Reply To: Not long ago i was up on this website getting bashed SUCK IT!! =)

[IHF]

I can’t help you much as far as flash. I can see that it’s too harsh and not positioned quite right in your photos, but I have no ideas on how to correct it. Guys, is it about needing to diffuse, pulling back on the power, or all about location of the flash? Is more than one flash needed for something like this, to pull them from the background? This has bothered me since the thread began, and I kept hoping Amber would actually ask questions, so you could clear it up. I know pretty much next to nothing about flash, and I have yet to fully take it on. Kudos to you Amber for seeing the need for learning what I think is very important for every professional to learn to do well in this paticular genre.

Compositionally this photo just doesn’t work. There’s no symmetry or asymmetry or any sort of balance or lead at all. It also bothers me that we can’t see all of them. It’s taken as a pulled back image to show the viewers more of the scene, yet the subjects themselves are cut off, and the scene just sits there uncomfortably disappointing. I notice his ear, their hands and nails, strange shadows from the foreground, and then I’m drawn to the strange placement of the background. Speaking as a woman, I wouldn’t like this photo of myself. The pose isn’t very flattering. Her shoulder/arm/body looks large in comparison to his. He is positioned to be submissive and more feminine than she. Having his left side tilted more towards the camera would have helped masculinize (I think I might have made up that word) him, AND it would have helped the viewer see more of her face, while making her body appear much slimmer.