A quiet moment

Hi Jarle, I think that you are but a mere steps away from excellent photography. In my view a trivial thing like different cropping by moving the image to one of the third spots, and clipping some darker background to the winow, and a little burning would take the image to excellence.

 

I made a little example. Let me know if you agree.

 

 

 

Thank you for your feedback. Personally, I believe this is one image where the rule of thirds don't apply. If a subject (like this) depends on symmetry for effect, I believe a central position is preferable. Still, thinking about it, you may be right. I'll try to crop a few different versions from the original file and see how it works out.

 

Finally, the image is not rotated (the window is!).

You tilted the camera, didn't you? ;)

I think is great as it is already. Very simple yet great composition, the symmetry does it for me.

It doesn't look rotated to me, this apears to be the actual orientation of the window. Nice catch. maybe just a tiny bit dark on her face, but still nice. As far as the cropping goes, I think I would prefer this one cropped into a square, with the subject neatly centered. This would give the opicture a little more energy, looking a bit like a pinwheel, and the wall color is a bit blech to occupy so much area. I love the pose captured of the child, engrossed in the book, feet straight up in the air. The carefree youth. Nice job.

I like that you have photographed a person in this unusual window in this unusual position and apparently oblivious to the camera. Its the sort of thing a kid might climb in to and dream. I like the neutral colouring of the slightly textured wallpaper and the lines in the diamond window frame. I can tell from the vertical trees that this is a genuine portrayal not involving rotation of the image. I think a stop more exposure might assist in introducing more light to the face and that the cost in loss of detail from outside the window would be a price worth paying. That white T-shirt isnt white and nor is the window frame though I suspect its meant to be. More light would soften this image; make it gentle and dreamy, though I recognize this is perhaps a little hackneyed. I notice theres less room above and below than there is to the right and left with slightly more on the right than on the left hand side. I cant figure out why and my natural inclination is to have this one square and maximize on symmetry. Thing is with it square (thus zoomed in on the window) and to a lesser extent as it is, the trousers form a dark thick vertical line through the middle which Im not too keen on. All this tells me a portrait, or my preference a landscape format, is better, conditional on the trousers not bisecting the frame. May be if her left leg or arm hung out and broke the containment of everything in the diamond or a foot rested on the angle opposite her head, the trouser line emphasis would be diluted more to my liking.

What I like about this picture is that it looks absolutely odd at 1st glance, and therefore it's clearly an eye-catcher... Yet, there are quite a few things that bother me...

As I read above, I too think that it would need a bit more light... Just dodging the inside while leaving the outside alone is my best best, rather than exposing the film brighter...

Then I am personally of the same opinion as Scott, and my eye is asking for a square with this window perfectly centralized within the square. When an image is THAT symetrical, in general, I would go symetrical all the way...

Now, where I disagree with the 2 previous comments is that I am personally quite convinced that the picture has been rotated. And that's the fun I see in this shot... Why do I believe so...?

1) The trees in the window do look straight up, BUT how to be sure ? And besides that, one could easily add the trees in PS anyway...

2) Now, try to figure that if this wasn't rotated, it would mean that that the person's weight is right now mostly on her back... And to havea rounded back in such a position seems to be a position that nobody could hold for 1 minute...:-) Basically, if the image wasn't rotated, the person is right now suffering a great deal...

3) Then, look at the borders of the window and at the shadow under the sleeve... Both indicate that the inside light source comes from the right of the picture. If you rotate the image 45 degrees counter-clockwise, then the light will appear to be coming from top TOP-right, which makes a lot more sense to me...

4) How do you open a window like that ? :-)) That's motre of a joke than a real evidence of anything of course, since there are windows that are just not meant to be opened at all...:-)

The funny thing is that nothing is 100% sure and none of the evidences above is decisive, and I can't bet that the shot was rotated... Yet, everything tells me that it was...

So, the shot is already great in that respect. It is very cleverly done, no matter what.

But at the end of the day, I do want the photographer to tell us whether it was or wasn't rotated... Till then, place your bets...:-) Cheers.

P.S: I have found a 5th evidence that's not listed above, and which is quite decisive, I think... Hehe...

I don't think she will be able to enjoy this place much longer. She appears to be about 13, due for another growth spurt in the near future, which will likely ruin her perfect fit. Although I like this shot, I have a few complaints, some in agreement with those above, some in disagreement. Mainly they are: 1) the unevenness of the light on the brown wall, 2) the brown itself) 3) the rectangular crop and 3) the darkness of the subject. All of these are correctable after the fact, (some more so than others) should you wish to consider them. They were serious enough to me that it required substantial will power to see beyond them; forming a constructive comment has been difficult.

