The HARSHEST Critique to date LIVE: Revisiting Sam Green

Yes this is one of the harshest critiques I have done to date. Let me preface the entire thing by saying please do not take anything I said in this critique as being mean or over the top. Sam asked for me to be honest and to be honest that’s the only way I could do a critique any way.

For those who do not know Sam, he contacted me almost two years ago looking for help building a portfolio to try and get into Antonelli Institute. As you will see from the Youtube playlist below, I helped Sam over four videos. In the first video we started with a basic critique of the images Sam had created in high school.

What you have to keep in mind that when I am critiquing someone who is just starting out I am not going to be overly harsh. I am gong to be very supportive and give pointers that will help the photographer not hinder them.

After looking at what Sam had, it was obvious he was just starting out and was in need of some direction. You could see that there were some killer images followed by some that we could do without. The point here is to showcase what makes each image a winner and what makes the others not. Once you do that the photographer can start to visually see the difference between the keepers and tossers.

I sent Sam out on assignments for a few weeks until we finally had 10 solid images for his new portfolio. I have to say he had the start to some very strong work after taking my direction and running with it.

Fast forward two years, I invited Sam onto an episode of RAWtalk (video below) to talk about his first year at Antonelli. I also asked him to bring along his first year portfolio for me to critique.

And that is where the video above picks up the story. Sam sat at the RAWtalk table as I went image by image giving him my critique. Sure this one is harsh but I know Sam can handle it and grow with the feedback. You will notice for one of the images I gave him a little crap about the pixels but it turns out the printer had not printed his images properly.

I am very proud of Sam, he busts his ass day in and day out and I really think he will find his way in the photo world as soon as he leaves school.

Sam Green from two years ago.

Sam Green on RAWtalk