albert_richardson1

Allison is a very attractive young lady and a nice model.

 

I looked at your portfolio to see if you have any other photos similar to this one that might be helpful in comparison. There are two. In one Allison is laying on a log, and she is standing in a field in the other. The difference I see in these photos is the background.

 

I suspect that you took the photos in the woods near your home. It was an overcast day. The thing about uncontrolled settings like the woods is that they are full of distractions. Perhaps this is actually a good thing for you because it presents a challenge for you to overcome when you compose a shot. The difference between this photo and the others in your portfolio is the others have less distracting backgrounds. The yellow flower in the left foreground in the field is an exception.

 

A distraction in a photo is anything you find you want to look at more than the model. Something that gives you pause or catches your attention. The branch going from Allison's right ankle up to her right thigh is an example. When I noticed it I found myself wondering way too much what it is doing there.

 

The tree trunk behind her takes my eye away from her as well. Classical sculptures often use tree trunks or columns as a way of reinforcing the figure to make the stone strong enough to support it well. You can see that this sort of thing is not needed in a picture. Again I don't want to figure out what he tree is doing there when I should be thinking how awesome Allison is.

 

The thing to do is to leave Allison on her perch and you move to the left or right to simplify the set. Ask Allison to turn a little as well if necessary to help you out. The point is to simplify the background to be more like the photo of Allison on the log or standing in the field.

 

The flat lighting works well here. Keep in mind that the range from light to dark is shorter for cameras than the human eye. Your photo is exposed properly, but Allison's coat is a huge dark mass with little detail in it. You could adjust the exposure for it at the price of overexposing the rest of the picture. It would be better to put her in a lighter color coat closer to the tonal range of the rest of the photo.

 

I hope you did just go out in some nearby woods because it allows you to go to the very same spot and try it again. This is a good thing.

 

You're certainly on the right track. Keep up the good work!

Jerry,

 

It's nice to see a photo of a nude model actually doing something. Your model is clearly preoccupied with her efforts to find a safe place to step next.  Your photo shows the rocks below her feet in the lower right. Excuse the expression, but she could literally find herself "in over her head!"

 

I chose the title for this comment to be a deliberate double entendre. On the one hand it is the sort of theme that applies to a great many of the nudes I see, and on the other it is a literal expression of what your model must be thinking. The fact that she is nude seems to have little to do with the activity itself.

The picture is is a very nice job.

I think this picture proves that there are subjects that transcend photographic technique. The handling of the photo itself suggests that is it an actual observation of a woman attempting suicide. The fact that it is B&W and has many surface marks and scratches creates the effect of saying that the photo has lived on in spite of what happened to the subject a long time ago. My reflections lead me to have hoped for it to be the other way around.

 

The photo works on more than one level. On the one hand there is a model set up to look like she is serious about taking her own life. (How could one get this far in the act of dying without being serious about it?) She is safe enough and will pose for another picture. On the other it suggests real events. Both men and women have actually done the same thing as our model is shown doing. Each one has her own story. I can't tell you why someone in the model's position would not be frightened, except to speculate that perhaps a person has to get beyond fear to be able to accept and attempt suicide.

 

I suppose I should admit that it doesn't frighten me so much to see the photo because I understand that a photo does not require me to make a decision that would confront me if I were to witness this same thing in person. 

 

You can see why I began the way I did. For this photo the subject demands attention no matter what the photographer might have done to set it up. This photo gives us a great jumping off point for one of those deep discussions about the meaning of life and death.

Wow! Don't startle the cat!!!

 

Another clever photo from a talented man. Good job.

The question I have about this picture is what it wants to tell me. I suppose if one of the model's eyes could be turned sideways it would look cubist. As it is a ringlet splits the face in half for no reason I can see other than a stab at artistic effect.  

 

The model is very pretty and the photographic technique is solid, but she  looks like she just got up out of bed. I'm sorry to say that this one is not a winner for me.

I think if I were to make a portrait variation of the scene I would raise the camera to bring in more of the mountain reflected in the stream. I would put the bridge below center if possible. I like the reflection and I think that the trees on the sides help set up and frame the shot. You can imagine the portrait version of the shot as it is now just by bringing in the sides proportionally. IMO this would make the reflection of the sky (which looks a little bit like glare at the bottom) much too dominant. As it is I think the reflection of the plain sky draws the eye too much away from the bridge by being a little too bright. There's not much there to see.

 

You don't always get to set these shots up, but if you ever have a chance to make a similar shot again I think it would be interesting to have a person, perhaps in an eye-catching red, standing on the bridge to serve as a focal point for the viewer's eye.

