Thinking

[Dale Villeponteaux]

Does the white chair back balance the picture or trap the eye?

[WalterEG]

My concern with the white chair back is that it is out of character with the subject and the chair in which he is lounging.

Crop it, or clone it?

W

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

My concern with the white chair back is that it is out of character with the subject and the chair in which he is lounging.

Crop it, or clone it?

W

I agree.

E

[wolfnowl]

Looks to me like a poor framing job.  I'd pull it.

Mike.

[popnfresh]

I don't mind the framing as much as the underexposure, which looks to be about 1 stop. Better still would have been to add some fill light.

Also, the critical focus is on his left knee, not on his eyes where it should be.

[Dale Villeponteaux]

Thanks for the insights.  This was a crop from a snapshot.  I can fix everything but the focus.  I think I'll look at it again in a couple of months.  I'd can it, but it's of a friend of some 40 years.

Dale V.

[Rob C]

Definitely kill the white chair. During the chrome'n'leather dining room years we had the rare lack of judgement to abandon some perfectly good wooden stuff for a taste of the new. Identical to what I can see of the white chair, though our leather was black, it was still cursed with a tendency for the back support strip to creep down the rear supports, pucker and eventually look crappy in the extreme.

Moral? Film was better.

(Conclusion specially concluded for the benefit of some ultra-sensitive posters in another thread, sufferers of straw-man syndrome.)

;-(

Rob C

[WalterEG]

Why can it?  It is a wonderful memento of a friendship with a natural air that is often quite elusive.

I do not concur in the slightest that it could do with increased exposure.  I think it captures a time and place more than accurately as it is.

W

[hughburden2]

photoshop it out, its an unnecessary distraction,  leave composition as is.
H

[RSL]

Dale, better to go back and re-shoot. There's nothing you can do to this in photoshop to improve it enough to make it a keeper. The quality pixels just aren't there. One point though, white point hasn't been adequately corrected in this one. The guy's face and arm are too red, and the blinds behind him are too yellow. Next time make two shots -- one with a middle-gray card in it. I'm assuming those blinds behind him aren't quite white. If they are, one click with the middle-gray dropper in ACR should bring it pretty close to correct.

[Dale Villeponteaux]

To Russ Lewis,

  I'll try the next time all of us gather at the beach.  I don't know if posing will work in my hands, though.  This was just a snap of what I thought was a characteristic mood.

Thanks,

Dale V.

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I'd see this as a concept shot.
You had an idea, an impression and tried.
Now you can work on the realization of that idea.
I often take images, even knowing it won't be as I wish, just to snap the idea and try again later.

[WalterEG]

I think the age of celebrity and the glossy tabloids have a lot to answer for if they have made us think that this image in unacceptably dark and irretrievable.

What's wrong with MOOD?  I actually think that the tenebrous nature of the shot adds quite a lot to the narrative and/or memories.

Mates just sitting around chewing the fat as the afternoon approaches dusk and neither one with the energy or interest to get up and turn on the light.  Maybe it will happen on the next run to the fridge for a top-up.

Cheers,