Questions to ask… Self Critiquing your images

Here at Kelby we do a lot of blind critiques on the Grid and those are very popular… but here is a list of questions you can yourself before you ever show your work to anyone else. Keeping these ideas/questions in mind will help you to become a better visual storyteller.

1: What is my subject?

2: What value (distinction or meaning) am I conveying about my subject to a viewer?

Tonal, Size, Color, Sharpness or Clarity, will my viewer clearly understand what my subject is?

3: Have I placed my subject in the correct location in the frame to properly communicate its value to a viewer?

4: Has my subject been properly expressed by additional elements in the frame?

5: Do any elements in the frame or their position in the frame distract from my subject?

6: Is the viewer of the image able to understand the desired perception or to have an intended apperception of my subject.

7: Have I clearly expressed the intended meaning about my subject?

8: Have I used my imagination to communicate a subject in a new and unique way?

Special thanks to Steve Gustafson for coming up with this list, it is something that I am consistently trying to remember when I am shooting an image and also using it as a guide in my post processing in Lightroom.