Have you ever wanted to receive professional feedback on your photography without the hassle of entering competitions first? Read on to discover Greg and Justin’s first attempt at using Photo Kaizen - an all-new photo judging platform designed by renowned landscape photographer and official AIPP judge Matt Palmer.
Our latest Lucky Straps blog article explores all that Photo Kaizen offers photographers at every level of their craft. As photographers, we often work solo, with only ourselves to judge the quality and effectiveness of our work. Sure, we all get feedback from our peers online, but who’s to say our peers have any idea what they’re talking about? One way to gain essential feedback is to enter your images into photography competitions. While most photography competitions require an entrance fee, once you’re in, you’ll receive critical feedback from an industry-recognised, certified, and approved judge. Judges undergo training to understand the vital elements of image review and feedback. The aim is to give each image a detailed description of what worked and what requires development. At the end of the day, while you may not win a prize at every photo comp, you will receive a range of feedback that supports your ongoing development as a photographer.
But what do you do if you don’t want to spend money on photo competitions to gain much-needed feedback? That’s where Photo Kaizen comes into play.
What is Photo Kaizen?
Photo Kaizen is an online platform that provides photography feedback from industry experts. Its goal is to continually improve your photography skills at any level with critique, which has all the development benefits of entering photo competitions but without the pressure. The only person you're competing with is yourself!
“Kaizen is the Japanese concept of continual improvement through small steps. This philosophy is at the heart of our approach. I've assembled a team of genre experts, all known for providing constructive feedback, to help you take those small but significant steps in your photographic journey - Matt Palmer.”
Photo Kaizen is an intuitive website that allows you to create a free account to access the photo review process plus a range of free features designed to support the photography community. With Photo Kaizen, you can submit single images, collective batches, projects, or even a photo book or website for review. The submission process is slick and easy to follow, with sensible drop-down menus to fine-tune your feedback style. The Photo Kaizen team then reviews your submission and provides timely feedback via email. As part of the Photo Kaizen experience, you’ll also receive certificates, trophies, and long-term titles as recognition for your best images that meet the decisive scoring criteria.
“Photo Kaizen is a platform to connect people to expert advice, whether they are taking their first photographs, whether they are doing well at their camera clubs, or whether they are professionals seeking advice on client work or even award submissions. I think photography still has great power in this modern and sometimes confusing world of ours. Whether it's the power to capture or bring happiness to a family, to support community initiatives or document unsung heroes, or to help preserve our natural environment I want as many photographers empowered to produce their best work and bit by bit we can make the world a better place. I know that sounds like a cheesy cliche, but imagine 10,000 photographers all creating work that helps people in some way... So ultimately I want Photo Kaizen to help them for themselves and also for the others their work can impact. That's also why we're giving away a heap of free educational resources on the platform - Matt Palmer.”
Who is behind Photo Kaizen?
Matt Palmer is the brains and driving force behind Photo Kaizen. If the name is familiar, it’s no surprise, given Matt is a highly acclaimed and awarded photographer, gallery owner, and professional judge.
“Photography isn't just my profession; it's my life. As a photographer, gallery owner, and photography judge, I've had the honor of being named Australian Professional Photographer of the Year. But my path to success wasn't always clear or easy. When I first started, I had no profile, no recognition. I learned what I could from magazines, books, online resources like Strobist, and the occasional video tutorial. I practiced for hours every day and worked directly with clients who appreciated my work - Matt Palmer.”
Matt is an AIPP Australian Professional Photography Awards Judge and has also judged the World Photographic Cup 2025. Today, Matt and his partner Mieke Boynton run the Alpine Light Photographic Art Gallery in Bright, Victoria (Australia). Both are incredibly talented landscape photographers with hundreds of awards titles to their names. If you want to learn more about Alpine Light Photographic Art Gallery, Mieke, or Matt’s work, check out the links below.
“As an emerging photographer I hadn't engaged with the wider photography community for 10 years before finally joining a professional industry body which exposed me to critique. At times it could be brutal as you're so close to and invested in your photographs. The process changed the way I looked at my photography. Not only was I enjoying the process more as I understood more of the finer aspects of capturing a great photograph, but I was seeing greater professional success as well. It culminated in winning AIPP Australian Professional Photographer of the Year which is a rare blessing in a photographer's career as in any given year there are many more talented people than me vying for that prize! I can't say everyone will have that experience receiving critique, but there is no doubt in my mind that receiving regular informative critique from experts who provide it with empathy can unlock new ways of seeing and creating photographs. It's something I wish I had engaged with ten years earlier! - Matt Palmer”
Greg’s Photo Kaizen Feedback
I selected five street images to submit to Photo Kaizen for professional feedback. I’ve never received pro-level feedback on my street work as I never deemed it worthy. I must admit that the idea of submitting my images for the first time was quite uncomfortable and intimidating. However, once I received the feedback from Matt, I was delighted by the level of detail and input supplied. What’s more, it felt like Matt truly saw what I was trying to achieve with each image and explained how each compositional element built the narrative. I’ve supplied two of the five feedback responses from Photo Kaizen.
