Elia Locardi and Mike Kelley Critique Landscapes
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2018
- In this episode of Critique the Community we have the opportunity to host not one but two special guests, Elia Locardi and Mike Kelley. Twenty images were selected from the landscape images submitted by various members of the Fstoppers community for feedback and the chance to win one of two free Fstoppers original tutorials.
See the full list of submissions and rate the photos yourself here: fstoppers.com/critique-commun...
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Shouldn't the crapiest photographer get the tutorial?
😂😂😂
Azamat E well maybe, but I would join and submit my images if I thought I might get critiqued by Mike and Eli, and that I might get some educational instruction stoppers video, cause it's not likely I'll be submitting the best images that they review, but I'd still submit my best hoping that they like it and tell me how I can improve it, also just watching is helping me learn vocabulary that helps me describe images in detail, maybe they don't pick a winner or a loser but pick an image they see looks like the photographer has talent and intent, but is maybe missing the mark in composing or editing or technique in which case case an Fstoppers tutorial could benefit there work
it would be an horror show hahahaha
Haha! Yes!
Hey! Quit making sense.
Thanks so much for the constructive criticism on my image of the church Maria Gern in Berchtesgaden (the one with the light trails). It is a blend but I have shot it during a full moon night - so only the car trails are blended otherwise they would blow out too much. The dead trees are somewhat a disturbance yes, but image them being in full bloom in autumn - they would just distract from the main subjects (church & mountains) and wouldn't allow the trails to be ONE line cause they'd block the view towards the road. Anyways, thanks guys. A 5 would have been great though :D
Robin Koehler that was an awesome photo and showed quite a bit of technical proficiency. Bavaria is so under-rated!
Amazing shot dude! I guess a 5 becomes very personnal...
Yours was my favorite.
I actually came to read the comments so maybe I get to an Instagram account for the church photo! :) you are one of the first comments that I see and no Instagram account! :)
That was a 5 chief
Mike Kelley's critiques are great. +1 to more subtlety.
Moishe Lettvin such a chill dude. Love when he makes a cameo lol
I thought the tree in front of the sand dune was by far the best photo of the bunch. I think Mike was 100% correct about the fact that an over processed photo might get your attention on instagram, but to be a truly great photo that holds your attention over time it needs to look natural.
That's my picture, thank you very much
stevenqirkle his head is too far up his a$$ for an honest critique
I’ve seen about 700 picture of that tree. But it still makes for a good photo
48:38 is my picture! Yes, i live near cinque terre and will definitely follow your advice and go back there again. Mike and Elia are my personal photography heroes and i feel so lucky i had the chance to have my pictured critiqued by them!
I wish everyone could be as humble and gracious as you - and fwiw I really liked your photograph 🙏
Ignore Craig's comment. You've done a wonderful job photographing Cinque Terre.
Nice try with your straw man attack, but he has done a wonderful job.
I see what they were saying about the water reflections in your photo, as that blue sharp line in the water is a little distracting. But I don't understand why they criticized the lack of detail in your mountains, when the mountains weren't the focus of the photo.
@@MiaogisTeas thank you very much William! 🙏
I love Mike - he has good advice and he’s really great at what he does.
thank you paul!
Nice to see my photo in this critique. I took the aerial top down at 44:42. Fun fact: the lower right corner is the border between The Netherlands and Germany. Thanks for the feedback!
Good photo. I loved it
Your photo is my favourite of all of them.
Mikes always right. That desert picture was really great and dead tree that was soo desaturated contrasted soo well with the sand.
Thanks, that's my picture I'm glad you appreciate it
25:00 that is a composite of a meteor shower. The green in the sky is airglow (excited oxygen atoms).
Came here to say this. Also, there are no meteor showers active enough that would let you get that many in one exposure without having some crazy star trails in the same shot.
love you both!
Always interesting to hear your take on images. unique views.
I must admit I've enjoyed Elia's work for a number of years now but I do find it a little ironic for him to say images look a little "unnatural". If I remember correctly Elia blended a pre sunrise sky with a blue hour foreground of Vernazza a while back. How more unnatural can you get.
