Dancer

[Shadowman]

f/5.6m ISO 450, 1/500sec, 270mm

Comments welcome.

[John 2]

Prefer the colour to the Mono here John. I think it's because the skin tones seem a little heavy in the B/W version. Worth working on though.

[Shadowman]

Prefer the colour to the Mono here John. I think it's because the skin tones seem a little heavy in the B/W version. Worth working on though.

Thanks for the comments John.

[Brownbear]

Beautiful photo. I prefer the colour but I also like the B&W.

[Shadowman]

Beautiful photo. I prefer the colour but I also like the B&W.

Thanks Christina.

[RustBeltRaw]

I'd go black and white. But I'd suggest cropping closer - perhaps to the middle of her sleeve from the bottom, and take a little off the left as well. That gives her some space to look into, concentrates one's focus, and removes a bit of the background. I would also suggest lightening her skin tones somewhat, and possibly burning the background. She deserves to pop off the screen.

[Shadowman]

I'd go black and white. But I'd suggest cropping closer - perhaps to the middle of her sleeve from the bottom, and take a little off the left as well. That gives her some space to look into, concentrates one's focus, and removes a bit of the background. I would also suggest lightening her skin tones somewhat, and possibly burning the background. She deserves to pop off the screen.

Lex,

Thanks for the comments. I give it a shot.

[Manfred M]

Tough call on this one, but I think I prefer the coloured version with the vibrant colours. Other than the bystander's arm, the colours separate the image from the background.

The skin tones are definitely too dark in the B&W, but the background is really very much in the same tonal range as the dancer's skin, so she doesn't "pop". Lightening the skin will also lighten the background. Isolate the dancer from the background and either dodge or burn like crazy to give some tonal separation and you will have something that works better.

I would be tempted to do a major crop, like Lex suggests. Head and shoulders for sure; I would crop above her elbow.

[Digital]

I saw a video recently put out by Adorama that suggested not to crop the arm below the elbow. Also this photo looks like the model only has one arm.

Bruce

[Manfred M]

I saw a video recently put out by Adorama that suggested not to crop the arm below the elbow. Also this photo looks like the model only has one arm.

Bruce

What I was taught was not just the elbow but any joint. Generally good practice is no NOT crop through any joint, and it is preferable to crop above the joint, so the same guideline applies to knees, wrists, ankles as well. Doing this apparently gives a smoother, "nicer" look.

I agree, but don't know if I think this way because of what I was told or because that's what my eyes tell me too

[Digital]

What I was taught was not just the elbow but any joint. Generally good practice is no NOT crop through any joint, and it is preferable to crop above the joint, so the same guideline applies to knees, wrists, ankles as well. Doing this apparently gives a smoother, "nicer" look.

I agree, but don't know if I think this way because of what I was told or because that's what my eyes tell me too

Manfred, the video also mentioned not to show only one arm in a 3/4 shot. In this regard, it is easy for one to point out so called posing errors when I do not know the circumstances that John was shooting under.

Bruce

[Manfred M]

Manfred, the video also mentioned not to show only one arm in a 3/4 shot. In this regard, it is easy for one to point out so called posing errors when I do not know the circumstances that John was shooting under.

Bruce

Now you are getting into guidelines that I have trouble with. While I understand the rationale as to why some people will say that, that one I can't agree with. In this shot the body is fully in profile, although the head is not. I find that is part of the strength of this shot.

[Digital]

Now you are getting into guidelines that I have trouble with. While I understand the rationale as to why some people will say that, that one I can't agree with. In this shot the body is fully in profile, although the head is not. I find that is part of the strength of this shot.

I forgot to mention that this video was about posing in a formal portrait session. In an apparent impromptu shot such as this one appears to be I do not think you can apply the same "guidelines".

Bruce

[Manfred M]

I forgot to mention that this video was about posing in a formal portrait session. In an apparent impromptu shot such as this one appears to be I do not think you can apply the same "guidelines".

Bruce

First of all, that pose is fairly typical of a formal portrait and is often a mostly frontal shot (usuallly a bit from the side to slim the figure). I suspect what the video is saying it would be a bit odd and unbalanced to chop one arm off in this type of a shot. The rule is totally bogus:

Here is a link to some of Yousef Karsh's portraits. He is considered by many to be the greatest portrait photographer of all time. Notice chopped off arms and missing arms in some of these very well known works..

http://121clicks.com/inspirations/th...y-yousuf-karsh

I think you will find that he has broken just about every rule written about portraiture when you look at these. And they all work....

[Digital]

Thank you for sharing the link. The photographs Yousef Karsh made are fantastic photographs. I could learn a bunch from studying his work.


Bruce

[Plumcrak]

Just a thought here...aren't rules made to be broken??

Now, back to the photos...I do like the color version better but I would love to see the Mono with the changes mentioned above. Then I might just change my mind. Nice work John.

[Manfred M]

Thank you for sharing the link. The photographs Yousef Karsh made are fantastic photographs. I could learn a bunch from studying his work.


Bruce

Bruce - now you are onto something. I spent a lot of time going through images by the great photographers (and not so great one's whose work I like); not to copy them but to try to reverse-engineer the shots to figure out how they were taken. I find that influenced me a lot more than any course I have taken.

[Shadowman]

Tough call on this one, but I think I prefer the coloured version with the vibrant colours. Other than the bystander's arm, the colours separate the image from the background.

The skin tones are definitely too dark in the B&W, but the background is really very much in the same tonal range as the dancer's skin, so she doesn't "pop". Lightening the skin will also lighten the background. Isolate the dancer from the background and either dodge or burn like crazy to give some tonal separation and you will have something that works better.

I would be tempted to do a major crop, like Lex suggests. Head and shoulders for sure; I would crop above her elbow.

Thanks Manfred.

Regarding the skin tones, I had the same comments about another image converted to black and white. In converting I used PSEs convert to black and white, I did a levels adjustment to tone down the lights, no adjustments to the midtones.

[Shadowman]

Just a thought here...aren't rules made to be broken??

Now, back to the photos...I do like the color version better but I would love to see the Mono with the changes mentioned above. Then I might just change my mind. Nice work John.

Thanks for the comments Jon.

[Shadowman]

Manfred, the video also mentioned not to show only one arm in a 3/4 shot. In this regard, it is easy for one to point out so called posing errors when I do not know the circumstances that John was shooting under.

Bruce

Like BIF, she was constantly moving. I'll have to check my before and after shots to see if more of her was captured.

On a side note, I was viewing a documentary about photography "Contacts:Conceptual Photography" and a few of the photographers (film naturally) said that one should never show their proof sheets, it reveals too much about the photographer.