. So that will be the only thing here, maybe this wouldn't be the wisest thing to suggest, but maybe the photographer should have followed the guy for a few minutes and looked for different backgrounds.
"Yeah, that's what we do, right?"
Yeah, but nice, definitely nice idea, good shot, a humorous shot, just follow the guy for a few minutes and look for different backgrounds.
"All right, all right, moving on."
I like it, I like it. It's again, in terms of composition, you see, it's closer to the first shot you showed me, there's so much in the frame, again, some reflections, maybe through the glass, but here definitely, again, dragged in by some kind of story, because I'm really wondering what's going on. I mean, okay, it's a public laundry I think, it's probably a mother with a child, waiting for the laundry, the child is sleeping, very intimate, special moment, or maybe a grandmother, we don't know. Covid times probably, she's wearing a mask, I guess. So this is a nice image, I like it, for me there are also two categories sometimes, which I equally enjoy: either it's a perfectly, compositionally excellent shot, which strikes by geometry, by lines, you can see the photographer put much effort into designing the shot, or, and this shot is working stronger because of the emotions which are in the shot, when you combine geometry and emotions, those shots usually become extremely strong, or something like this. But here, what's the main strength of this image, I think, is emotions, very intimate feelings between the woman and the child, and it's showing me life, so it's one of those shots, it's really full of life, full of real emotions, a real situation, and the light is nice, probably some kind of sunset hour, late evening, I would imagine, or maybe early morning. So nice light, I like it, the focus is on the child, which is absolutely the main subject here, and the whole story starts from this point, from the child, so the child is the centre, I like it, I like this shot.
"All right, thank you, moving on."
@gettons
Yeah, very good, similar kind of vibes to the previous one, well, something is going on there on the bus, right. Maybe an argument, or maybe some kind of conversation, we don't even know if it's between this standing person and this sitting guy, or maybe he's just an observer of what's going on somewhere in the bus. Beautiful colours, that's for sure, again, close to a Saul Leiter kind of colour palette, the window of the bus or train, which is not entirely clean, I would say, so it adds the atmosphere, it's a real shot of real life, and I love this kind of shot. Combined with a nice light and composition, it's basically perfect here, because the guy sitting nicely in the lower right-hand part of the image, the pointing finger there, it's nicely separated, there is space between those subjects, so this is really technical analysis of the composition here. It catches my attention, definitely, bravo, good shot.
"All right, moving on."
@chetanclicks
So the concept is slightly similar to the one before, with the boy sitting on the ground, remember, shot through the legs, here the girl is praying, that's some kind of religious place, probably, I imagine, in Asia somewhere. Good intentions, again, what a little disturbs me is the very bright background behind her, I mean, it includes elements that of course add to the scene and drag us in, and show us what place we are at, but the background there, of course, is very bright, probably a sunny day, so it's a little too bright to my tastes. Again, my eye keeps jumping back there, to this fence with those colourful things, whereas I think the main subject here of the shot was supposed to be the girl. These are all slight things I'm talking about, but if you're asking me what I would possibly improve, in such a case it's difficult, unless in post-processing, which I'm not the biggest fan of, often, I mean, I would do it from time to time, but I can understand, judging the lighting situation here, it was extremely bright, the background, girl in darker clothes and darker hair and everything, so it's clear why the camera overexposed the background, because it was adjusting for the subject, and had to open up more, or whatever. So not much you could do on the scene here, you could do something in post-processing, you could possibly darken the background a little bit, and otherwise, a nice shot. Maybe you have this some kind of wooden thing which is sticking out at the bottom, and then next to her head there is, I think it's one of those, some kind of sacred place, those columns, and this is also touching her head from behind, so if I'm nitpicking, those would be the two elements that a bit disturb, or compete, with her as the main subject. But that's a nice shot, it shows the scene, but a few details, if you ask me.
"All right, moving on."
@clairelions
Yeah, again, kind of similar to a couple of images before, this kind of scene gives me the atmosphere, evening bar, it even says there, and a couple, dating, or maybe, a nice mix of different kinds of light, from inside and outside probably, the colours are nice, it really conveys the atmosphere here. I'm struggling here to define my feeling about the composition, mainly thinking about the guy's face being covered there, and also the plant, but okay, this was what it was, there's not much you can do, you would have to go inside and ask them to move the plant, but it's fine, actually, I like this kind of shot, because I always believe in this idea of capturing life how it is, the plant was there, if you would go now off-centre with the camera to the left, and try to shoot it from an angle, it will probably not work so well in terms of composition, because it will be, now it's a straight-on shot on the window, it's a clearly presented scene, so from the angle I don't think it would work so great. So in the end, I give it ninety out of a hundred of my likeness here, I like it, again, some questions being posed, and first of all the mood and the atmosphere, the mood is really nice, it's great, the lights are great.
"All right, oh, okay, let's see what's going on here."