And did it well. You can terribly blend two photos taken minutes apart and excellently blend two photos taken hours apart. Both can look overprocessed/horrible and both can look good. I wouldn't say he is being contradictory. The overprocessing in these cases doesn't work, they can/do on his because he knows what he's doing.
The desert picture is awesome. It is such a brilliantly composed picture.
I love the sand dune too, Mike. And I like the next top down-it looks like a map with subtle colors, lovely.
The sand dune picture was a very close 2nd for me. I would have loved to have captured that.
It's a very cool location. If you look at Thomas Heaton's channel, he actually went there, and went through the process pf how to fhe shot there czcams.com/video/KzOL28JmDrk/video.html
@@simianinc I took that picture and I'm not ashamed to admit that Thomas Heaton is a big inspiration for me, I love his style
The tree and the dune, a great photographed vision.
Thank you so much, that's my picture
These guys think are trying that they know everything, if they can even elaborate what emotional picture is?
These pictures were so amazing. Kudos to all the photographer. Great work guys.
That was awesome...my favorite show on CZcams.
You guys would make great fine arts program professors, or classroom teachers. This was very insightful, and felt like two professionals talking about craft. Thank you so much.
Except only the godlike would pass their class. Barely.
Josh Armstrong I don't think you understand the rating system.
45:00 Made me actually say "Wow" out loud. I love how subjective these are. I love the feeling I got with that one!
41:54... amazing! i could easily buy this photo and hang it on my wall
The one with the tree in the desert was a 5, imo. It was beautiful, precise and had that calm, yet charming tone going on.
Would absolutely love to see an episode of you guys critiquing the communities woodland photos. Its one of my favorite things to shoot here in Ohio since we have plenty of woodland and not much else haha. Searched the channel to see if you've done it before and nothing came up. Love the videos. Anytime I can learn something then I'm happy. And I learn a lot from your videos!
The desert tree image was sooo good. Best of this episode. I don't know why Elia didn't like it
Thank you that's my picture
@@plur44 Best of the lot, Well done.
@@theampedlife Thank you so much
this was great guys-smashed it. It was very educational also, a few gold nuggets in there cheers. I need to study the emotional side of landscape photography more :)
I feel Elia Locardi has spent his life trying to become as cool as he thinks his name sounds. I suggest you change it to Chuck Webster.
Tekapo dude, I just woke up my kids because I laughed so loud. 😂
hahahaha best comment I've read in a while
LMAO, you should become a comedian that was actually gold
Omg 😂😂😂
I'm not really sure which d-bag is Elia but if its the long haired one then yes he,s the bigger D-bag between these two. And i've seen D-bags in the wild many many times, this one is very blown out.
best part of the video is when Mike says to Elia something along the lines of: “you like more literal images”. yup, that about summs it up perfectly 😂
After seeing this I wonder how you can say "the highlights are blown out" to every other shot and then also saying "too technical, not enough emotion" :D
This is a good way to put your spirit down as a aspiring photographer 😂😂
1? Someone doesn't understand the rating system
"can be taken by anyone with any camera without any thought" not a chance the photos they rated 1 are snapshots. If they did editing it's not a snapshot
@@TomHeal exactly. I'd put them straight in my portfolio. I'm not saying they have to give them 3's, but 1 is a misunderstanding of what a 1is.
Fascinating watching this, mostly because we have two different viewpoints here - Eli is someone who has created a reputation for taking technically perfect pictures of iconic locations. His critiques are based on what he would do in a similar situation. Make doesn’t shoot landscapes, so his critiques are based on what kind of image he’d hang in his house, which is why he tends to emphasise emotion. Neither of there approaches is the correct one, it all depends on what you’re trying to achieve as a photographer.
