Reply To: Bring on the concrit

[stef]

Hrm… I have a real problem with cropping through someone’s eyes. Either leave the eyes in, or crop them out. The viewer’s eye is drawn OUT of the picture, not toward something IN the picture … it is a potentially really good image ruined by a really poor crop. It’s difficult to imagine any image made stronger by cropping through the iris.

 

Your Arangtram shots might be off on white balance (not sure because they’re also a stop underexposed). They feel heavily saturated, too, which combined with the darkness really gives a heavy feeling (like forboding) which is probably exactly opposite of what you were trying to achieve.  I’m not sure if the red channel clipped or if that was post processing, but the reds might be blown (even when underexposed) which is why I was wondering about wb. It looks like a stage performance, and that can often be difficult, especially when you can’t move around and you end up with a plant in the background coming out of someone’s head. With all that white background, you couldn’t find a place where there wasn’t a plant? The one where she is standing is better (except for exposure), but you cropped the feet. Shoot a little wider.

 

The b/w “dish in the dirt” shot was also plagued with an exposure issue – the arms are blown. Looking at the color version, the wb is off and it’s way too saturated, too. Otherwise, it’s a really good composition with nice lines, tonality, and skin tone. The arms can be saved with healing brush tool, but that should not be necessary in the future. Even on the cloudy day, a reflector into the face would have helped you nail the exposure (or some sort of scrim to block the light from her arm. And keep your finger off the saturation and vibrancy knobs.

 

I don’t have much issue with your work … it’s not bad, and clearly shows basics of composition and camera handling. I believe some of your experiments with cropping or framing were not successful. Actively think “How does this crop make the image better” when you’re doing it, and experiment with several different crops to try to find the one that feels the best.

 

You have some solid groundwork to improve upon, and that’s an enviable position compared to many. You are not a fauxtographer.