 

I like the shot. I wish I could see it in person. It looks so serene and almost magical. You have done a nice job although I would like to see the mountain shown in the reflection above the bridge as well.

They look like some kind of Cubist interpretation of fighting fish. The rivets in the Vice grip on the right look like eyes. I think I might carry this idea a little further by raising the bottom of the picture a little to make the rivets in the lower left look more like eyes, too. 

 

I like the layout and exposure. It's interesting that you chose different Vice grip models so the two don't look like the same thing in different orientations.

I wish you told us what post processing you did for this picture. It's hard to suggest what things you might do differently without knowing what you have already done.

 

It looks strange to me that the lighting on the figures is so flat yet the people in the water appear to be in bright sunlight. Were you all in some sort of shadow? It almost looks like the foreground and the background came from different pictures!  Anyway, the figures need more light to brighten them and add modeling to create more of a 3D effect. The figures might be underexposed. Make sure that your camera exposes the picture for the part you want to be the best. The background is brighter than the foreground in this shot, and it appears to be properly exposed. Some automatic cameras hunt around a scene to find the area the programming thinks you want. If that happened here the camera got it wrong. Maybe you cropped out a lot of the sky that could have influenced the camera. Choose a search pattern to restrict the camera to make it more likely to read area you want in the finished picture. 

 

You might be able to put some zest back in the picture by adding brightness, contrast and a little saturation to it.

 

I like a level ocean horizon so I don't feel like the Earth is tilting. I don't know what you did to hold the camera for the shot, so perhaps WYSIWYG is the best that could be done. 

 

This photo really tells the story. I like it a lot. The top part of the picture works in a horizontal format as well if you ever decide to display it that way. You need the bottom in the vertical format you chose to keep from making the picture any narrower, but overall it is relatively dark and serves mainly as a foundation for starting the very effective vertical sight line that carries your eye through the scene. Nice job.

I like the model's skin tones. Having her look straight into the camera creates a feeling of intimacy that is quite pleasant.

 

Watch out for distractions. Whereas the light background area behind the model's left elbow helps define the shape of her arm, the hot spots behind her head interfere with the mood you're creating. You want to look at them because they're so bright, but they add nothing at all. They're small enough to simply wipe out in post processing.

 

Two other details would be corrected just before taking the shot again. The left side of the top of her dress is a little loose. A small tug to pull it in would remove the hint of her bra underneath and look more tidy. I would also ask her to relax her left hand a little more. Of course I don't know the actual circumstances for the shoot, but her left forefinger appears to be digging into her arm in the manner of someone who is a little uncomfortable or annoyed. This also detracts from the overall serenity of the picture.

 

Thanks for sharing your very nice work!

Shot with a Nikon Coolpix 5900 hung from a tripod on a homemade

extension arm. I used two diffused incandescent lights with a high

lighting ratio to create the directional lighting. I set the WB

manually with the help of my grey card. The camera has a flower

closeup setting built in I used. The camera's self timer allowed me

to get the picture without touching it so it would be perfectly

still. I like sharp focus and I wanted the center of the white flower

to be sharp and clear. I chose a point of view that put both flowers

in the same plane as much as possible for a more interesting shot.

I like the color and the line in this picture. The background complements the subject.

 

The focus needs work. I have a P&S camera with autofocus that does a lot for me automatically, but sometime it simply cannot figure out what the real subject is. Busy scenes like this one and monochromatic scenes are the most difficult for it to get right. The camera you used focused on the flowers at the back of the stem and was unable to get the foreground sharp. The bud in the middle of the frame is closest to the lens and the most out of focus.

 

My camera will freeze and hold focus and exposure settings when I push the shutter button half way down. I made a twisted wire X with a small handle to use as a substitute focus target to help the camera. It sees and focuses sharply on the X every time and still reads the scene around it for the exposure. Make one for yourself. Hold it between the stem and the bud in front to catch the focus and then try your shot. (Hold it so the wires go up and down and across like the axes of a graph.) I think you'll like the result a lot better.

This is the first photo on PN that has made me want to get out my art history books to review epic painting in the 19th century. It is simply wonderful. The composition has terrific balance with the horses on the left as a counterpoint for the standing figures on the right. The boys in the center provide a connection between the two groups, and since they are not placed dead center, they make the overall scene dynamic. Look how the figures in the background spread out so that the weight of their images complements and balances the foreground figures! The color is harmonious and consistent throughout. This moment is all about the action about to take place.

 

Whether you staged the scene or found it in front of you, it is a great example of photographic art. Good work.

