Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Dale Villeponteaux on February 10, 2012, 02:31:53 pm

Title: Thinking
Post by: Dale Villeponteaux on February 10, 2012, 02:31:53 pm
Does the white chair back balance the picture or trap the eye?
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: WalterEG on February 10, 2012, 04:29:00 pm
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
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on February 10, 2012, 09:17:23 pm
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
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: wolfnowl on February 10, 2012, 10:42:11 pm
Looks to me like a poor framing job.  I'd pull it.

Mike.
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: popnfresh on February 11, 2012, 02:38:43 am
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.
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: Dale Villeponteaux on February 11, 2012, 09:48:20 am
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.

Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: Rob C on February 11, 2012, 09:49:26 am
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
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: WalterEG on February 11, 2012, 01:07:14 pm
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
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: hughburden2 on February 11, 2012, 02:30:37 pm
photoshop it out, its an unnecessary distraction,  leave composition as is.
H
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: RSL on February 12, 2012, 09:57:01 am
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.
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: Dale Villeponteaux on February 12, 2012, 11:59:14 am
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.
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: Christoph C. Feldhaim on February 12, 2012, 12:49:25 pm
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.
Title: Re: Thinking
Post by: WalterEG on February 12, 2012, 04:15:16 pm
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,