Untitled

What do you think of this? Comments appreciated. Advice and suggestions for

improvement desired. Thanks

Aaron,

Sharp focus - Good contrast - Very good exposure - Skin tone on highlight areas is too bright (there is a lack of detail).

I do not like the man walking out of the photograph - I realize that you wanted the shadow to balance the picture and he had to face that direction or his face would be in shadow, but for me it is too distracting. The sky is pretty and you are trying to balance him against the white clouds in the upper left corner, but you have an awfully lot of sky in the picture.

He must have some connection to the location and buildings behind him or you would not have shot him in this location, but we don't know what it is. This is in the portrait category so I am assuming you mean for this to be a portrait. The location must have some significance to him. You should explain all of this when you submit your photographs to be critiqued. To an outsider, without more information, this does not work well as a portrait. Maybe this belongs in the street (roof) photography category?

Your web address is not part of the photograph. It belongs on the mat.

Mark

Thanks very much for your critique! Some valued points there. In terms of the skin in this particular shot - I burned it in as much as I could, and think that (on my monitor at least) there are enough greys, evidence being the hand details. That's just me though.

As for the crop (or lack of) - good point. There is a lot of sky in this photo, and I could have cropped some out. I think though, that when the image is seen in full (for some reason I have to scroll with this one) then it looks okay because it gives perspective as to his height (I didn't want him to look like a giant, and more sky makes him look less tall).

Very interesting point about how his walking out of the photograph could be distracting. I think this is subjective, and I don't have a problem with it, although now I can see how some might. I like to think that he looks as if he is looking forward, leaving something behind - ie the shadow - rather than reflecting on his shadow as he would be if he was staring into the photograph. I don't think I could have composed this another way with that objective. I will think hard about this, however.

I consider photographs where people are the main subjects to be in the genre of portraiture - I guess there are different types. Although I agree - we don't really find out any more about him. This is part of a series of shots, depicting two men on a roof, but I haven't come up with any real concept behind it. My aim was just to take pretty shots. I guess that bearing in mind the lack of biographical detail this probably would do better in the street photography category. Do you know how I can change the category?

My web address is functioning as a modest (I hope) watermark - what's the etiquette here?

Thanks again for your and others responses, much appreciated