@chongqing
Okay, so we have somebody sitting there, and then there's a reflection here, well, interesting, definitely, the parts of a human body being portrayed here, and with the reflection, this is definitely something which catches our attention naturally. But then when I start looking at all the other parts of the image, I start thinking if it's only the main subject matter that catches my attention, or the whole shot. Okay, now I see it, I see her feet, so it's probably a bus stop. It's a difficult one, because there are good elements to it, this symmetry, and of course the playing with reflections, but you have those people reflected in the glass, walking, and I am struggling a little with concentration, on where I should look here. It's again a chaotic shot, but still, always when we have a human element in the scene, naturally, we are humans, it catches our attention. So, obviously, we see the woman sitting first here, but then I start looking at these persons walking there, and I kind of lose focus. So I think it would be a stronger shot when those people would actually not be there, smoking, because I really, my eye goes back and forth, and I can't settle, I can't define what this image is really about. We even have some boy, I think, on the left side, back there, yellow pants or something, I'm a bit lost here. It could be stronger, for example, to wait and have the shot with her sitting here, but without those people, I think it would be stronger, so this will be my only major criticism here. Otherwise it's fine, the background again is a bit on the brighter side, because in the back there's a sky, but this is somehow okay, it doesn't disturb me so much in this case, because you have also those white parts on the trees, the painted parts, so the general balance of darker and lighter tones seems to be fine. It's mainly about those human elements, which I may be struggling to stay focused on.
"Moving on."
@robshum
Yeah, good shot, I like it. Again, this is one of those real-life shots, and the photographer included, in the very front of the frame here, the hand and the body of this woman, and so it gives you really this three-dimensional feeling to the shot. It always adds so much to the story, because, okay, obviously the gentleman in the back is the main subject, his face is there, so he's naturally the main element, but there is her, the woman standing here, and it definitely adds to the story. So she's at some kind of a market, she's probably, we don't know, selling those books, or he's selling them, but anyway, it gives you more, exactly, you want to wander around and try figuring it out. So I like the shot, very nice, it's slightly, at least on my monitor, I would go down maybe in post-processing a little bit, in general with exposure, it's slightly on a bright side somehow. But it's me, again, I like the blacks going really black, so I would add a little bit of contrast to this scene, meaning basically going one stop down with the exposure, I think her arm on the very top is bordering on overexposed.
"Do you mind the background paint a little colliding with his hat, I guess?"
Well, now that you say it, but somehow in this case it didn't disturb me so much, because it's this whole wall being painted, and it of course adds to the atmosphere and shows us the place.
"When you say it now, I see this, the cyclist driving into his head or whatever."
But somehow it didn't really, it's nicely separate, it's a little more blurred than the guy, so yeah, I like this one, I like this one, it's a nice environmental portrait of a kind.
"All right, moving on."
@strolling_around
Yeah, well, here, okay, so I can immediately like this, because this is my kind of shot, a hundred percent, so I like it a lot. I like this one a lot, I would be after such images when I'm walking around with a camera, I love it, a few reasons, but again, very personal things, but that's what it is, it's a personal critique, it's a personal opinion, as many eyes, so many interpretations. I love this image, I love the negative space, the kind of framing of this shadow area, which, by the way, as I can see, there is still detail everywhere in those shadows, so it's not, I like even sometimes when you go pitch black with certain areas, that's also absolutely fine with me, I love it, sometimes I do that too, but here you actually, the photographer kept the details in, so it's looking beautiful, the light is wonderful, it's coming somewhere from above, it's soft, a splash of this yellowish colour, but not too vivid, kind of old staircase, whatever it is here, the atmosphere is there. And needless to say, it's the leg and the part of this person adding some movement to the static scene, and again a mystery, the questions are there, everything is good, for me, who is this person, where is he or she going. Composition, extremely interesting, kind of symmetrical, but not after all, we have the vertical lines, horizontal light, diagonal line of the stairs, so there is so much to enjoy, so much to follow, and just wander around, lovely, love it.
"All right, moving on."
@riz.shots
Yeah, a nice environmental portrait, so what is he doing, is it fish there, I think he's preparing some kind of fish, cutting fish. So it's a nice environmental portrait, well, the expression on his face is very interesting, we don't know, was he aware, was he posing, not posing, maybe it's a candid shot, but there's definitely an interesting expression on the face, we see what he's doing. In terms of composition, okay, I may be struggling with the bag here, I'm on the fence about it, because it kind of adds to the environmental scene, so it really puts him in his environment, the bag probably belongs to him. If the bag weren't there, compositionally, again, my eye wouldn't be going there, because there would be nothing bright in that corner, but on the other hand, somehow it adds to the scene, it's a part of his environment and life, and it makes this scene really real. So actually it's fine, it's a good shot, I like it, because I was about to criticize the background a bit, again struggling with the main subject, but actually it works, his head is already in front of the blue surface, so it's not disappearing anywhere, the contrast is nice. For me it would probably pop a little more, it's by the nature of his darker skin against the darker background, I can imagine if the background were, I don't know, a light green, or even yellow, it would make the shot better, because we would see his expression, which I feel is what this shot is about.
