Hey Ahtsham,
Nice to see you again over here. How are things?
Here again you have done exceedingly well in your assignment. You have not only completed the task but you have done whilst also creating nice looking images!
I really like the photograph of the shoes for a number of reasons. For one this is a very colorful image and it really pops. Second the lines and patterns created by the rows of shoes here are really quite lovely.
Of course there is always room for improvement.
This looks like it was shot with a canon 650d and as such I think the image was cropped. I would really encourage you not to crop your assignments because I want you to really nail down your shots in camera. In fact this is one of the most important things about photography. You need to really try as hard as you can to get the best shot you can at the decisive moment. That way you will have the highest quality negative or raw file to work with after the fact.
If you shoot something and it is blown out or under exposed or totally out of focus you may never be able to recreate that photograph. With current technology you can’t really fix an image that was totally blurry when you shot it.
There is an expression that people use in Photoshop: Garbage in garbage out. In other words if you take a low quality image into photoshop you will inevitably end up with a low quality image when you are done. I’m not saying this is a bad photo, I actually really like this photo. I just want you to be sure that you capture the best image you can IN-camera. (ie no cropping etc)
Think of it this way. You want to capture a rough diamond. Then you take it home and polish it using your software tools like adobe lightroom.
All of this is to say for this course please use minimal cropping and minimal post processing techniques and really try your best to get the shot in the camera. Once you are done with the course I would actually encourage you to play around with post processing as much as you can.
Now back to the critique. If possible in a situation like this use your tripod and shoot at a much lower ISO. In this case it looks like you we’re in a store so that might not have been an option but if you are shooting fine art photographs like this you will want as little noise as possible for large prints. You might not even see the noise until you print it out.
In terms of depth of field you have gotten it right. I understand that this assignment was encouraging you to shoot shallow depth of field but this image might actually be a place to use very large depth of field so that we can get detail on all of the elements in the frame from front to back. This would certainly require a tripod in this relatively low light situation or high noise high iso settings.
All in all your depth of field shot is great although I would encourage you to think about the rule of thirds and the golden ratio in terms of where you chose to have the shoe that is in focus. Having the main area of interest in your photograph right on the edge of the frame is a bit unsettling to the viewer. This is partially because of the way the human eye works. We never see things in focus around the edges of what we see. What we are looking at is in focus and the things around the outside of that are out of focus (in our minds…)
Ok so now onto the motion image.
Another excellent assignment here.
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1: Tilt
It’s hard with a motion photography like this but if you are going to have very strong lines in your image it might be nicer to have them match the horizon line OR make a very crooked or even a dutch angle.
2: Leading Space
You have done an exceedingly good job here of using the technique of leading space. In photography and cinematography it is almost always a good idea to allow more space in the direction of travel in your frame. Basically leading space is space added to a picture in favor of the direction a subject is facing, looking or moving towards, it is a spacial balance of composition and environment. You have almost combined leading space and negative space since the background doesn’t have much detail.
3: Night
It’s very hard at night to shoot something like this without heavy ISO and grain. Shooting during the day and controlling using filters may be a better option.
4: Blown out
When shooting at ISO 6400 and or really any high ISOs in a dark situation with high dynamic range it may be impossible to avoid some areas being blown out. Just be aware that when you are shooting with high ISO your sensor is VERY sensity to light. That means anything bright may be blown out.
Overall you have done a fantastic job here and I can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
Great stuff!
😎