mostly models Colleen (03-0965511)

Is this shot too corny? Too blue? Too close?

Sleeping Beauty? Very nice candid (I assume) with wonderful window light.

Thanks Jim,

 

It was a planned photo shoot, but I guess I was a little boring, huh. She didn't snooze for long.

Doug, it's fine. what really makes it though, is the view to the greenery outside. the colour palette is delightful, soft and appropriate.

It’s beautifully soft. This is really a nice composition with window light and the colors outside. The color scheme enhances the beauty and embedded emotionality. It’s definitely not too blue. IMHO, the bright white on the window base is distracting the attention of the viewer. I personally would like to have more fore ground for enriching the emotional tone. Best regards.

Jeff, I always felt a strong desire to crop the exterior out of the composition because of the brightness on the principle that it would be distracting, but I'm learning to see the whole picture and am glad I left it in.

 

Sumon, I battled with that window sill quite a bit to avoid what you're seeing, but I think I did a lot that battling after I posted this jpg because I notice the RGB values of the sill on this image are 255x3 (255,255,255) whereas I'm sure I finished it with that area down in the low 240's. Even so, it's still very bright by comparison and there's not much else to do but crop it out, but then Jeff would be upset, and I don't want to risk that.

 

I'm really interested in your thoughts on the foreground, though, because the full frame is very expansive, with abundant room above and below. What are your thoughts about the additional foreground?

It is a very feminin beautiful two versions.I was going back and forth between the two. Each has something I liked, I liked better her pose in the other ,but in this one details are more accentuated, especially the beautiful "layers" of her dress. I like her placement on the frame, with the FG and BG differences( with her bare foot) .Her posed angle imitates the window's angles which creates rhythm despite her " sleeping " pose.. The window light is soft and adds to the feeling of delicate womanhood. The outside green vegetation, imo, is adding to the color palette and the feeling of the inside scene,

Doug, I was not thinking about adding any thing in the foreground. The color tone of the foreground is so beautiful that I wanted to see it more. I think, if we try a more expansive foreground, the total tonality of the picture may be warmer. If the foreground is elongated the face of the model will look distant. That distance and the warmer tone may enhance the dramatic emotional charge of the photograph. But then, the significance of the bare foot of the model, as correctly noted by Pnina, may be reduced. But this is my personal opinion. As far the light on the windowsill, cropping out will definitely go against the beauty of the image. Inclusion of Green outside in the color palette, as noted by Jeff and Pnina, is fantastic. Should we use a ‘soft round air brush’ in PS with a very low percentage of faint Brown on the bright white on the sill? That may also reduce your anxiety regarding “Too blue”. It’s a humble suggestion. Best regards.

Pnina, a warm thanks for those keen observations.

 

Sumon, thank you, too, for returning. I've uploaded (or will upload) a wider crop that you may like, although I think you and Pnina are right about the foot, that it needs to be visible as it adds to the informal feeling; sleeping with one's shoes on says something quite different than sleeping barefoot. A friend glanced over my shoulder while I was scrinting this into a black & white version and noted that the foreground in the color version was more distracting than in black and white. I am not sure how much burning on the window sill will work versus at what point will it look artificial because even if it's below the brightness of the light on her face, it will still be distracting. If it darkens much more than that, it will begin to look overworked. I'm glad it doesn't look too blue: the white balance outside (daylight) and the white balance inside (mix of daylight and tungsten) were different.

Here's a longer version, with more foreground. The window sill value is 223 RGB. The brightest pixel value on her forehead is 204R. There are a couple spots on the cremlin ruffles of her dress that are slightly higher than the window sill.

I think the window sill values look good, without looking unnaturally burned in, or vignetted. From 223 to 204, how many stops of light is that?

on that step tablet, which features 10 RGB value segments, 205 is the 6th step from the far right, 225 is the 4th, so is that 2 stops?

Doug, it’s definitely better. To me, the foreground is perfect and the brightness on the windowsill is matched with the beautiful tonality of the image. Best regards.

sheesh! all this jumping around has me thoroughly confused! i wanted to add a comment to the vertical widescreen image you uploaded and the crit screen opened up the black-garbed Colleen. that threw me off completely so here i am, at the right place. why the gleam at her elbow and wrist? Colleen awake (craning-neck version) has a gleam on the wrist but not on the elbow. somehow the wrist gleam seems acceptable but the one on the elbow...

Rajat, I don't know whether to poke you in the eye, or to thank you.

 

ugh! so many details.

 

Here's what happened:

 

I scrinted this one first, then moved on to the awake version. On the awake version, I removed the gleam on her elbow, but never got back to removing it from this version because I forgot, no doubt distracted by some other annoying detail to fix. (Too many things to remember when working on these; the whole process is filled with so much fine tuning)

 

Here's my work flow: I typically make two full resolution versions of each image: a full frame, and a cropped version. I use these as masters for printing. Of each of those, I make a full color jpg and a black and white jpg for posting on the Internet, or emailing. When I finish one image and move to the next, I inevitably find something to fix on the second image that I mean to go back and correct on the first image. Assuming I remember to fix both of the full resolution versions, I also have to remember to resave each as jpgs in both color and black and white. So, in all, there are six images to correct (or overwrite) whenever I go back to fix any one thing.

 

I have to thank you, rather than poking you in the eye, as this is an important oversight you've caught. Thanks. I will immediately fix the full resolution versions, used for printing, but am not promising to overwrite the photonet jpgs, at least not right away.

 

> ))

I prefer your original upload with the smaller FG ( with her bare foot) I think that working selectivly very little only on the window to lower a tiny bit the intensity of light will do. I find that your last upload has become too even ( general color palette and light on the model and window.... (my taste of course)

Thanks Pnina, very interesting. Your taste is well cultivated, I think, so I will take your suggestions to heart.

Watch it ! :-) She might not be sleeping: see her hands...:-))

"...so I will take your suggestions to heart."

 

wisdom prevails...