cakeller98

got it!

...I see what you mean. Once again, I didn't see it bacause, I'm too close ;) I asked the model what she thought, and she said "you know what the first thing I noticed was?" I said the iris??? and she said... "nope, the wrinkles under the eye" I didn't even notice, maybe because that's not a wrinkle to a guy ;) but I see it now. As for the lighting, Almost all of my pictures are with available lighting. This was taken in an airplane, so what could I do (with stuff I have, to make the lighting work better for the skin and/or eye)

 

I took your comments and have attached a modified version I did. I cropped down on it to get rid of the unwanted portion of the skin, rather than blur it out. I tried the soft focus but it ended up looking too fudged for my taste, kind of looked like faked DOF.

 

...I have to dissagree with mark about the painting with light and the background. I think it works remarkably well here. There's an upsweaping motion in the lighting that is inline with the direction the flower keeps going. Works really well. I really like the little bright line on the backdrop that follows up the implied centerline of the stalk/flower. Great composition., interesting concept.

...the subtlety of light is nice. I like the breakup of the other one better. Something that people have been saying started me thinking about these... maybe a little rim light. just a sliver of light along the edges to show a little more of the form without losing the mystery (basically a sharp light source about 120 degrees away from the camera on the right side). Just a thought ;)

...The subtlety of the lighting is really nice. you get the effect of a sillouhette that brings you in deeper. If this were completely lit it'd just be another model shot, if it were just a shadow form, it'd be a quick glance. Nice work. Nice composition. just enough room for everything. The neg space is really nice too. really nice shapes.

A little soft on the focus, I know, but I loved the depth of the iris. A little hot on the skin, but wanted to get the depth in the iris.

..are a little bothersome. The first is the cut off feet. The other thing is having the little one right in the center. compositionally, I think this has all kinds of potential just by cropping. Take a bit off the top, and left side, and it'll be quite a bit more dynamic. You might also try getting down at a little lower angle (just slightly) it'll put the girl on the horse higher in frame and will make her apear more special (right now you're at her eye level, but put her above your eye level and you're "elevating" her to the viewer... it's subtle but it works)

 

 

This is a really wonderful image. nice framing... she's "holding" on to the other side of the fram. There doesn't seem, to me, to be any wasted space. I'd like to see just a little more light filled in for her eyes and to soften the lighting on her face, but really very nice.

How lonely is this... I wonder how much more lonely it would feel if the bench was in a corner of the image... maybe the left one so it's even further away... how lonely would that be. this is a nice image, a bit static, but nice. if you'd put the bench in the left and the sun over toward the right... maybe you'd get an interesting diagonal play ;) nice tho!

Nice, well composed... the bright lights on the shore are a bit distracting... do you think you could get the people to turn them off?? ok, just kidding. Actually they fit right in here. is that the moon? love the color too.

great window highlight, perfectly placed. skin is a bit overexposed though. Although that does make it look a bit more translucent ;) This might also be helped by cropping a bit off the bottom, and expanding the top to gain some of the eyebrow :) PS> Just because it's been done before shouldn't stop us doing it ;)

 

...nice, it's got a great DOF, good exposure (you can see that she has color in her eyes, and her hair isn't too over, just right)

 

still... there's something missing. I think this would benefit from a little bit more chine, and neck. This makes it look like her chin is resting on the fram... just looks a bit odd. Also, having the ear cropped like that draws way too much attention to the ear. I'd like to see that either completely cropped or with a little breathing room... just my opinions of course. Cheers!

...serious vet, isn't she... had a few taken of her? She looks totally natural, and you are completely lucky to have such a great model. You mentioned you like tight crops... and I do too, but I think this is a little bit too tight. I like the right side and bottom, but would have liked to have given her room for movement on top and especially on the left side. although, I do like the little curl of hair in the block of dark gray in the lower left corner. You'd probably lose it by expanding the crop that way, but I think it would be worth it.

 

Nice light for skin, and wow did you controll the highlights in the hair. I'd like to see a little more light in the eyes, and mouth, but... you'd probably overespose the hair... adn for this girl, I don't think that would have worked, so, nice choice of compromise. Cheers!

It's a little bit surreal, the DOF works really nicely to put your focus exactly where you've aimed. My favorite part of this shot is along the right side tho. The repetition of the backs and the material of the dressess... Might be really interesting to see the crop without any faces... just an abstract of repeating color and texture. But, that wasn't your point (I'm just seeing pictures in pictures) Back to yours... Really nice diagonal, her gaze, directly to the corner, and the bouquet, and back along the bottom to hers, then up the repeating backs, and down maybe to the bride and groom... but the focus isn't on them (obviously through DOF) so, back to the focal point. nice to crop out the other bride's maids, they would have been distracting for what you intended. Nice piece of art... and wendy's probably right on both counts... they probably wont buy it, but hey... art is art. If you see it, shoot it. If someone wants it... yehaw! if not... be glad that at least you like it :)

...my first reaction was that this seemed to have a bit too much contrast, but on thrid viewing, I realized (at least I think) that there's a fairly strong directly from the camera fill flash (nothing wrong with that) but the shadow right behind the hand and the harshness of the shadow below the jaw we what gave it away (if of course, I'm not completely off) I'd personally like to see a more diffuse light from our right, and a little bit of a rim/backlight to just sillouhette the left side of his face. I like using DOF to bring the forground up, but wish it was a little stronger to make him pop a little better (maybe a little darker back there too)

 

So... with that, I'm curious, what did you use for lighting? was I completely off base?