Hi Greg,
Thank you very much for submitting your images for critique. I totally understand it can be a daunting process and sometimes we create work that isn't meant to be dissected but rather appreciated as is. However hopefully the following discussions about your work may help you to enjoy your photography even more. Each critique will be listed below under the corresponding file name.
In this black and white image the moment captured helps to portray the main subject as someone warm, caring, but also passionate about others and taking their positive message to the street. It's an important image in the sense that Australians wearing ethnic clothing are often the subject of negative stereotyping, so images like these have a place in creating more positive conversations and connections between communities.
In terms of photography you have captured the motion and gesture of the woman well, and she and the face of the woman to the right are both accessible to the viewer - faces to connect with. Overall the dynamic range of the image has also been handled very well, given the challenging bright sky and the many areas of white and black fabric throughout the image. The key subject's face is also the focus point of the image which is appropriate, and although there may be a touch of softness in areas of the image, the challenge of achieving the image while potentially moving backwards has been relatively well handled. Movement towards and away from camera are some of the hardest conditions in which to achieve perfect focus and sharpness of a subject.
Another positive is the framing of the image, which the background tree used to fill the sky so every part of the image feels like it is contained and part of the whole. There is a minor area of sky between the two buildings on the left which is a little brighter but it is unfortunately often the reality of shooting in these conditions, and deliberately exposing for these very bright areas of sky often creates other corrections to be made in the image. In this instance softening the edges of the elements using declarify or a similar tool might help take the 'edge off' that area and soften the transition between strong highlight and surrounding elements.
A final consideration when shooting these scenes, especially if you are moving as well as the subject, could be to increase your ISO from 400 to 800 or higher depending on your confidence in the quality of your camera's imaging, in order to increase your shutter speed. 1/250th is generally a good shutter speed to freeze moments in these kinds of scenes, but an even faster shutter speed can also help in capturing motion and adding sharpness and detail to those areas.
Overall the image is an immersive street photograph that connects us with the subjects captured and encourages the viewer to want to know more about them.
5/10 Approaching professional standard (Engaging subject, expressive moment captured)
This image feels very classically Australian through its colour palette, and its unengaged subjects that are scattered in the scene and feel like classic Australian figures you'd run into in a rural pub. In this way the image has a voyeuristic feel which works very well in the street photography genre.
The use of the Flinders Street Station signage helps create a sense of place and also creates a top frame to the image. Its building tones match with the skin tones of the scene, which acts similarly to the matting of a framed print - drawing attention to similarly toned areas of the print. Even some of the colouration in the windows feels like it comes through in the clothing of the two main figures. The way the colour palette presents itself in different ways through the image is a strength of it.
In terms of exposure, it is perfect here. You have held the tough highlights in the open space on white hair, while still inviting exploration and examination of the rich shadows underneath the building's upper façade. It's in these spaces that we can find more figures, such as one holding a phone, or the family/s on the left.
In terms of improvement I think there are only very minor suggestions to be making. One is that the figure holding the phone at the back has very bright shoes, possibly some of the brightest areas of the whole image. These could be toned back a touch while still retaining the attention of the viewer through to the back of frame.
Another consideration with this particular image could be experimenting with crops. The crop as presented does work, however the placement of figures in a scene can also attribute more narrative, emotion, or visual strength to them. One potential crop could be to remove some of the right-hand-edge where the road forms an arrow, the sign stands out in the window sits above. While these elements can be pleasing, you could be intentional about placing the foreground figure to the edge of frame, which might also speak to a frame of mind or how they might feel in a place. This isn't necessary of course, but just something to think about in general when cropping street images.
Overall the image is a very well captured piece of Australiana that holds the viewer's interest and invites them to find new things each time they view it.
7/10 Highly Commended (Excellent professional work - High technical quality, refined style, impactful)
I hope that has not been too fraught an experience for you and that you found this process rewarding and informative. Congratulations on achieving the Highly Commended and Commended entries! Your digital badges for these are attached. Some users like to put these on images they wish to display as having these achievements.
Your account will also be updated with your achievements as well, and will be visible next time you login.
Kind Regards,
Matt
Justin’s Photo Kaizen Feedback
Justin submitted a collective or project of 12 images from his recent trip to Vietnam. Rather than providing large amounts of detail about every individual image, Photo Kaizen has provided feedback on the project as a whole and how the images work together. Justin also shared this collection of images live on The Camera Life Podcast shortly after returning from Vietnam. Check out the episode to see Justin’s review of his work.
Hi Justin,
Thank you for submitting your Vietnam Transport project to Photo Kaizen! My thoughts and critique are below and I hope they help you to continue to shape and celebrate your project.
Vietnam Transport
There are a lot of strong threads that run through your series which work exceptionally well and I feel that describing the collections as being basic images may be doing yourself a little disservice!
