The Cryin' Cowboy

I love the composition, although I would have liked to see a little more of the blue scarf. What was the original background? Excellent shot.

By request.... adjusted the crop to include more of the scarf.

Nice shot. I like the texture in his face. For me, his head is turned a little too far away from the viewer so that his nose is too close to the edge of his cheek line. His expression, however, especially the eyes, is wonderful.

Wonderful portrait Carol, the bg is good too, it doesn't detract anything from the man.

Looks like a wax figure! :) Nice!

Carol, I think this is about as good as it gets.

Lets do this by the numbers. THE BIG FIVE!

(1)Good depth of field.= Oh Yeah! (2)Good light.=

DogGone Good! (3)Composition, Balanced, but not stiff.= I agree with the nose thing, but yours is

still a very pleasing comp. (4)Subject isolated from bg.= Luvit! (5)No distracting elements.= Ain`t None. Grand Total. A=6 O=7 This is the first

image by you I`ve seen,Luvit, and keep doinit. Jim

What a great character Carol. Well captured, a very interesting face.

Got to love that Sony DSC-F717, great optics for the money.

You have some beautiful shots posted, but I don't think this is one of them. What killed it for me is the removed background. I'm not sure why it's been removed, but this just doesn't work for me. I guess sometimes we have undesireable objects in the background of something we're shooting, but maybe there were some angles that it wouldn't look so bad. This just looks way too unnatural.

 

I love your other photos though, so keep up the great work!

Toping the charts again Carol. You must be doing something right! Thanks for the explanation, background, etc.

For me, the removed background absolutely ruins the shot. It is way too plain and uniform - looks exactly like what it is - a cheap and quick replacement in PS for an annoying first attempt. Perhaps the portrait of the man is good, but it looks entirely unnatural with this background. At the very least, show us what you're hiding with this painted bg, i'm almost positive that it is better than this. (And if not, maybe blurring could improve it)

this looks artificial sorry . had a lot of potential but now seems unreal .

Touching and telling portrait - very nice Carol.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I appreciate the constructive suggestions for improvement. How the heck will I learn otherwise?! :-) Given that, in response to the comments about the background, I've attached the version with the original background. I thought it would detract from the character in the man's face... perhaps I was wrong (been wrong before, heaven knows!). Let me know which version you prefer. Thanks again to all!!

Cryin Cowboy... with background

/general-comments/attachment/924111/cryin-cowboy-w-background.jpg

I understand why you wanted to, but I think the original shot really is pretty decent, and far better then it was with the removed background. One thing that would maybe of helped is using a shallower dof by setting your camera to a lower F-stop. That way the background would be more blurred. That could of come out really nice looking.

 

I generally make it a point to use almost no photoshop on my photography, aside from for matching colors, removing dust, cropping and sizing. When used well though, photoshop can be a great tool in enhancing an image. It takes a lot of practice and experimentation to get there. A persons work I'd recommend you check out is Rene Asmussen.

 

Keep on shooting and keep experimenting. You have great work.

Good capture with strong resolution... Have to say the shot without the background was a stronger image for me.

Very expressive portrait but background is quite missing. I had an idea with another of your picture...