Jon Reid photography is totally subjective, and you are spot -on of where these guys are coming from, but neither of these approaches are incorrect. Photos one way or another are for people. Being critiqued by two photographers with different viewpoints is very valuable
Enjoyed the comments...its helpful for me to become a better photographer : )
Yosemite photo reminds me of a Thomas Kinkade painting, over the top yes, and beautiful too
The longer this video goes on, the more I am sure your screen needs to be calibrated. Surface's commonly have their saturation jacked, and I think it's skewing the ratings
Actually, the Surface screens are accurately calibrated just like Apple’s products.
Deviantarty was epic!
Very interesting episode😁👍🏼
For the most part i agree with you guys. I also never would've thought that the oversaturated style is so common in landscape photography. So i can now be even more proud of my natural post processing style😄. In my opinion it's also quite hard to critique other photographers constructively (especially if you a photographer). So i think you guys did a decent job👌🏼!
I also totally get the "emotional" part😂. I would just described it differently. Like the picture has no value that pick me up or something like that.
But that's just me😉
I’m half way through the video and I’ve seen two 1 ratings that are no way in hell 1s. You cannot take a snapshot like that with a phone with no photoskill. If ANYTHING at least 2.
I think sometimes knowing a little bit about photography and photoshop actually does you more harm than good. Take a snapshot of your kid with your iphone and at least you’ve captured a unique moment in time of a unique subject with deep meaning to you. Fly to iceland, take a photo of that plane wreck that millions of people have already photographed, and photoshop the shit out of it - and what have you really accomplished?
stevenqirkle I completely agree. I hate that plane wreck tbh lol every youtuber ever seems to have been. I’m just pointing out that the amount of time in thoughts of composition and post processing and and knowhow there’s no way this is a 1
Ok that's fair. Even though I didn't like it, to be honest I probably don't have the skills or the patience to do that plane wreck shot under the milky way as well as it was done in this video.
stevenqirkle subject matter can be a 1 and processing be a 5 where as in your example with your kid. The photo could be a 1 but the subject be a 5 in your eyes. And that’s what makes photography great. At the end of the day it’s all subjective
Why even have the rating system if they are gonna do it like this
One of the best CTC episodes I’ve seen. Commentary got a little redundant, but generally speaking it was fair.
Always appreciate these critiques. They're fun to watch and can provide some insight. Some feedback for Elia. In all of the videos I'd seen you be a part of - even your tutorials, you rarely look at the lens. Call it silly, but there's a big disconnect and distraction from someone that is just looking at them selves in a monitor, v engaging with the audience through the lens.
It is the famous grassy knoll in Dallas lol the turn on the left is where the assignation happened
Good work guys, interesting critique!
It’s a shame we never saw some more natural looking images.
”I don’t like that couch” ”But that’s the house” 😂😂😂lmao
At the end I think it is up to the viewer. What I found great in a photo maybe others don´t like and I think that is good enough. They can come up with all the technical stuff they wan´t but it´s up to me if I like it on my wall or not.
The Picture @ 7:28 is in southern Bavaria, Germany. The church is the "Wallfahrtskirche Maria Gern" in the Berchtesgaden Area. Really beautiful place
What awful things does someone need to do to a real image to make it look that fake, though?
its my image and there's nothing fake about it mate. be precise, please.
Robin Koehler Awesome shot Robin! Glad you got a solid 4!
I was very annoyed when Elia called it a "time blend". I immediately recognized it as a long exposure under moonlight. Didn't he notice the stars in the sky? He clearly overthinks everything because it's all about post-processing for him.
My favorite image of the lot. I love the glow from the valley.
The sand dune "I don't like the tree pulling away from what's happening on the sand dune... That's a leading line to the tree"... Interesting.
That was a 5-star photograph for me.
@@gs7828 Thank you that's my picture
The landscape astrophotographers of the meteor shower absolutely is a composite where I think the meters are around a 50mm shot that was stretched to fit the image, they background sky was probably taken as a series of vertical stitched shots and the foreground was probably also a series of stitched vertical shots. I think each vertical shot probably had around 5 to 10 images that were aligned and stacked to control noise. It is interesting how different photographic communities can rate an image so differently. Elia rated this as a 1, which by his own words would require an I-phone caliber shot, which this image is light years ahead of that. In the astrophotography world that image would be a solid 4 in my opinion and sell like hotcakes. In my humble opinion It is of the same caliber as Wally Pacholka who has published with APOD and NatGeo many times. The only think preventing it from being a 5 is the meteoroids which draw attention away from the focus which is the Milky Way and mountains. But then again it depends on what draws an emotional response in the viewer. For this efascinated by space, the sky glow and Milky Way would make this shot a solid 4 and potentially even. 5. Plus I know the crazy amount of work that went into processing this photo.