Machinists used this tool to check the items they made to make sure surfaces were straight and true.

The noise in the background looks like reflections of light off the folds in your backdrop. Add tie strings to pull the folds out to the sides to get a flat smooth area behind your model.

 

I wish you had said where you think the grainy transitions are. The picture is so sharp you clearly see the texture in the cloth in the sweatshirt. But this isn't grain.

 

The lighting is nice and you have done a good job of capturing the character of a girl who wants to be known for her intelligence.

I don't see the same DOF problem you do. The picture looks great. The composition is more formal as the subject recedes through the middle of the scene. To get a more dynamic "road leading the eye" curve look try moving about 10' to your left and turn more back to the right to put the tunnel of trees in the left side of the result.

 

For an effective maximum DOF for this type of scene, all you have to do is realize that the whole subject is far enough away from the camera to be sharp if you simply manually focus the lens at the infinity mark. There is no need to focus on anything closer. The strategy will be to stop down as needed to get the exposure right. (It looks good now!) This will throw the DOF sharpening effect forward toward the camera from the back of the scene. I prefer using a tripod, but you might feel that for a stand up shot like this it is enough to hold the camera by hand. Pick the slowest shutter speed you can hold still. This is 1/30 sec for most people. You can adjust the exposure now by stopping down to the proper f-stop. This will out to be the smallest aperture (hence the greatest DOF) you can use and still get an overall sharp image free of camera movement.

 

Using a tripod you will be able to use the smallest f-stop aperture (f16, possibly f22) on the lens with no worry about holding the camera still.

 

You may see that a larger aperture will work nicely if your lens has DOF distance markings on it, or you use the "Depth-of-Field Computer" in a Kodak Master Photo Guide. There is no need to stop down any more than is needed to get the object closest to the camera in the scene sharp. I can't tell for sure where this is for the shot you have here, but the leaves in the foreground seem to be about 8' away.

 

For maximum effect, pick a still day. Breezy weather will force you to select faster shutter speeds just to keep the subject itself from blurring the picture. If this should happen, you might have to put off maximum DOF for another day.

 

Further information on maximum DOF:

I got out my Master Photoguide just to check my story and it became apparent that although my instructions will work for most landscape subjects, they do not give the maximum DOF after all. To get maximum DOF set the furthest DOF distance guide marked on the lens barrel for the f-stop you want at the infinity mark. If you use the KMP set the lens at the calculated distance shown on the dial.

 

A 35mm lens set at f8 and focused on 10' has a DOF that extends from 5' in front of the camera to infinity for example.

For you to take your hands off whatever gear you had to take a picture shows as much courage as your subject has for even being there! The light is against you here. You can see sunlight out in the valley beyond the rocky face you're on that shows you to be several hours on the shadow side of the mountain.

 

I like oblique light to highlight the rugged texture of the rocks. It brings out the color in the rock and the shadows show Nature's majesty. Often side lighting is better than overhead light, but in the case of a cliff like this one, I think sunlight coming from directly above you would do as well. Overhead light shining down at an angle coming over your partner's shoulder on the other hand would wipe out any texture in the rock by filling it in and would create so much contrast between her back and front as to ruin the picture.

 

You clearly must accept the situation as it is given to you. It doesn't look safe to wait for the sun to climb overhead, and if evening is approaching, you need to get on your way.

 

Your photo seems to me to be halfway between two pictures that both feature your partner. One is a wide angle shot aimed slightly higher that puts her in the lower right portion of the picture. The rest of the shot goes high and wide to show as much of the rock face you're climbing as the focal length of the lens will allow. The picture will still appear flat, but you can brighten it a little and add some contrast in PS to make it more interesting.

 

Your partner is the subject of the second picture. A longer lens puts her in the upper left third of a shot that emphasizes her leaning over the rocky cliff. I would frame her high enough so that it is clear that she is holding on to the face of a cliff. Most of this picture is relatively darker than the rest of the scenery so my hope would be that the camera would meter the scene in a higher register producing a somewhat lighter result. Your partner's face and underside is in deeper shadow than her surrounding and it is clearly impossible to manipulate the natural lighting to reflect more light off the cliff to brighten them. I think I would select her face and chest in PS and brighten them a little to get a better view of her features. As before I think I would brighten the whole scene and add some contrast for interest. Perhaps add some saturation as well. If the second shot comes out looking the same as a cropped section of the picture above, I think I would approach it as if it had been underexposed to adjust it in PS.

 

What an adventure! You have a great memento of a grand climb. Well done!