Home office portrait

[lukysta]

Hello,
I just wanted an opinion for this one, I want to shoot more so that I could develop a bit more. So tell me what you think.
Home office portrait, in the kitchen, couple of days after a minor operation.



and a bonus one on a break



Thanks.

[kdoc856]

Hi, Lukas
The B&W is the clear winner in my view: Moody, pensive pose and contrast, the crutches are clearly identified and contribute to the story, the wafting smoke is a focus magnet. Shadows are a bit dark but I suspect this is intentional and I think it works here.

The color image is quite busy, and my eyes just flit around to make sense of it. Highlights have lost detail, crutches not prominent enough, subject is middle of the bull's eye and probably too distant for any real impact.

Hope "the subject" is doing well. I'd keep the monochrome, and hope this helps.

Kevin

[lukysta]

Hi, Lukas
The B&W is the clear winner in my view: Moody, pensive pose and contrast, the crutches are clearly identified and contribute to the story, the wafting smoke is a focus magnet. Shadows are a bit dark but I suspect this is intentional and I think it works here.

The color image is quite busy, and my eyes just flit around to make sense of it. Highlights have lost detail, crutches not prominent enough, subject is middle of the bull's eye and probably too distant for any real impact.

Hope "the subject" is doing well. I'd keep the monochrome, and hope this helps.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin for your opinion,
and yes I wanted higher contrast on that bw one and darker shadows just to be visible details.
I prefer narrow angle lenses but I need to get better at wider ones to improve.
Thanks again.

[FrankMi]

Hi Lukas. For a documentary photo, the first one works, but for an effective composition it is difficult to focus on the subject as the image is very busy. This is one of the reasons why the second image works so well. In most situations, less complex is usually better so that there are fewer objects in the image that aren't in competition with the subject but rather complement it.

In the case of the first image, RED shouts for attention. In addition, consider the image in relation to what you want the viewer to focus on and explore. In choosing the main subject, consider what is the viewer’s eye drawn to:

• Sharp elements before out-of-focus elements
• Human elements before non-human elements
• Faces before other elements, and on the face, the eyes first
• Warm colors over cool colors
• Bright colors over dark colors
• Areas of high contrast over areas of low contrast
• Recognizable elements before unrecognizable elements
• Oblique or diagonal lines before strait lines
• Large, dominant elements before smaller elements
• Isolated elements before cluttered elements

So in this case, for a more powerful image, we might want to replace the Red objects with items of a softer colour and remove some of the non-essential objects on the table and window shelf.

Hope this helps!

[lukysta]

Hi Lukas. For a documentary photo, the first one works, but for an effective composition it is difficult to focus on the subject as the image is very busy. This is one of the reasons why the second image works so well. In most situations, less complex is usually better so that there are fewer objects in the image that aren't in competition with the subject but rather complement it.

In the case of the first image, RED shouts for attention. In addition, consider the image in relation to what you want the viewer to focus on and explore. In choosing the main subject, consider what is the viewer’s eye drawn to:

• Sharp elements before out-of-focus elements
• Human elements before non-human elements
• Faces before other elements, and on the face, the eyes first
• Warm colors over cool colors
• Bright colors over dark colors
• Areas of high contrast over areas of low contrast
• Recognizable elements before unrecognizable elements
• Oblique or diagonal lines before strait lines
• Large, dominant elements before smaller elements
• Isolated elements before cluttered elements

So in this case, for a more powerful image, we might want to replace the Red objects with items of a softer colour and remove some of the non-essential objects on the table and window shelf.

Hope this helps!

Thanks!
This helps a lot, I really appreciate it
Nicely written and straightforward which I like the most. Will keep this things in my head, I mean I got them there but not constantly thank you again.