In spite of these issues your image is very enjoyable. It really captures the sense of both a favorite place and of aspects of young adulthood that are not too well documented these days. This young woman is alone, comfortable, and peaceful. She's not out "just doing it" in Nike shoes, or drinking Pepsi, or any of the other zillion activities that teenagers are depicted doing in much of today's media. That's why I would suggest a square cropping rather than a landscape or portrait orientation: To emphasize the symmetry, yes, but also to support the steadfast nature of the character portrayed here. I think the leg as a bisecting element is moot because it doesn't fully reach the bottom or the top of the image, hence no real bisection. Besides which, the symmetry is lost in the positioning of the girl's body, so the legs' making that strong central veritcal offsets her assymetrical placement. Phil's suggestion to break the boundaries of the window are worth noting. These would be very interesting variations. Fianally, the joy I feel in this image is not like that of a bobsled run, or of a wild party, or anything of that sort, but one that is still pleasurable, appealing to a different set of values. However, I feel the overly dark tones of the background don't contribute well, and might suggest a change of color to the wall, either with a can of paint, or the photoshop airbrushing tool. Of course, more exposure would help, yes, but thanks to the straight outline of the window it would be very easy to digitally select the box the girl is in, switch to inverse, then with the airbrush tool (set to overlay) change the color of that wall. I tried this and found that various colors were effective in elevating the mood. If that suggestion is too radical, perhaps a little dodging and burning could be aimed at the corners to bring them more within range of each other. I'll be happy to load these variations if you have no objections. All in all, a good shot, cleverly seen, but with room for improvements here and there.

Aaaaaah! That's what this made me think of! The former POW that had the two kids with one of them sitting inside a newspaper vending machine.

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo.tcl?photo_id=770263

 

This might even be a good idea for a series of pics. "Kids in unusual places" or something similar.

Before Inspector Gouguenheim makes his pronouncement, I'd like to offer two more evidences of this NOT being rotated:

 

1) her body and shirt are bunched up in a way uncharacteristic for one sitting level, and 2) her legs most likely wouldn't be way up there but would instead would be either on the level part itself, or up just slightly, not as high as they are here. If your fifth evidence is the braided stringy thing coming from her headpiece--That could be stiff, and so wouldn't necessarily flop according to gravity. The lighting issues you discuss could be from low sun, low interior lamps, or whatever. It doesn't always have to come from the top.

And Jarle already answered your question. He says the window is rotated, and that's good enough for me.

 

Unlike Doug, I really like the brown, it's so ordinary, it adds to the quirky position. I also agree with Jarle on the composition. The symmetrical framing is very good.

 

J.

Doug, you got it... The 5th evidence was that thing falling from the glasses... Yet, ik, your objection is reasonably valid... Now as John said, Jarle already mentionned that it was rotated. Not the picture, but the window. So, case closed...:-)) But I feel a bit silly if this acknowledgement of the rotation was posted before my post... Oh, well... :-)

As a conclusion, this picture is fun to me, precisely because of the detective work we needed to find out what was real and what wasn't. I like the concept and the guessing game that come with the shot.

As for the color of the wall, I didn't mention anything because it is fairly subjective, but I'm not all that crazy about this color - a bit brighter and homogeneous and a bit more yellow in it should do fine. Cheers.

What a fussy lot you are! This is a great shot, and I don't see any need for improvements. Central positioning of the window definitely works best - I think moving it to one side would only succeed if there was far more wall included in the frame. Exposure is spot on. To make her face much lighter would spoil the natural light effect. The uneven light on the wall doesn't bother me either - again, because it looks natural. Such minor imperfections are like badges of authenticity. Why should all images be studio-managed or Photoshopped to artificial perfection? The colour is fine - a nice, subtle shade to match the subdued hues within the window frame. Anything brighter or more saturated would harm the tranquility of the mood. I don't think a square crop would improve matters - it's too predictable and would simply leave us with another sterile abstract. This is a girl in a window in a room, and the sense of space within the room would certainly be diminished by a square crop. Additionally, I think the gravitationally precarious diamond shape benefits from the extra weight of a rectangle, as well as allowing more room for the shape to breathe within the frame. The only thing I might want to change is the pose of the girl - I think I'd like to see her feet in the middle of the frame on the left rather than at the top. It would make a less awkward, more interesting shape (although the book might then be too close to her face). Good work, Jarle.

Don't tell me about odd preferences of the teenagers! This picture captures it very well and I don't have any signigicant suggestions for improvement. Perhaps just getting rid of the light falloff in the frame corners. Otherwise great shot.