"Well, this is one of those things, I mean, but the thing is there was no yellow curtain."
Well, I mean, yeah, you can't change it, but just being, well, you can change it before...
"But don't tell anybody."
[Laughter] But I mean, on the other hand, look, there is also something about the, what do you call it, not the bucket, but the blue thing, what do you call it...
"Yeah, the blue curtain."
So there is some kind of, okay, right, I know what you mean. Exactly, that's why I was struggling, I was like, ah, but in this case maybe it doesn't need to be criticized here, anything in terms of these compositional things, because on the other hand it's really this environmental portrait, which is what it is, the scene, and I think it would work nicely in a series, for example, a series of ten, whatever, five, ten images about this guy, maybe one of them being a very intentional portrait of him, where you pose him, then you can really control the background, do whatever you want, maybe two shots of the details of the fish or his hands, then this one, maybe it's part of a series, I don't know, maybe the photographer... but it's a very nice shot actually, I like it, the light and colours are nice too.
"Moving on."
Tomasz's photo
"Well, you should be talking about this one, I think, right? Now I want you to use the same lens to criticize this one. So we can reveal it, or not."
Yeah, so this is, Martin found it somewhere, I don't know where, it's my photograph from, I don't know, ten years ago, I think. You can see here what I was, what I sometimes go after, again, this kind of typical image I'm often trying to create, it's a street scene, it's real life, it's not posed or anything. It's a bit chaotic, like I said, it's a real scene, but it's kind of a geometrical, for me, play with lines, with shadows, with shapes. I tried to convey the movement here, the life, they're walking somewhere, the contrast everywhere, basically, this is me, even subconsciously, a contrast in terms of dark and bright areas, contrast in terms of very static lines on the wall and them moving. Well, now, in retrospect, I have to find something to criticize.
"What I would probably maybe do differently..."
Possibly I would go lower with the camera, I think I know exactly where it is, and where I live, so I was kind of shooting slightly from above, probably standing, and then of course it was a quick reaction. So in terms of really compositional, I would probably go a bit lower, so I would get more of them, not necessarily too much, but a bit more, so that her head, let's say, the woman in front here in the middle, her head would go kind of to the middle of the next tile, but this is really now, I'm kind of fantasizing about what I would have done, and so on.
"You have to now smash this one, come on. So, the right side, be honest, makes me kind of wonder what it is, if it's kind of like a fence or a shop, or, you know, the shadow, it kind of makes me, it kind of looks like a monster or something, and they're walking in the mouth."
[Laughter]
"And I know it's not always possible, but if you can, critique this: I wish those subjects were a little more separated, because we can see there are probably two people, the one with the back in the front, and then the other one with a hat, is it like a girl or something, they kind of, because the first subject in the middle is nicely separated, you can see the details, he's even carrying something in his hand, and then those two are just together, I can imagine, if they walked in a line, just one by one, I guess I would probably like the picture more, but those things you can't really influence. And there's also the shadow in between, the shadow of one of them, then of course the shadow would be..."
Yeah, but this is exactly, this is the whole idea of critique, and mainly critiquing photojournalistic or street shots, interesting, because there is so much we as photographers don't control, or wish we could control, it's kind of doing the best out of it. And that's why I also think it's so much about the selection process, and self-criticism, when you, of course, I don't shoot thousands or hundreds any more, in a scene like this, but maybe I shot three, probably, I don't remember, but then, of course, of those three, either you decide not to show anything and just erase them, or, this is also a responsible decision, I think we have to be really strict with ourselves. Sometimes you remember those times, when we were starting into photography, we shoot a scene, we have five shots, we kind of feel none of them is really worth showing, but okay, I have to show something, so we choose the best, but this best one still, we feel something ourselves. This is all a natural process, but with time, years go by, and of course very often I erase everything I shot, there is nothing worth showing, so I think this is especially true for this kind of spontaneous photography, street photography, you shoot, but then you have to be really strict during the selection process, and decide. And now you talk to me about this picture, I have to defend it, because I showed it to the public.
Closing
"Yes, so thank you, thank you so much for joining me, it was very nice talking with you."
Yeah, pleasure. I hope a couple of thoughts of mine kind of ring a bell with somebody, if any one of the guys or ladies who are the photographers here, I will jump into the comment section, I would be more than happy to further discuss, if somebody has any questions about my opinions and so on, it would be great to have a conversation, let's see you guys in the comments.
"So thank you very much, and I'm looking forward to talking to you maybe next time. Thank you for joining me today."
Thank you, bye-bye.
