Cherchez La Femme

Please critique.

I'm critiquing your print in the Photo Critique Requests rotation, so I don't know anything about it other than your name, and its title. I don't know what comments anyone else has offered.

 

My gut reaction to this picture is that it's a hat. Lighting and camera mastery are evident. I'm not sure what to think of the pink. It's so bright that I'm sure you saw it, and that makes me wonder what you were trying to say. I think the pink weakens the impact of this photograph. Seeing her lips is also something I'm not sure about. I like it, but I'm not sure if it's better for this shot, or not. Because of the pink, my aesthetic rating is about 2 notches below what it would be otherwise.

I think this is a knocked out background, which means the photo could have been made anywhere. So I'll agree with Doug's criticism of the pink, even though you probably didn't ask her to dress in pink, but disagree with his "mastery" compliment. You may not create this kind of lighting, but it seems you know it when you see it... t

Obviously, this was a relatively poor background job, since it's so easy to see. Maybe one day I'll get to improving it. No I didn't know yet how to create or see or use a good lighting when I took this shot. That was luck and a learning experience for me. The only two things I knew at the time were women and hats :-)

Now Oleg, give credit where it's due... you saw something about this moment that you recognized would make a good photograph. Perhaps even something beyond a pretty girl with an unusual hat. Certain light makes a thing (anything!) look good. My wife calls this kind of light "visual garlic butter" since she thinks garlic butter improves the flavor of almost anything. I'll bet if this hat/woman had appeared in the wrong light, you wouldn't have made the photo, and certainly wouldn't have made this effort in post-production, or exhibited it here... t

Hated the pink, sorry. Done a little transformation. What do you think?

A beautiful shot.