One blunt critique from a local artist changed my whole framing approach

I was at a small open studio night in Portland last fall, showing some landscape prints I'd been working on for maybe 8 months. This older painter I'd never met walked by my table and just said, 'Your composition is fine but you're hiding everything behind that soft light.' It stung because I knew exactly what she meant. I'd been editing every photo to blur the edges and dull the shadows, trying to make things look dreamy, but it was flattening the depth. That weekend I went back to my original negatives and reworked three prints with hard shadows and sharp foregrounds, no softening filter at all. The difference was wild, suddenly the trees felt like they had weight and the paths pulled you in. Has anyone else had a critique that made you realize you were overcorrecting for a style you didn't even need?

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angela19119d ago

My buddy got told her paintings were too pretty, now she scrapes half the canvas off.