...What an amazing color study. Nice offset from center. This is super. I almost wonder if a little off the top, and cropping off the left shadow would work better. But this is a nice image as is, and unless you hadn't thought of cropping and are thinking... hey????? then just leave it, otherwise, let me know if you try something... I'd like to see it. Ciao Fra (sp?)

...zipper ;) might be too literal... but funny anyway. Nice texture study. I like that the line that would define their intersection isn't quite verticle. This apears to add tension, making the viewer more interested. Nice shot!

Does this work better than the original? and can you see anything that could be better? I speak no more, so that you all may speak. Thanks for your time ;)

 

Original Image

...since the comments they pertained to have been deleted :| hmmm.... should I delete my comments? or what

You've done a decent job keeping the verticle lines verticl and the horizontals well.... horizontal (this is especially important since they are close to the border) :)... I think there's something interesting about the breakup... I like how the one kid on the left is "contained" by the two verticles rungs... and the child on the right is pulling the rungs towards thier face. It's an interesting juxtaposition. on one side, there's the more introverted (maybe not, but... just my read on it) and dropped back, contained within, and darker... then the one on the right... more outgoing... grabbing life? with both hands and sticking their face into it :) These are just my impressions of the image, I hope they are usefull. Cheers :)

...Norman Rockwell... I'm not sure it fits the NR genre, as I think there's always a bit of humor, but with that humor a little sinicism... and there's none of that here (lack of sinicism is a good thing for this shot IMHO). The sepia definitely puts it in that era of art though. As for what you could have done differently... The expression that you do see is priceless... the one you don't see is too unfortunate. It would have been a really amazing overall photo if you could see both kids eyes. As it is, the child, whose eyes you can see, has a truely amazed or maybe concentrated look. I might also like the image ballanced a little better. The big dark area works really well to contrast agains the one childs face, and the other is a bit too low contrast to notice. Maybe if you'd had a similar space below the right child? If you stair at the image and blur your eyes, you can see the major breakup of darks and lights. The left side has quite a bit of Darks to play off the lights, whereas the right side has almost none. I'd love to see this one shot again, from a little higher, seeing that same expression (or similar) on BOTH faces. Of course, this is just my take on it... and I do agree that this one is a keeper. As for being nervous... I think many of us are... I know I am, when I put up work of my own ;) Nice work

... oh yeah, adjusted the levels etc. As for the color... that's kind of what you get when you white ballance to the pink of IR. It also looks really interesting when you shift the colors so that brown (in the windows, which is the sky) is blue. Anyway, thanks for the comment.

...the smaller aperture. I would have really liked it if the cup and hand were all completely in focus. As for the sad gray... she's not feeling well, and is kinda "sad" about that, so I thought it worked. The title's not completely random. The point is that, she's not feeling well (she's not) and the expression is an inside joke, not that I think you have to know it to get it but... I guess... if she's "threatening the camera" why does she have a visibly over-the-top "poor me" expression?

However... I can't argue with the way people see my images (or anyone elses), as I have no control over it, other than how I show the image. So.... with that said :) Thanks for the input.

...here's the critique I requested :) Architexture... What do you think of the exposure?

 

I'm interested to know what you think about the exposure. The fog had rolled in around an hour before sunset, so there was lot of diffuse light, and it was very blue/gray. This image looks almost exactly like the scene did. I'm curious, does the exposure seem appropriate or under/over, without the knowledge that it looks fairly true to life? and does the exposure seem appropriate with that knowledge. Also, does anyone knows a way to effectively decrease the contrast in a scene with a filter or other method, such as stopping down, or opening up? Basically if your shadows are in zone I or II and your highlights are in zone VIII... since photographic processes cannot reproduce this high a "range" of values, does that just mean you have to give one of them [highlights or shadows] up? Has anyone tried using some kind of HDRI Program (high dynamic-range imaging, taking multiple exposures of the same scene, and combining them to get a wider range of values) and then made prints from the resulting image? Would it matter if you had all the information for the different values in the scene. OK with all that said... I'm open to any contructive criticism. Thanks for your time.

...if she apears upset to someone that doesn't know her, then I need to understand why. Expectedly, it would be tough for me to see that as, I know her baseline. I know what she looks like relaxed, and happy, etc. So... I can see that her eyes are relaxed. Yeah her eyes are closed a bit, but that's because she was checking her eye makeup. Maybe "Reflecting" might be a better title, but I just think that I must have missed something in composing it that would have given the viewer enough information to know that there's her and her reflection, and a mirror. :)

 

Also, I'm wondering still... what is the "poor" light issue on her face? She has darker skin, so... it looks right to me, but I got a similar comment on another picture from someone else. So first, what exactly is it that's reading as poor light, and what would you do about it... since I can't change the lighting for this type of picture, all I could do is change the exposure... and If I had exposed any longer, the nearest part of her forhead would have completely been blown out.

 

One last thing :) that is a really nice image you created, (I hope it's ok for me to upload a copy here) It's completely a different feeling, but really elegant. Thanks :)