Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: stamper on November 19, 2015, 05:38:25 am

Title: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: stamper on November 19, 2015, 05:38:25 am

An image I like mainly because of the two people in the foreground who appear to be arguing. However I think it might be better cropped but I don't want it cropped to leave just the two people because I think the image needs a background. Suggestions?

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on November 19, 2015, 08:43:23 am

In this one I'd be tempted to crop down from the top, cutting off just the head of the woman nearest the couple, and keeping the legs of the person to the left. That way the arguing couple, with their shadows, are the only complete figures, and you still have some context.

I like your shadow series.

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: stamper on November 19, 2015, 08:45:57 am

Thanks Eric. Your suggestion looks worthy.

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: francois on November 19, 2015, 11:36:43 am

Quote from: Eric Myrvaagnes on November 19, 2015, 08:43:23 am

…I like your shadow series.
…

Me too!

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: Arlen on November 19, 2015, 11:34:28 pm

I see your dilemma. I really like the two leading figures, their shadows and the space around them. But the supporting cast doesn't quite seem to fit. Eric's suggestion looks like it would help.

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on November 20, 2015, 04:20:15 am

Nice. Eric's suggestion is exactly what I was thinking.

Jeremy

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: stamper on November 20, 2015, 04:41:02 am

Eric's suggestion makes it a lot better.

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: Bruce Cox on November 20, 2015, 11:04:26 am

I thought Eric was right too.

Now, I think, good though the shadows are, their heads are more important and that you were right to put their heads closer to the center of the frame.

Running it around in PhotoShop I found that more variation in the pavement helped.

Tonal variation in the pavement can make the space in the scene easier to read and let the viewer concentrate on the couple.

Busier pavement can be less distracting than dimensions without quit enough clues.

{I would desecrate your art with a sample of my idea, but I can't get it to load.}

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: Bruce Cox on November 21, 2015, 09:11:41 am

one more try

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on November 21, 2015, 10:23:14 am

Nice try, Bruce, but I still prefer Stamper's rendition of my suggestion (just because it was my idea, of course).   ;)

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: RSL on November 21, 2015, 10:42:01 am

Frankly, I don't see anything wrong with the original. Chopping off the head of the girl in the background doesn't improve things. If you're going to post-process it to death you need to do some selective overwriting with the patch tool or content aware fill so the girl can keep her head.

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: seamus finn on November 21, 2015, 01:56:48 pm

I agree with Russ. The original is fine. I love this 'shadow' series.

Title: Re: Shapes & Shadows
Post by: stamper on November 22, 2015, 06:42:25 am

An image with many possibilities. Thanks for the feedback.