Katie on Bench | 3 images

Scarhart

I tend to take a lot of photographs at night--parties or just because that's when I have free time. My long-suffering wife tends to be my model when I experiment or try to incorporate some of the excellent concepts and techniques I see here on Digital Grin. Here are three photos from the other night.

Any feedback you have about the composition, post-processing, or just on the shots in general would be much appreciated.

1. Full torso


2. Close-up


3. Full length - trying to show some of her mischeviousness spirit


I'm having trouble with the switch to LCDs. One monitor shows these photos with rich detail and subdued highlights. The other displays them pretty blown out. Any feedback is most welcome!

Cheers,
Scott

Scarhart

Any thoughts you'd care to share? I can take criticism if the shots are bad, but multiple days with no response is killing me!

JimM

The first one the background is a little distracting.

The second, I don't like the crop the top of the hair off.

I like the mischevious third the best.

The flash seems very hot on all three (this is always tough at night or in dark places)... are you using any type of diffuser? Soft light is always more flattering.

Why all B&W?

Scarhart

Thanks for the feedback, Jim. I'm wondering if the hot light is caused by my post-processing techniques. I was going for rich shadows, but I probably blew the highlights way up. It's also a direct, strobing flash that I can at least turn down in intensity. I'll give it a shot.

Your feedback on the first picture answers your question about using only black and white. The bench in the background is a chaos of intense, primary colors. Katie stood out against it much better when I ditched the color.

I wasn't too sure about the crop on the second photo, but had noted that Yuri crops the tops off heads a lot, so I was mimicking, trying for eyes on the upper third line. A little more torso and I could keep her head intact, I think.

Cheers,
Scott

JimM wrote:

The first one the background is a little distracting.

The second, I don't like the crop the top of the hair off.

I like the mischevious third the best.

The flash seems very hot on all three (this is always tough at night or in dark places)... are you using any type of diffuser? Soft light is always more flattering.

Why all B&W?

Bystander

Scarhart wrote:

I tend to take a lot of photographs at night--parties or just because that's when I have free time. My long-suffering wife tends to be my model when I experiment or try to incorporate some of the excellent concepts and techniques I see here on Digital Grin. Here are three photos from the other night.

Any feedback you have about the composition, post-processing, or just on the shots in general would be much appreciated.

I'm having trouble with the switch to LCDs. One monitor shows these photos with rich detail and subdued highlights. The other displays them pretty blown out. Any feedback is most welcome!

Cheers,
Scott

Hi Scott,
Have you tried using available light at parties via a fast (F1.4 - F2.0) lens? B&W usually works well in those situations and you can capture a moody atmosphric look as long as you have just a bit of light.

The use of flash during a party is so distracting it yells 'I'm taking photos here!' (Its also good to have a quiet camera -- something no SLR is, unfortunately)

As far as the look of the photos you posted -- the detail looks good on my monitor (iMac G5) but the lighting is harsh hence my suggestion

Take Care,
Frank

JimM

Scarhart wrote:

I wasn't too sure about the crop on the second photo, but had noted that Yuri crops the tops off heads a lot, so I was mimicking, trying for eyes on the upper third line. A little more torso and I could keep her head intact, I think.

I think when Yuri does it he is so close, he has cropped to make the eyes the photo. I always assume only to crop to have a purpose, and a general rule would be to try not to remove body parts. Though, it is funny that usually the really great shots always break the rules.

binghott

JimM wrote:

Though, it is funny that usually the really great shots always break the rules.

you need to truly understand the rule before you can break it.

with these shots, i would considering trying different color filters in photoshop and i also highly recommend picking up optikverve lab's virtual photographer filter for photoshop for free here. play around with that a little, and maybe you'll get a better black and white out of it.

Scarhart

I'll definitely give that a shot, Frank. Thanks for the suggestion. I do tend to annoy my friends at times by taking too many pictures; going without the flash and in silent mode could make for some interesting photos.

Bystander wrote:

Hi Scott,
Have you tried using available light at parties via a fast (F1.4 - F2.0) lens? B&W usually works well in those situations and you can capture a moody atmosphric look as long as you have just a bit of light.