Jon Smith , That image can be taken with a 11mm lens and a single shot. The atard dont pop at all. Crop the foreground. And the meteors look too fake and out of place. I think the critique was right.
I have never been to that location so I will trust you when you say that it can be shot at 1mm. However, I promise the image would crush on TWAN and other landscape astrophotography sites. My final critique would be based on noise which I can not judge based on what is presented, but if noise was low (i.e. below what you would get with a single 6D or a7 shot at iso 6400) that would tell me some post processing skill went into it. In my opinion this shot was SUBSTANTIALLY better than the Yosemite night time shot which they gave a much better rating to and I have shot that location at night more than once to know what it should and can look like. However at the end of the day it is an art form and I can completely respect a different opinion on the shot, but I don't think that one is even close to a 1.
Personally, I just thought it was ugly. The colors looked bad and there was too much going on, from an artistic viewpoint it wasn't good. But that's just like, my opinion man.
The third picture is near Berchtesgaden in Germany. The mountain in the background is called the Watzmann. Beautiful location, been there a month ago!
I love Mike's reactions to the elitist ratings of Elia
Elia reaaaallly likes Elia.
Someone tell Elia Locardi that there is no perfect photo especially in landscape that everything depends on everything...Mike reacts naturally,he really enjoy the photos and don't try to be ''master'' of photography...Elia,i can send you at least 5 websites with better landscapes than yours...and yes i saw the website before i write this...
I agree! Can you point me out to some websites with good landscape photography? (No, I'm not being passive aggressive).
I feel like Elia has never photographed a meteor before...
so many meteors at the same time?
yay photographers that arent wedding photographers
Thank God!
To capture that many meteors it takes hours of exposures
The picture at 41:30 is better than anything I've seen from Locardi.
Do you know who is the photographer owner?
Thank you that's my picture
@@Vincent780320 That's my picture!
In the theme of adventure photography, have you guys reviewed the Zhiyun Smooth 4 gimbal? What would be the best external mic for it? Thanks
I love the tree $!!!!
Wow very nice Photoshop and Lightroom post processing skills review. Most photos dont really have "emotions" because all of them are raped in PP and LR. Oh well, its the trend nowadays.
Is anyone else sick of these heavily over processed images? All of these pictures are soft on they eye sure, but they look so disingenuous of the natural beauty.
This is why I love Thomas Heaton's channel natural and he just enjoys nature and all the natural aspects of it.
25:00 Thats how a meteor shower looks. Never shot perseiden meteorshower Elia? The foreground is way to bright. But meteor strikes do typically have a green glow.
But how would you do that on a smartphone? That was the 1-rating, right?
Framed by Thomas He clearly has no idea about what it is : )
08:00 pretty sure that around Berchtesgaden in southern Germany. You can tell by the unique peaks on the mountain. Beautiful place with a dark history
It quickly becomes a competition of who can give any photo the lowest score.
They are here to critique... If you don't like them ,take a seat with others waiting them for care .
They are so harsh I wouldn't imagine that!
the picture @7:30 is in germany (berchtesgaden). the iconic mountain in the background is the watzmann
I can't understand why so many people are complaining. Most of the pictures were just trash for instagram. The only times you can disagree with them is when they rated 1 some pictures that could have never been taken with a phone. Ps they need to learn how to do the 3 2 1 thing
For accomplished photographers as these who have travelled to so many places around the world, it pains me how little knowledge they have for night sky photography. Nightsky photography is a key sub-genre of landscape photography and these guys get to travel to cool remote places away from light pollution.
