Video: Professional photographers critique Nigel Danson’s 5 favorite photos

 

 

We've seen photographer Nigel Danson offer critiques of other photographer's images, but now it's time for role reversal. Danson selected five of his all-time favorite images and sent them to four top professional landscape photographers for critique.

Danson sent his selected photos to Alex Nail, Michael Shainblum, Adam Gibbs and Mads Peter Iversen. In the video below, each photographer offers insights into each of Danson's five photos.

As Danson quickly learned, even though he knows he's a good photographer and is excited to learn ways to improve his craft, it's still difficult to listen to people pick apart photos you really like and care about. It's challenging to capture good photos, so when you feel proud of something, it's easy to become defensive when people offer up ways your favorite photo comes up short.

Even though constructive criticism can be difficult to hear, the feedback is especially helpful when there's a consensus. In the case of Danson's first image, each photographer picked up on some of the same areas that could be improved. If four talented photographers that Danson respects all identify the same strengths and weaknesses of an image, their feedback warrants significant consideration.

 

For this image, Danson incorporated some of the feedback into a new edit. The original version on the left had a bit less color in the sky, a slightly bluer tone overall and a brighter rock in the foreground along the edge of the frame. Credit: Nigel Danson

While the feedback in the video above is all about Danson's five photos, the critiques offered by each professional photographer can be applied to your own work. For example, in a couple of Danson's images, the critics observe areas in the frame that are slightly too bright, drawing the viewer's eye away from the subject. This is great advice that you can think about when editing your landscape images. Likewise, distracting elements near the edge of the frame came up several times. It's always important to think about the edges of your images and whether you have a distracting element or need to give an important element in the photo more breathing room.

To see more from Nigel Danson, visit his website and YouTube channel.

(Via Nigel Danson)