per_volquartz1

This comment is a general statement, not intended as a critique of this particular image, just an observation.

Many photographer fall into the trap thinking that photographic composition / content has different

"rules" than other visual art forms. It does not. Humans respond to icons, trying to understand what appears as "abstract", trying to make reason out of what may not have a reason, trying to organize visually what seems to be chaos.

Artists have been experimenting with visual composition since the beginning of time. The understanding of composition and content has grown since early cave paintings, through medieval art, the renaissance and through contemporary art.

There are ways to analyze an image - whether it is a paintinmg or a photograph. There are ways to analyze how we perceive content and how we read visual images.

For photographers (especially) it seems to be a great idea to concentrate far less on the technical aspects of imagery and concentrate more on content and composition. One way to develop a better understanding of this would be to study art history in general, and understand and apply what artists have discovered through time.

Very nice lighting on the face! Expression is wonderful. The texture in the hair and beard adds to the facial expression. The eye is the center of the image.

The composition however is problematic. There are 5 visual elements calling for your attention:

face, hand, bottle (label especially), upper left corner and white "dot' in the center. The two brightests spots in the image are the label on the bottle and the "spot". Both detract from the main content = the expression on the face = the soul of the man. Especially bothersome is the label. Your eye wanders to the bottom left corner constantly.

In a simple image with few recognizeable elements each element becomes extreemely important. We tend to read into simple images, looking for icons that we can interprete. The lack of connection between the different elements: bottle, hand, upper left corner, white dot and face creates a weakness that could be solved by omitting all distacting elements - just leaving the face.