You saw the page about the Photography Critique and Tall Tale Telling but you’re not sure how this works and how to get the most out of the opportunity. I’m going to tell you how to benefit from the critique using myself an an example.

The point is to help you improve your photography. If you are waiting for your photography to be “good enough” to bring to the critique – you are missing the point. Bring the photos that are “not good enough” and we will give you ideas for improvement.

First: Don’t bring photos you are happy with. Bring photos you are almost happy with. Bring photos you are not sure about. Bring your doubts, should haves, problems, confusions, and editing problems.

In 2024 I started photographing volleyball games. Sports photography is not something I know about or have experience with. I had finally reached a point where my volleyball photos were not terrible but I knew they could be better. I also knew I was at the point where I wasn’t going to get any better with self-evaluation. I needed external evaluation.

Thus I brought volleyball photos to the critique.

Second: Tell everyone what you want feedback on. Generally speaking.

What I said to the group was “I have no experience with sports photography. I need to learn what makes for a good sports photo. I’d like you to tell me if each photo is interesting or not interesting and what elements make it interesting or not.”

What I did not state was which specific elements of each photo I wanted feedback on. I wanted to find out what they noticed or didn’t notice. I didn’t want to lead or bias their opinions. After you have gotten feedback on your image and everyone appears to be finished with comments then you should ask about specific elements of the photo that you have questions about.

Each photo you bring should have one or more specific elements you want feedback on. I’ll present my selections as an example. I’ll show you the photo as I brought it. Tell you what I wanted evaluated in that photo. Tell you what the group feedback was. Then show you the photo after I changed it based on the feedback.

I was also fortunate that Richard Carlson was at the critique this month. He is a experienced sports photographer who dispensed multiple nuggets of wisdom.

First photo:

What I wanted evaluated: I cropped in tight on where I thought the action was at. Did I need more of the environment than this? I cropped to a non-standard ratio. I typically keep a standard crop ratio. Odd sized images bug me unless there is a good reason for the odd size.

Feedback from group: Nothing needs to be changed. I done good.

Second photo:

What I wanted evaluated: I left much empty space at the top. The players to your left are cropped at the lower legs in the worst of places – something I would avoid when doing fashion photography. The cropping of the players closest to the camera on the right didn’t bother me. I wanted opinions on the cropping of the players and the white space at the top.

Feedback from group: Nothing needs to be changed. There were questions about why the doors with an exit sign above them also have signs saying “This is not an exit.” This was discussed at length.

At this point I was feeling pretty good. Evidently I’m a master of volleyball photography the likes of which has never been seen before. Turns out this euphoria wasn’t going to last much longer.

Third photo:

What I wanted evaluated: One of my “things” is tilting my images. Another thing is keeping the full frame ratio for cropping. I did both of those here. How would that be received?

Feedback from group: The tilt threw everyone off. Apparently sports photographs are suppose to be level. Who knew. Additionally the girl on the left was not contributing anything to the image. I couldn’t disagree with this.

I leveled the photo and cropped to a square. I made sure the “This is not an exit” sign stayed in.

Fourth photo:

What I wanted evaluated: I cropped in to where I thought the action was. Once again, how did I do with isolating and framing the action.

Feedback from group: The girl on the left in white was not part of the immediate action. Numbers 24 and 10 were the important elements. Once again I needed to be more vigilant about removing people who are not critical to the story.

I cropped in tighter to distill the action and remove distraction.

Fifth photo:

What I wanted evaluated: This is a volleyball action photo that has no volleyball in it. Was that going to work?

Feedback from group: No. It doesn’t work. It was universally agreed that the ball must (almost always) be in the photo if you are doing an action shot of the game. This photo, despite some strengths, does not work without the ball. The girl on the left in black (number 11) setting up to hit the ball is very dynamic. The girl on the opposing team is clearly looking at number 11 to see what she’s going to do, as opposed to looking at the ball to see where it’s going. While these were good details it was agreed they do not make the image sufficiently interesting.

What had potential: Richard pointed out that in a photo like this the action and story isn’t what’s happening on the court, it’s what’s happening on the side line. Had I focused on the team on the side line and let the players on the court go out of focus this would have been a much better photo.

Edited image: None. Since I couldn’t add the ball or change the focus there was nothing to fix.

Sixth photo:

What I wanted evaluated: This was part of a sequence of photos. The story is that the two girls were going after the ball, dove for it, and slid across the floor. This was near the end of their slide. I wanted to know if this photo would convey what had happened and was happening.

Feedback from group: It was difficult to locate the ball. It was unclear what was happening, what had happened, why the players were laying on the floor. There was no sense of why or what. Additionally the left side of the image was not contributing. Not enough interest over there. Every picture may tell a story but this story didn’t have a beginning, middle, or end.

I tightened the cropping to make the action more the center of attention. However it’s still not the strongest of photos due to the confusion about what’s happening. Also fixed the level.

Seventh photo:

What I wanted evaluated: I’m keeping the cropping wide because I wanted to include the flags, scoreboard, and banners. My intention was to convey the bigness of the gymnasium and show the players as an element of that. Does this work?

Feedback from group: The consensus was that I had caught the server (number 11) at a good moment. However the rest of it was distracting. Once again I needed to close in on the action and exclude things that don’t directly contribute.

I cropped in to a square to see how that works. I still like the bigness of the original image and that is my personal choice between the two photos. You always have to know if your photography for you or for your audience. The audience wants the second image. I want the first. No one is wrong.

Actually they are wrong but it’s not worth arguing over.

What did I learn from this?

1. Keep the photos level. In the case of volleyball level is determined by the top of the net – most of the time. There is a time to be artsy-fartsy. Sports photography isn’t that time.

2. If it’s not directly part of the action – cut it. Get in as tight as possible. The audience is accustomed to seeing sports from a distance when attending in person. Part of photography is showing people something they often see from a perspective they don’t often see it from. I explicitly talk about this when I’m teaching photography yet apparently forgot it when I was taking these photos.

3. Sometimes the action isn’t on the court. Watch the sidelines. There are more opportunities around you than you think there are.

If you want to evaluate more of my photography from this volleyball game you can find the full collection of edited photos here: http://kaos.link/vb20251114

I expect to see you and your photos on some upcoming third Wednesday soon.