The black and white treatment contributes to a consistent aesthetic across all of the images in the project. These are predominantly very rich in tonality and use the full dynamic range exceptionally well, creating contrast between rich blacks and bright light.
Number 8 is a great example of this use of dynamic range. While the actual texture within the flame is not captured, and would be incredibly hard to do so within a candid image like this, the form of the flame can be seen and the brightness of it gives it a real intensity against the dark street. It's an exceptionally dramatic image.
There are some images that step out from this slightly, with weather conditions being the major contributing factor to their different feeling in tone. These are images 1, 2 and 11. All three of these images have a strong place within this project, however their difference in tone may be a consideration for any layouts or exhibitions. You may wish to pair images like these in similar spaces while connecting the higher contrast images with images that are more similar in tone to those.
All of your images have been captured with excellent detail, even when you have been confronted with challenging shooting conditions. Image 6 with the intentional use of a longer shutter is a good display of this technical proficiency. The movement captures the bustling atmosphere and chaos of the street. A beautiful juxtaposition is created by the man (perhaps a traffic official) sitting on a chair in the middle of this chaos. It gives him the appearance of a traffic zen master who has command of this domain. The detail on him and the surrounding scene is truly exceptional allowing not only the core message of the image to be conveyed, but also allowing the viewer to be absorbed by all the surrounding signage. The inclusion of the corner in the lower left also helps to communicate the chaotic nature of the streets through the wear and tear captured. One consideration in that area could be to pull the highlights down on the road square on the left edge just a touch as it is quite a strong element.
Another strength of this project is that you have not only captured part of the essence of Vietnam, but that you have dug deeper into a theme - transport. These images successfully communicate very differing aspects of that theme exploring storage, the different kinds of vehicles used, how they are used, the effect on the area around them while being used, how people might act around them, their value, as well as what might happen when they are discarded.
There are some fascinating images exploring this theme in very different ways. Some favourites are Image 2 which beautifully shows community coming together to work on some kind of boat hull debris. The timing of capturing the man hurling the bucket of water and capturing that water splashing around the edges of the hull makes this image even more captivating.
Image 5 has a really immersive viewpoint which captures a scene as people are unlikely to view it personally. It demonstrates the tough conditions but also the ingenuity of people in making those conditions more comfortable, from the way they sit through to rigging up a fan underneath the large parasol. Having the foreground be high contrast and dark allows the eye to be drawn to those details, and then through to the street scene beyond which provides great context.
Image 7 is an image I would advocate as easily being of award quality. It has so many intriguing characters while still working through the theme of transport. You see diners having dinner quietly outside, the interesting figure sitting on his bike in front, motorcyclists blazing past on the right, and even the figure leaving frame on the left to add some visual tension and quirkiness. This image really feels like a voyeuristic slice of life and holds so much interest.
Image 10 introduces a completely different aspect of transport to the viewer, placing the motorbikes against overgrown housing areas being grazed on by a local cow of some description. It also depicts both the motorbikes and the need for watercraft just nearby, giving it a lot of value in consideration of the project.
One image that doesn't sit as strongly within the theme of transport would be Image 9. Although I appreciate the image for its own value, and it does contain vehicles in the top right, it is less engaged with the subject of transport and is more suitable to a stand alone image or a comment on street dogs or pets - such is the strength of the dog's presence in the image. It's very easy for the transport theme to become lost in this capture, although if accompanied by supporting text that may help it carry its weight within the collective.
I'm going to take the unusual step of ending this critique by saying that I see a LOT of projects and a LOT of travel images (I'm even the current NZIPP Australian Travel Photographer of the Year!). This collection of images is not basic, it's actually really quite sophisticated and mature and is a very impressive body of work. If you'd like to talk about it more outside the Photo Kaizen ecosystem I would be happy to discuss it with you.
I can see the project doing well as a book (if more images are available or captured at this standard), as an exhibition, and potentially other applications. I hope you can be proud of having captured these images because the images themselves and yourself as a photographer would be really deserving of that self-recognition. Maybe you were just being modest, but if not then hopefully you realise you really have something impressive here.
Unfortunately projects don't receive awards (maybe they should one day?) but if they could then I'd definitely be giving one to this project and several of your images in isolation would also be very worthy.
Kind Regards,
Matt
Be sure to check out the full The Camera Life episode where Greg and Justin use Photo Kaizen for the first time. If you’re unfamiliar with The Camera Life Podcast, be sure to take a look at our YouTube channel for the latest episodes and, of course, our back catalogue of weekly shows. Our shows are also available on popular audio podcast platforms. If you like what you see, please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to The Camera Life, and click on the bell icon to receive notifications of upcoming shows. We host two shows weekly, the first being every Thursday at 9am AEDT (Australia), where we interview amazing guests. The second show, The Random Photography Show, airs every Monday at 7:30 pm AEDT. The Random Photography show is a little random, a little loose, and a lot of fun! Be sure to check them out.
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