I'm studying web development right now but this stuff makes me want to switch my studies to photography haha.. I guess I'll be able to make myself a nice online portfolio at least.
This particular critique really points out the value of "working the scene". Many of these shots had comments like "Great start, but shoot it 20 minutes earlier.", or "Great start, but it needs another element.", etc.. If those people had spent a little longer at the scene, shooting with various exposures, various crops, focal lengths, apertures, and so on, they'd have more possibilities. Thanks, guys!
Just some insight, at 25:00 those are not the northern lights, those are called Airglows, and the photo seems to be a "timelapse" of the meteor shower and a exposure of the foreground composited into one single image! :)
Ricardo Filipe They clearly have no idea or never ever shot meteor showers before
When I edit my photos I usually just add some contrast but man, all of these photos look like cartoons.
I use the Sledgehammer of Color slider all the time in Lightroom.
Would be cool to see the people giving the critique have the raw file to do the corrections as they give the corrections!
I was looking at the comments and it's crazy how many people critique wether it is Lee, Elia, Mike or anyone doing those critique the community... just learn from what they are saying they didn't get where they are for nothing :) Anyway, really great episode and keep those critique the community going really big fan of your work!
couldn't agree more with you.
Newby photographer here. What is reality? Torn between honing my photography skills or chucking it all to go all in on post processing, expensive editing software. What I love is capturing the "best" moment in time from a location that I have photographed. Seems like the pros find more satisfaction in altering the the experience, the reality, and the sense of place to create non-reality graphic art. Wonder what Ansel Adams would have done? I love the sand dunes and the tree. I would love to have that photographer talk about the location, the settings, etc. I would love to hang that picture on my wall? The over processed stuff you can keep, in my opinion.
It feels like Elia is basing his ratings purely on his personal preferences and not on objective photography standards (ie, "I don't like that tree"). Mike offers constructive criticism that the photographer can at least understand and use to improve his/her skillset.
That's why photography is an art form.
What are you talking about. He talks about composition, lighting, tonality, leading lines and elements... In those terms a well. He was 80-90% objective. I wonder which photo is yours or someone you know that he didn't give enough compliments to...
They should team up to make a tutorial "Where Art meets Photographing the World"
The 3rd is near Berchtesgaden, Germany
I'm wondering if the Sólheimarsandur airplane wreck photo about 30 minutes in is a composite? I feel like the Milky Way doesn't get that high in the sky in Iceland and also it's facing the wrong direction.
Yes, Iceland is too far North.
Personally would've given the water rainbow photo at least a 4, I thought it definitely invoked emotion.
To everybody’s credit, the compositions were pretty much spot on. I just feel that light room and photoshop techniques are being given more marks than the effort from the photographer. Just felt that I was watching a sci-fi movie rather than looking at landscapes.
i play this video and have a drink every time mike says.... yaknawwhatimeeeen
critique peter mckinnon's photos
They think every photo is overcooked. They may be right but I think that's just what people like. Give the crowd what they want!
Like the phase where everyone was doing those HDR shots with clarity cranked to 11. I'm glad it's over but people loved it at the time.
I liked how the top-down desert one looked like there were fingerprints in the sand.
TBH I love you commentary and insight because you guys are obviously some of the best at what you do, BUUTTTT..... I think maybe it would be helpful if the photographer who took the image was asked to write a paragraph highlighting some of the key things they did in the editing of the image, cause I feel like your making a lot of guesses on how it was processed. some insight on what they had to do to create that image would be helpful. cause we dont really know
I 100% agree!!!!
In fairness there is a section to put a paragraph describing your picture. Whether Mike and Elia see that I don’t know.