The use of flash during a party is so distracting it yells 'I'm taking photos here!' (Its also good to have a quiet camera -- something no SLR is, unfortunately)

As far as the look of the photos you posted -- the detail looks good on my monitor (iMac G5) but the lighting is harsh hence my suggestion

Take Care,
Frank

Scarhart

Looks like an excellent tool. I'll give it a shot, Barry; thanks for the link and the suggestion that I hit the books so I know my rules.

And Jim, when I went back and looked at Yuri's crops, I see your point clearly. Thanks!

binghott wrote:

you need to truly understand the rule before you can break it.

with these shots, i would considering trying different color filters in photoshop and i also highly recommend picking up optikverve lab's virtual photographer filter for photoshop for free here. play around with that a little, and maybe you'll get a better black and white out of it.

DJ-S1

Scott - I like the 1st and 3rd better than the 2nd one. I agree that some mods to the BW conversion are needed, but that's not a huge deal.

I'd like to see a tighter crop on the last one; it took me a long time to figure out the whole bench thing (maybe I'm just slow!). I don't think it would hurt to lose some of the context in the process of making Katie the focus of attention instead of the bench.

I'd also be curious to see if you could tone down just the bench in post while keeping the shot in color. Maybe that would look fake, but it might work...

rutt

Maybe better B&W conversions would be more successful. How did you convert?

Photosbychuck

Scarhart wrote:

I tend to take a lot of photographs at night--parties or just because that's when I have free time. My long-suffering wife tends to be my model when I experiment or try to incorporate some of the excellent concepts and techniques I see here on Digital Grin. Here are three photos from the other night.

Any feedback you have about the composition, post-processing, or just on the shots in general would be much appreciated.

1. Full torso


2. Close-up


3. Full length - trying to show some of her mischeviousness spirit


I'm having trouble with the switch to LCDs. One monitor shows these photos with rich detail and subdued highlights. The other displays them pretty blown out. Any feedback is most welcome!

Cheers,
Scott

Hi, Scott
What camera do you use?
I don't like the head tilt in the first photo.
I would zoom out some and get all of the neglace in the second photo.
The third photo is nice but, flash bounce and dark spots are a small problem.
Maybe you can tone down the flash bounce in photo shop by adjusting the levels. Photo shop also has a great easy b & W converter.

Take Care,
Chuck Cassidy,
Marshall, NC

cybercrypt13

Scott,

You might also try a little bit of unsharp mask around the eyes to sharpen them up a bit. Depending on the picture sometimes you can unsharp the entire picture and it will make it stand out more. All 3 shots seem a little soft to me, but it could have been your processing too...

Scarhart

Thanks for the suggestions and critiques, folks. I definitely appreciate it. The three photos posted were shot in black and white, so the camera did the conversion for me. I have other photos from the same session in color, but most weren't very good for one reason or another.

What I hear from your comments is that I should take all the shots in color and then go to black and white if that works better for the particular shot. My college photography classes are many years in the past, but we shot exclusively in black and white, so I defaulted back to that mindset when I got the new camera several weeks ago. I'll play with the camera settings and work on getting my brain to think in color again!

Chuck, the camera is a Canon A610. (I know that's a little consumer-grade for this forum, so I'm working on composition until I can upgrade--all things in time.)

cybercrypt13 wrote:

Scott,

You might also try a little bit of unsharp mask around the eyes to sharpen them up a bit. Depending on the picture sometimes you can unsharp the entire picture and it will make it stand out more. All 3 shots seem a little soft to me, but it could have been your processing too...

Glenn, I worked rather heavily on the eyes for pix 1 and 2, with unsharp mask and the history brush and fun Photoshop techniques to make them pop. Good point, though, that with a portrait the eyes should be the focal point. I think the fact that I didn't do the eyes on the third picture (clearly the fav among the folks who've responded) means I missed the important canvas.

Cheers,
Scott

DJ-S1

Scarhart wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions and critiques, folks. I definitely appreciate it. The three photos posted were shot in black and white, so the camera did the conversion for me. I have other photos from the same session in color, but most weren't very good for one reason or another.

What I hear from your comments is that I should take all the shots in color and then go to black and white if that works better for the particular shot.

I'm no expert but I always shoot in color and convert later. That's the beauty of digital, you can convert BW in so many different ways - emphasize some channels and limit others. It's like using filters on BW film except you can do it after the fact.