Philosophy

Please critisize this one

Hi there. An interesting perspective but it doesn't appeal to me. A shot with a low viewpoint such as this can sometimes give the subject an arrogant look (ie literally looking down his nose at you.) You also run into a shadow problem as the head creates a shadow underneath the chin as in this photograph when lit from above. This can be cured by the use of fill in flash or a reflector to bounce light into the cark areas (a large white piece of card will do the trick). Don't be afraid to use flash in daylight! Usually, the main focus of a head and shoulders portrait is the eyes. We can't really see them properly here so the viewer is left searching for a focal point. The left shoulder is also hot-i.e. burnt out or overexposed. I think this is due to the shoulder being in the sun and the rest of the subject in the shade. Your cameras' meter can't handle a tricky situation like this so it has exposed for the shadow area thus overexposing the shoulder area which is in the sun. Place your subject either completely in the sun or completely in the shade. This will ensure you don't confuse the poor meter! The shallow depth of field has thrown the trees in the background nicely out of focus which is a plus! This is a good try but in my opinion it would have been better for this particular subject to have been shot from an angle less intimidating. Keep practicing and submitting.

I like the angle of shot. But it would have been better if the eyes were focussed and visible. especially the right eye which is totally in dark.

The shadow on chin and throat could also have been

avoided with a refelctor or fill flash.

Also it is better if the background is totally in focus or smoothly blurred out , so either a small

aperture (preferable), but if you are using a zoom

lens with f-stop bigger than 3.5 then perhaps you

should stop down to f8 or more to keep the

background in focus.