Chris Lucas also in fairness this whole vid is supposed to be one take, and images sight unseen, so if they did have time to read the notes people would have to keep them real short, was the image cropped, was the image composited, was there any light painting done or just basic adjustments, or filters applied, and possibly relative time of day was it shot, camera and lens. And some of the details would change based on wether it is a landscape, portrait, food, architecture, ect.... I guess there is some basic info they should know for every critique, like hey this image was straight out of camera and no I did not add any color cast. I did curves, sharpening, and cropped, I dunno, I guess it could work but it's just a suggestion, I still love these segments either way
Elia is so biased it’s crazy
Seth Games Elia likes him some Elia
I like watching these episodes because it’s really interesting to see different photographers’ views of the world, and whether they’ve added things to it, taken things away, or simply tweaked color.
But here’s the fundamental issue with this type of show: you cannot put a number rating system on something as subjective as photography-which, at the end of the day, is a form of art.
Why do you think so many of the “community ratings” are around the 3 mark? And why is the highest rated image never too far above a 4? It’s because everyone has their own opinion and artistic eye for these pieces of art.
I love listening to Mike’s opinions because he seems to present them as just that: opinions. Elia, though, just seems to have such an obsession with showing off how much he knows or thinks he knows about landscape photography. It’s as if he’s the chosen elder spirit by some landscape photography god to explain to the rest of the plebeians what makes a 1-5 photo.
Critiques are difficult because it's hard to be objective. Regarding subject matter critique in these photos, there is too much: "I don't like [the subject]" for me; as for the processing critiques in the same photos (i.e. over-processing), I like these more. Some wonderful images being showcased here. Keep up the good work contributors.
The image at 7:32 is called the Maria Gern, its right next to my hometown Salzburg, Austria. It located just outside a town in Bavaria (Germany) called Berchtesgaden. It's quite a well known spot for local landscape toggers, and I don't like this image, I don't like the time blend, it looks much better in one time frame.
52:56 the Yosemite Milky Way photo is just a fake composite. Daytime/blue hour ground and midnight sky.
Is it possible to paint light in the night sky with a laser pointer? I know they have powerful ones for stargazing. Anyway, I wonder if that is how the "meteor shower" photo was achieved. There's a slight glow coming from the silhouettes hand that could be a pointer.
How do I submit a photo?
Elia:" 5 is world class, like exactly mine..d blown
Mike: Giggles
Elia, we see what you did there. XP
The Dallas photo is in fact in Dallas, TX
Indeed, haha. Is that Kevin Hann photo?
I dont understand the Monument Valley rating. It was a lovely shot IMO!
It was horribly red.
15:45 - Zaanse Schans. Ten minutes from where I live. Shot sooo many times there is no fun in shooting it.
The one with the meteor shower would have been amazing if the photographer had simply walked to the water's edge. It would simplify the foreground and hide some of the lens distortion. Also, the reflection on the water might have been prettier at that angle.
Great input and fun banter. I do think you need to be careful, as you can easily become a bit jaded- projecting from assumptions not part of your ratings. I could be wrong, but I have some shots with literally zero edits or corrections of any kind that you would assert are “overly cooked”, or last living shots (due to strange timing and 50+ years of shooting) of some amazing people, who you’d likely say, “been done before”. You should show some 5’s, for comparisons of closest of each type.
These guys really hit on some good points - most of the images were over-processed, and not simplified composition-ally - they all seemed to fall into that sledgehammer feel of 3rd year photography students trying to be edgy and showcase every Photoshop skill they have learned the last 2 years.
I know, old video. But question. When every picture is oversaturated, what are you guys viewing them on? Most iPads are oversaturated by design...
Just a thought.
Did Thomas Heaton take a photo of that exact same tree?
I took that picture and Thomas Heaton is a huge inspiration for me, I don't know if it's the exact same tree but I agree with you that the pictures look quite similar.
I have a colour accurate monitor and the images aren't as saturated or blown out as they seem to be saying. A lot of screens increase contrast and saturation to create artificially better experiences. I think this may be what's happening here.
I agree completely. I respect Elia's work so much, but they both had me scratching my head with their commentary on color saturation. On my monitors, I wasn't seeing nearly as many colors being "blown" or "clipped", nor did the colors appear to be too saturated or "sledgehammered" as they kept saying.
Elia and Mike in 4k video talking about low resolution images. It would be nice to let fstoppers critiques look at higher res images