HalfNude

Hi Amy!

I really like this shot. It has a drama to it - a tense atmosphere. It's like I - the observer - is being approached by the person in the image - and know not if I should go for the light or await your "attack". It must be the nearness of the two motives that makes the eye wander - and the mind wonder ;-)

 

Nice portfolio u have here!

 

Henrik - from Denmark

The subject is "Halfnude" yet it only takes up about 1/10 of the photo area (should be more like 2/3 to 3/4.) The subject, unfortunately, is in competition with that bright vertical line of the doorway and coming in second. I think this would be a super picture if it were cropped just to the right of the bright spot at top of door, just below the brighter portion of the ceiling and a little off the bottom. Hope you do not mind my critical eye but I enjoy good photography and you have real potential.

I have wondered about cropping this in more tightly. I like the

light on the ceiling and floor, I think it gives shape to the space.

But would the image be more effective cropped in?

I like the light in the doorway much better this way. What did you use this time to diffuse the light?

 

As far as cropping I think it needs a little on the bottom and on the left. Just enough so that the article of clothing is 1/4 inch from the bottom and the left door jamb is 1/4 inch from the left. Just my opinion. Very nice though.

Amy, the picture does seem unbalanced to the right. Another cropping suggestion is to lose the left hand side of darkness so that you just about show all the light escaping from under the door. This would leave you with the vertical shaft of light at one third and the model at the other third...

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone...

Tom, for these pictures I took white tissue paper, the kind you use in gift wrap boxes, and taped it across the crack in the door - on the not-showing side, obviously. Then I took two old Smith Victor tungsten heads and placed them behind the door, one lower and one higher. I kept sniffing the air and running into the other room to make sure the paper wasn't starting to singe! But it worked like a charm.

 

Amy:

 

I just want to say I love your pictures. They are beautiful and it goes without saying that you are too.

 

When I first realized these were you in the shots, and you say they are self portraits, I'm thinking "she sure gets over there quickly and composes herself!"

 

But now I'm thinking perhaps you use a wireless remote?

 

Bob.

 

Once again, what a great room and set of doors. would love to have them in my house. Light is too bright. Model is too dark. This is not even close to how well you will do in the future. kevin

Very powerful the way it is - the large dark areas pull out the pic and the light streak effectively. BTW, your pics are an excellent support for doing digital.

"Light is too bright. Model is too dark." To me, this is an abstract photograph, because the real subject is emotional, not physical. Brightly lit open doorways are common devices in art, but a brightly lit closed doorway is ingenious. The doors are closed, but not tightly locked and sealed. Barely visible in the shadows is a woman, timid and innocent in her nakedness, yet irresistibly drawn to the light beyond the doors. Therein lies the conflict. Desire vs. conscience. This conflict is beautifully defined by the careful attention to the light in the image. These components need a large stage to showcase their interplay and to provide cohesion. I vote for no cropping.

Ok. I can't sleep and everyone else seemed to take liberty with this photo so I thought I'd play around with it. There was something that really stuck out in the composition that I tried to emphasize in my editing of it. I played around with the curves to enphasize that symbol.

 

Since you're on such good terms with the model ;) if you like the idea move over to your lef a bit. Stretch out your arms to resemble a cross. Get enough light on both of them. Now that would be a very evocative image. And/or crown of thorns, black cat, etc ;) Hmm... I really like that idea. I think i'll try it myself in some fashion.

 

On a different note. I like this image because of it's title :) In college I formed a coverband with some friends. We were called HalfNaked. Whenever asked which half (usually meaning top or bottom) our basist, Dan, would say "This half" indicating his left side. Here's a page a friend of mine put up with some really crappy pictures of us playing HalfNaked

Tom...

 

If you like the crucifixion theme, go look at this image I put up yesterday...

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=249650

 

 

 

This is the wonderful thing about photography. A photograph can be so many things to so many people. I still think the model is too dark, but I don't see it as the model being drawn irresistably to the door. Probably because she faces toward the viewer.(I wonder what feeling one would get if she were facing the other way). Because her clothes are lying there, I see it as her waiting for someone to come through those doors, and it seems like the photo loses its meaning if the clothes are cropped out. All photographs are about emotion of one type or another. And for those that draw emotion out of this photograph the way it is that is fine. But I still think that if the light were just a little bit less intense and the model just a little bit lighter this photo would evoke even more reaction, whatever those reactions might be. As I have often said, I feel cheated when I don't get to see what I want to see in a photograph. Kevin

Amy, the other pic didn't do too much for me. I like the idea of the upside down cross formed by the light coming through the door.

Amy, you ask if this picture should be cropped. I think not. Actually, I would have liked a lot more darkness to stress the dramatic effect of light coming through the doors.

I like the light seeping through the door and caught the side of a woman's body in an otherwise dark room. I showed this photo to a female colleage and forced her to back track over her idea of female nudity being nothing more than porn.

 

Gianfranco

 

It hints very strongly, to my eyes, of a female lower-body shape, with the highlights helping create the hinted ankles & hips, reaching the pelvis at the top of the door.. beautiful!

Lovely shot!

unique.

Believe it or not, after so many months on photo.net, I still hadn't seen your work. Well, I find it extremely interesting. It is really about shapes and light, in this folder at least, and I feel it often lacks that little fine-tuning that's so difficult to achieve, but it is still great work, and mostly, it's very imaginative and, as such, refreshing to me.

After wandering though the folder, I came back to the picture that caught my attention first, which is this one.

I think this is the best image you have in this nudes series - though I like your POW almost as much.

Why do I like this picture ? Because it is essential. It says something. It fascinates me because the moddel is looking at the camera and we still can't really see her face. It fascinates me because there is light elsewhere, not much where she stands...

I love the lit outline of the body as well. Very gracious... And finally, what I love most i the sace around. I disagree with all the crops proposed in this thread. Taking away about a third on the left makes perfect sense by the book, but some pictures are worth more than some books. If the negative space goes, you get a nicer image, but a weaker image.

The space on the left contributes to the importance of the ray of light, which becomes central in the composition, and the model is therefore thrown out where she belongs, where you placed her - OFF, OUT... That's what's absolutely original about this piece, and it explains why this image touches me much more than any other in the folder.

It is up to each of us to determine what the light symbolizes here, and why she's in the dark, but the picture talks. It really does - at least for me. Regards.

fucking hot. I usually hate autoportraits but this one is rad. great balance of simplicity, self, sensuality. Maybe you got lucky. Fucking hot. jroper

This whole folder is very original. The composition of all photos is just incredible. It's hard for many of us to achieve that while we behind camera, you managed to do that while being in front! If you could share your technic of self portraite with us-that would be great! Of course, very few of us would look as stunning in front of camera as you.

I realize this is an old thread, but I just found it so forgive me.

ITs a very interesting picture...I like the moodyness of it. I would, however, suggest making it not so "open" and add some mystery to it. Here is an example.

 

Good luck

 

Alexis

 

www.alexisneel.com

One other version.

 

Sorry, couldn't help myself

 

Alexis

 

www.alexisneel.com