Too much highlight?

Do you think this photo contains too much highlight? I was going for

the dramatic style by using two lights right next to her, washing

out everything else, bright single color for her to strongly

contrast against her eyes, which I wanted to be the focus. Did I use

too much light?

It is an interesting picture, but some sizeable areas of your subject are 100% white with no detail remaining.

 

A histogram shows that the picture is mostly blown out, which normally indicates overexposure (although this is fine for the high-key background)....

 

"Brandon's Dad"<div></div>

I see your point. I wanted a very strong highlight on my subject. I guess what I should've done is probably go two stops up for the shutter to keep the data for the current highlighted areas on the subject. I once accidentally overexposed a shot and got a similar effect. But I really liked the bold highlights. This shot I pushed for one stop higher than what the meter determined. But since I'm pretty sure that the meter was wrong in this case, I probably overexposed it by 2 stops. Do you think the main reason why some people think there's too much highlight is because the bold highlights washed out details on her face and jacket?

Yes, I think so. A high-key background can be completely white and featureless, but a subject normally has some detail in the highlights. "Specular" highlights should normally show some detail.

 

But since artistic rules "are made to be broken," the most important thing is how the picture communicates your message.

 

Your picture does have a small amount of shadow area (the eye), which is good in a high-key picture.

 

"Brandon's Dad"

To me the most distracting area is the large blown-out patch in the lower left hand side. <p>

Why not just crop a bit below the chin?

Obviously yes, but I like the effect quite a bit. My only criticism, if I may, is that you are not taking fully advantage of this super-saturated "look". Harder make-up, different expression, wind in her hair and other examples could help in making this image a little more daring. Thanks for sharing.

This is actually very interesting. It seems like everyone that I have showed my 3 photos (the ones in my portfolio) have one of the two opinions: they either really like it or really hate it. I haven't got too many replies that's in the middle. But then again, maybe those people are not interested in the pictures enough to comment on them. I personally wanted to go for the very bright and overexposed look. But I do see the point made by people who didn't like them very much. How can I get to keep the details in the highlighted areas while still achieve an overall brightness as the current? I'm thinking maybe increasing my shutter by two stops and ISO by one? That way the darker areas will be exposed while it's not fast enough to overexpose the highlights. I guess I could do a normal exposure and just adjust the curves in photoshop. But I normally don't have much time for turn arounds, so I prefer to have the picture done and ready to go the moment I click the shutter release.

Just say you're going for a "graphic, high-contrast" look.

 

-- Mark