Jessie & Friend

Girl with girl shots are sure winners !

Is the lower girl's face too much in the shadow? Is the finger in

the lower left corner distracting? Suggestions please!

Hi Thomas. To answer your questions, the shadow is fine. In fact, I would think it was necessary. It's a nice open shadow with plenty of detail. I would like to see more of the lady's hand--a minor, but not fatal, flaw. Great tone values! Looks like a well-crafted darkroom print.

The tones are great, I wouldn't fret about theshadows at all.

I'm not sure I agree with your concern aboutthe finger. In landscape photography I oftendo a lot of work to keep items from beingcut off by the end of my picture, people's eyestend to 'catch' on them, and in many cases the viewer isleft wondering what it is that has been cut off.

The context here is quite different, I think. The finger does catch my eye, but that'sokayh, thefinger is a significant element of the picturein terms of meaning, not so much in terms ofform.The fact that there's a hand there changes howI percieve the relationship between the twowomen. So I wouldn't crop it the finger away.But including more of the hand wouldn't have added any meaning to the picture for me at all.

At any rate, it's a lovely picture. If I haveto pick a nit, it'd be the headband-like shadow that appears acrosss the upper womans forehead. But that's a nit.

Nice work!