I rarely do people.... advice?

JC

I rarely shoot people, but now there's a call out for pictures of people taken while in some way associated with a big project. It's a cliche, but people are usually in my photos for scale, I have a few photos that I really tried with though, so I'd like some feedback, if you would be so kind. Any C&C welcome.

I like this one I took, but I'm not sure whether or not to crop it. I like the context the original has, but it's a lot of cloud space at the top that doesn't actually have a person in it. I do want to leave the dead fish on right side in, but I'm not wedded to that. I could clone out the sea-scum, but that is kind of integral to the place, and I don't feel like sanitizing it.
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I'm thinking of a full body portrait version with the clouds mostly cut off, but everything else there.
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Or a horizontal crop above his head and below his knees.
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Bryce Wilson

The first thing that jumps out to me is that although the background scene is perfectly exposed, the subject appears underexposed and doesn't "jump" off the page.

Several ways to combat this. If the primary purpose of the photograph is to "showcase" the subject, expose for the subject and let the background be over exposed. 2, Use a reflector to throw some additional light on the subject or 3, use off camera flash on the subject.

Art Scott

Bryce Wilson wrote: »

The first thing that jumps out to me is that although the background scene is perfectly exposed, the subject appears underexposed and doesn't "jump" off the page.

Several ways to combat this. If the primary purpose of the photograph is to "showcase" the subject, expose for the subject and let the background be over exposed. 2, Use a reflector to throw some additional light on the subject or 3, use off camera flash on the subject.

As to the crops... I like both of the top 2...not a fan of the cropped at knees image at all.

JC

thanks.
I need to put two sticky notes on all my cameras "double check ISO" and "think about fill flash". I think a small amount of fill flash would have helped here.

How is this:


I'm really tempted to cutout the gulls above his head that are now cropped out, and put them lower into the frame. His shirt looks way too white now, we'd all been digging in the dirt for a couple of hours, but this seemed to be the right levels adjustment for his face and jeans.

Gotham

. The gulls would be nice to add back in. The levels look much better now. You can always mask his shirt out of your levels layer so you can keep it muddy.