This was the third round of the season. Each round has two “themes” set by the Club. This round had a three image panel for the first theme and “open” for the second. The challenge for participants is to submit images that have a roughly defined “genre” as part of the nominated “theme” with the added condition that each submitted entry must have a different “genre”.
A further change this year was the combination of the two Print divisions into just one. The judge then looked at the submitted images as two separate groups before and after the break.
Borough Market
We started our day in Borough Market and while I searched for lunch I took the opportunity to capture some images.
I selected “Street” as the genre . . .
Summary of judge’s comments
… An interesting approach here, [] when street photography it done well it can be really powerful
… Borough Market is a good opportunity and white often the street tend to work very well in black and white and that is undoubtedly the case here
… what you have here is an interesting style in that on the whole the images are quite subdued in terms of the focus on the main characters , and I think that works reasonably effectively
… possibly it could have worked more effectively , the reason I say that is because when I look at the first image, we have a really interesting character here, look at that moustache , looks like an old school gent , pouring the liquid and there is a really good looking image in there , but your focus is actually on these tags here , so what that does is draw our eyes down to these labels rather than seeing through , so it would have been stronger if you had had a reasonable perspective above the label or alternatively made sure that plane of focus was not on the labels here but on the jug behind, I don’t have an issue with the main character being “soft” as that is quite effective []
… [on the 2nd image]similarly here we these caps here and the steam coming up is again quite effective but the trouble is we are not seeing past those plastic things through top the person behind to see what they are doing
… [on the 3rd image]whilst there is a lot of shadow in there that is far more effective in terms of presenting the image of the main character
… there is quite a bit of steam in these two and I just wonder whether if this one [#3] might have been better as the middle image because this character here is looking in and that would have worked well
… so I think that are well on the way with this one but there are just a few things that you could have been taken slightly differently and particularly in these first two – it is about “where is the plane of focus?”
Monica’s smile
The Colour Walk at Old Spitalfields Market is a wonderful opportunity to practise portraiture. This one is from my very first visit there in April 2023.
Apologies to Monika for the spelling of her name in the title.
I selected “Portrait” as the genre.
Summary of judge’s comments
… with portraits I look for some interest in the image and you would be surprised the number of times that portraits are presented with people with a bland expression that are technically very good but leave you feeling absolutely cold []
… what I see here is real engagement and a real sense of fun shining out from that woman’s face
… she looks to me to be a lady with some character- that’s what is shouting out
… does the wispy hair across her face help? I am not convinced that it does but at least it is so wispy that you can see through it into to her eye
… the bold lipstick works well
… the lighting is working well all the way through , even in the brighter areas it is not overdone , you can see all the detail []
… it is just the warmth of the engagement that shines out and I appreciate that a lot
… the trouble is when I look at that I keep on seeing a mucky brown background and it is horrible!T his is a bit of a shame because it is really really strong portrait of her
The scores
There were 13 images in the panel round and 15 in the “open” round of the PDI Trophy “Borough Market” scored 8 and “Monica” scored 8.5.
Panel Round
Open Round
The original images
Borough Market
Monica
Leave a Reply